American Hunters and Shooters Association

Recently the NRA reported that the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) was a wolf in sheeps clothing. so I wandered over to their webpage to see what it was all about.

In an article under common sense I found the following:

In deciding whether a firearm in the home is a risk or a benefit, four common sense factors must be considered:

1. Is a firearm in the home more likely to be used to protect its owner or is it more likely to be used against a member of the household?
2. How frequently are guns used for self-protection?
3. How effective are handguns when they are used for self-protection?
4. Overall, how safe are guns in the home?

There are certain factors that weigh heavily against keeping a gun in the home for self-protection.

Gun ownership requires an honest evaluation of personal circumstances:

* Are one’s security concerns realistic?
* Do other adults in the household support the decision to keep a gun in the home?
* If others will have access to the firearm, will they take a firearms training and safety course?
* What precautions will be used to safeguard children?
* Do high risk factors such as drug and alcohol abuse exist within the home?

If someone is not willing to accept basic responsibilities and adhere to important rules of gun safety and storage, AHSA recommends against keeping a firearm for home protection.

Their obvious goal is to talk you out of keeping a gun for protection; while appearing to be reasonable. This would never fool a person who knows about guns and owns them for self defense. It is designed to discourage people who are considering purchasing a gun for self protection for the first time.

Let me help those who do not own firearms, you are NOT more likely to be shot with your own gun in the home. You are not more likely to injure your loved ones by keeping a gun in the house. These are all lies that have been exposed.

So I checked the who are we section and discovered this:

According to a 2003 Field & Stream National Hunting Survey, sportsmen overwhelmingly support reasonable gun safety proposals. Moreover, an overwhelming majority of hunters support proposals like background checks to purchase guns, keeping military style assault weapons off our streets and the elimination of cop killer bullets.

Wow! They are for banning “so called” Assault weapons, and types of ammunition! There is no cop killer bullets, that is a myth, and “assault weapon” covers quite a range of firearms and the definition is in the eye of the beholder. I want to know who is running this organization.

And:

In recent years, extreme political positions purporting to support gun rights have jeopardized our sport and have hurt the image of responsible gun owners. Unless the sporting community can become unified behind an organization that fights for safe and responsible hunting and shooting practices and sensible gun ownership, future generations may be unable to participate in and enjoy the shooting sports.

Translation: Gun registration, single shot rifles, locked up guns, and eventually confiscation. Yup, that is their ultimate goal the rest are incremental steps to get us there.

Common sense gun control? There are over 20,000 gun laws in this country. We don’t need anymore laws. Laws just infringe on honest citizen’s right to protect themselves. Protection is the number one reason guns exist. Hunting and sporting events are important, but does not hold a candle to personal protection. They are trying to divide gun owners to weaken their efforts to block organization like this one from achieving their goals.

There is plenty more of this on their website, so go crawl around on it if you do not believe me.

From the NRA-ILA:

At first glance, everything about AHSA sounds just fine. They even have one useful tool on the website, a history of wildlife conservation laws in America–strange thing is it was lifted nearly word for word from http://www.NRAILA.org.

In their “Firearms Safety and Training” section we begin to see some curious remarks. For instance in the “Range Safety” section they never once mention that firearms should always be pointed downrange, the first rule in range safety. Another section recommends that shooters use steel wool to clean the barrels of their guns, an idea that makes most gunsmiths cringe. The rest of their safety tips appear to be written by someone who has never hunted. Never once do they mention the three basic rules of safe gun handling by which all shooters know and abide.

A look deeper into the AHSA website quickly reveals that this is no hunters’ rights group. You quickly realize that they want to allow the FBI to keep records on law-abiding citizens who buy guns and put an end to gun shows as we know them. Not to mention the fact that they want to regulate .50 caliber rifles in the same way that machine guns are regulated.

The most telling thing about AHSA is its leadership. A quick look at their website shows that Bob Ricker is listed as AHSA Executive Director. Readers will remember that Ricker is a former NRA employee who switched sides and has actively worked for gun control groups for many years now. A few years ago, Ricker was part of an attempt to sell out your rights by brokering a deal with the most anti-gun administration in history. He then appeared with Bill Clinton in a White House photo-op. Most recently Ricker was paid by a Virginia based anti-gun group, where he lobbied to shut down gun shows and put further restrictions on gun owners.

A little further down in the leadership section John Rosenthal is listed as President of the AHSA Foundation. Rosenthal is one of the founders of the Massachusetts based group Stop Handgun Violence, a group that has been a major force in passing some of the most Draconian state gun laws in the nation. Gun laws that Rosenthal would like to see exported to other states.

With leadership like that, there is no doubt about the true goals of AHSA. They are trying to fool hunters and gun owners with a soft sell–a la John Kerry–while working behind the scenes to end the sport that we all love. I fully expect that in the 2006 elections we will see anti-gun Congressional candidates boasting about their AHSA endorsements. Unfortunately, some gun owners will be fooled by this ploy, so help us spread the word that AHSA isn’t what it claims to be.

I’ll be darned if the NRA wasn’t right again. They are trying to fool gun owners and potential gun owners into thinking they are a pro-gun organization, when in fact, they are an anti-gun organization! They are going to use our own money against us. These people are not ever going to give up. They are a determined enemy that will stoop to anything to achieve their goals.

I have to send more money to the NRA!