From: crs@beta.lanl.gov (Charlie Sorsby)
Subject: Re: Pix of hunters using Politically Incorrect weapons needed
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Date: 9 Nov 92 07:50:53 CST
Originator: hunting@osnome.che.wisc.edu

I, originally, planned to reply only to Jim, the poster whose
articla is quoted below.  As I typed, I realized that, perhaps we
all need a reminder so I'm sending it also to rec.hunting and to
rec.guns.

Please everyone, think about it.  If we don't close ranks, before
you know it, reading about guns and hunting may well be *all* we
can do.

Jim,

I once believed as you (apparently) do.  I still don't like the
military-appearance semiautomatic rifles.  I think that they are
ugly.  But see below and please think about what I say with an open
mind.

In article <1992Nov6.081753.3293@doug.cae.wisc.edu> you write:
=> gray@hawkmoon.mn.org writes:
= 
=> I edit a newsletter for the Gun Owners' Civil Rights Alliance in
=> the People's Republic of Minnesota.
= 
=> We need snapshots of hunters who hunt with military style semi-
=> automatics, showing them with their rifle and the game they took.
= 
=> This year I am hunting with a party that includes an M1A and an
=> SKS.  I know another hunter who will be using his HK91.  We want
=> to publish as many accounts and pix as we can of people who hunt
=> with rifles the Politically Correct claim are never used by
=> hunters.
= 
=> Thanks for any help.

I begin by telling you a little about myself so that you'll know
that what follows is from what I would describe as a traditionalist.
Perhaps you, Jim, will read it more objectively knowing that it is
written by one who doesn't own an "assault rifle."

I'm a hunter.  Mainly a bird hunter but occasionally deer when
seasons don't conflict.  I shoot a little skeet and sporting clays
and I shoot my rifle on the range from time to time as well when
time permits.  I don't shoot in rifle matches--I have only my deer
rifle, a Remington 700 Classic in .250 Savage with a Weaver scope.
I shoot clay target games for fun and for practice.  I shoot a
Parker-Hale 640E double, the only double I can afford that has the
features I want--straight-hand stock, double triggers, splinter
forearm, etc.  My view is that the shotgun was perfected about a
century ago and it has been down hill ever since.  I have pointing
dogs, Brittanies (a 4-year old bitch and two of her pups) that I
train to the best of my ability and that I shoot over.

= You'll get no help from me. I hunt and I am absolutely APPALLED
= that you and a bunch of other assholes are out there shooting
= animals with military assault weapons. And an editor of a pro-gun
= lobby newspaper to boot! The one thing hunters do NOT need is a
= photo spread in your rag proving the fact. Hunters have a hard
= enough time as it is with the public. You will only make it
= worse for all of us. 

I begin by saying that I've become a firm believer in the quotation
>from before the Revolutionary War:  "If we don't all hang together,
we'll surely all hang separately."  (I'm sure that I haven't quoted
that as accurately as I should have liked but I think you'll recognize
it.)  Now that we have a gun-hating president to rubber-stamp the
antigun bills from an already gun-hating congress, we had better
all think long and hard about that quotation and about another that
I'll append at the end of my message.

I see, I think, where you are coming from.  There is a lot of
misguided sentiment against the "assault rifles" (they aren't
really assault rifles, as you may know) and you (and I) don't
want it to rub off on us hunters.  We have our own problems such
as the animal rights movement.

*BUT* if every faction in the shooting sports closes its collective
mind to every other faction, or even to some other factions, we are
doomed.  There are not enough of us as it is.  We cannot afford to
lose the support of a single shooter, whether hunter or paper
puncher, whether shooter of a classic double or an "evil assault
rifle."

You claim that anyone (I'm paraphrasing) who hunts with the kinds
of rifles mentioned is an asshole.  I ask you, where do you draw
the line?  What kinds of rifles shall we consider acceptable and
what kinds shall we not?  Remember that the bolt-action rifle was
the assault rifle of World War I.  The lever action was the assault
rifle of the "winning of the west."  Before that were various other
"assault rifles" including the muskets of the War for Independence.

If everyone in the shooting sports takes this view, all is lost.
I urge you, no, I beg you all:  Try to see the other side of the
coin.  Try to be open-minded enough to tolerate the diversity of
views, opinions, and preferences, that we would like the
uncommitted public to realize that the participants in the shooting
sports comprise.  We can hardly expect those outside the shooting
sports to realize that not all shooters are beer-swilling,
sign-shooting, poaching, red-neck, slobs but a diverse collection
of people who include all walks of life, diverse opinions and
interests, both sexes, all ages, ..., if we, ourselves, close our
minds to the views of our fellow shooters and our fellow hunters.

Remember that we hunters can hardly expect the users of "assault
rifles" to help us fight off the animal rights people if we refuse
to help them fight those who condemn a firearm simply because of
its appearance.  Those who won't help the hunters fight the 
antihunting factions, can hardly expect the hunters to help them
win their battles against the banners of their favorite type of
arms.  Remember, it is not what we own but what we do with it that
is important.

Now, the promised quotation (actually two, one a paraphrase of the
other) stolen shamelessly from the net.


      ____________________________________________________________

      "They came first for the communists and I  didn't  speak  up
      because  I  wasn't  a communist. Then they came for the Jews
      and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came
      for  the trade unionists and I didn't speak up because I was
      not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I
      didn't  speak  up  because I was a Protestant. And then they
      came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up."

      Martin Niemoeller
      ____________________________________________________________


      ____________________________________________________________

      "They came first for the machine guns and I didn't speak  up
      because  I didn't own a machine gun.  Then they came for the
      assault weapons and I didn't speak up because I  didn't  own
      an  assault  weapon.  Then they came for the semi-automatics
      and I didn't speak up because I didn't own a semi-automatic.
      Then  they  came  for  the  handguns  and  I didn't speak up
      because I didn't own a handgun.  And then they came  for  my
      shotgun and by that time no one was left to speak up."

      Author unknown.
      ____________________________________________________________

I apologize that this is so long.


-- 
Best,

Charlie "Older than dirt" Sorsby				"I'm the NRA!"
	  crs@lanl.gov


Newsgroups: rec.hunting