Animal rights groups, such as the Humane Society of the United States, PETA, and many others, are widely known to adamantly oppose all hunting and angling and to proactively pursue ways to diminish the ability of sportsmen and women to continue these rich traditions. Using the legal arena and emotional pleas, these groups will try…
Encouraging sportsmen’s involvement in the political process is an important method for protecting our outdoor heritage. Increased public participation, particularly at the ballot box, ensures that hunters and anglers are represented, which strengthens the ability of the sportsmen’s community to collectively defeat anti-sportsmen policy objectives. Facilitating voter registration for sportsmen and women, at the time…
Dogs play a critical role in the sporting community. One important role, blood tracking, is the practice of using dogs to assist in the recovery of harvested game. Contrary to the name, blood tracking dogs are employed when there is very little blood to track and instead find harvested game following its scent. The use…
Trail cameras, or game cameras, are commonly used by wildlife biologists, conservation officers, and hunters for a variety of reasons. Wildlife biologists working for state fish and wildlife agencies or universities use these cameras to conduct research on wildlife populations, and conservation officers use them to investigate suspected violations of state wildlife law, including poaching…
Recent advances in technology, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s), which can assist in the tracking and taking of game, have posed an ethical debate within the hunting community. Legislators and sportsmen should be mindful of Fair Chase issues and, on a state-by-state basis, determine if legislation is warranted to ensure hunting is practiced ethically…
Animal rights groups use the neglectful, often illegal, operations of breeders and kennel owners who maintain substandard kennel conditions to push for overbearing “puppy mill” legislation. This legislation affects all breeders and kennels and overlooks the fact that substandard kennels can often be addressed through the enforcement of existing laws. Responsible sportsmen and women fully…
Over the past decade, several states have introduced regulations allowing these cartridges, which provide effective, safe hunting options in densely populated zones. Straight-walled cartridges are considered safer due to their lower velocity and reduced risk of over-penetration compared to traditional bottlenecked cartridges, making them ideal for areas with high population density. These cartridges also often…
A standard capacity magazine generally means any detachable ammunition feeding device that is sold with a firearm when it is shipped new from the manufacturer. In some cases, such as modern sporting rifles, the standard capacity magazine is regularly 30 rounds. Some state laws created after the 1993 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, limit the number…
Recently, efforts were made in Maine to ban the use of soft baits when fishing. Arguments in favor of the ban centered on aesthetic issues related to lost/discarded lures in their state’s waters, and concerns over the health of individual fish that were found to have ingested soft baits. To date, no studies have been…
Though hunting, fishing, and harvesting wildlife (including by trapping) have long been an American heritage, dating back to before the first Europeans arrived in North America, only recently has the “right” to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife come into question. To establish in perpetuity what has been assumed for centuries, several states have sought amendments…
Shooting ranges have a long tradition of service to a wide variety of citizen groups. However, without adequate range protection laws, safe shooting ranges – which offer valuable public services and recreational opportunities in addition to supporting the American System of Conservation Funding – will be vulnerable to arbitrary sanctions and creative lawsuits. In recent…
Shooting ranges have a long tradition of service to a wide variety of citizen groups. However, without adequate range protection laws, safe shooting ranges – which offer valuable public services and recreational opportunities in addition to supporting the American System of Conservation Funding – will be vulnerable to arbitrary sanctions and creative lawsuits. In recent…