[biblewonk]

Hunters need to separate themselves from gun nuts

The ole divide and conquer trick. How about if pistol shooters separate themselves from rifle shooters and shoot gun shooters separate themselves from both. They we can further divide by calliber.

[chicagolady]

Well, I hate to be the one to break the bad news, BUT Daley is not your Problem ANYMORE! It is Rod "the Second Amendment HATER" Blagojevich! Hang on to your seat, You ain't seen Nothin YET!!

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

One more thing. According to this guy, if you own a gun and don't hunt, you're a nut? Would he confine this brilliant logic to guns, or would he extend it to other tools as well? I own quite a few hunting knives that have never been used for their marketed purpose, i.e. gutting, skinning etc. I must be a gun and knife nut, eh?

[SSN558]

"I am a hunter who owns guns, not a gun nut. Guns don't mean more than life to me."

I am a gun owner that doesn't hunt. Basically I don't like to kill things and would prefer to get mine at the grocery store.

I own and shoot military weapons at pieces of paper. If you want to take them from me you can pry them from my cold dead fingers. My adversion to killing things ends at the second amendment to the United States Constitution.

This guy is a total phony jerk. They pop up every once in awhile. Divide and conquer strategy of the anti's.

[harpseal]

Just A couple of points this so called hunter needs to understand. We all need to hnag together or we shall certainly hang seperately. You have no RIGHT to hunt per se. You have a Right to keep and bear arms. *A ban on military-style, semi-automatic assault weapons. I absolutely agree. It should have been done years ago. The problem for hunters is the definition of assault rifles; otherwise, it in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

Like pump and semi auto shotguns are excluded. I further note that a number of excellent hunting rifles are included in such bans.

*Restrict handgun purchases to one per person per month. For my money, you could ban handguns completely. That in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

If one can ban handguns one can ban any gun.

Clearly this individual needs to read and understand Niemoller 'First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me.'

[Paleo Conservative]

Instead of disarming law-abiding citizens, Illinois could give stiff sentences to criminals who use firearms in the commission of felonies. They could even execute murders, but that would be too logical.

[The Duke]

That's funny ... I thought the purpose of the Second Amendment was to keep tyrannical government in check. I never realized it was just for "hunting"?

A couple of years ago I learned that the elderly man living next to me had completely lost his mind and been committed to a mental instituation. When they took him away they also removed a rather significant gun collection. My first reaction was to be grateful that my crazy neighbor no longer had guns at his disposal.

But, as I have thought more on it I have come to the conclusion that life would be *FAR* more dangerous and less worth living if he did not have the freedom to own those guns.

[brbethke]

Dale Bowman can be reached at outdoordb@aol.com.

"Bowman's Outdoor Line'' is heard on "Outdoors with Mike Norris'' (3-4 p.m. Thursdays, 1280-AM).

If Dale Bowman were a black man writing about race relations, we would call him an Uncle Tom. Dale Bowman is clearly a groveling brown nose who can't wait to lick the boots of his newest master.

Don't patronize any publication that publishes his work. If you live in his listening area, call the radio station and let them know what you think of him.

Yeah, I'll get called a "gun nut" for having this opinion. But I'd rather be called a gun nut than a subject.

[Gritty]

When did Schmuckie Schumer change his name and start writing agitprop columns for the Chicago Sun Times?

[broadsword]

Well I've got news for you buddy. If all the gun controls that dont "efect your right to own a rifle or shotgun for hunting" become a reality then what stops them from passing more laws that do "efect your right to own a rifle or shotgun for hunting". People don't understand that the gun control advocets will not stop until all guns are out of all hands period. Its like boiling a live frog. Some frogs say "Crap its getting hotter." then jump out. Then other frogs say, "What are you freaking out about? Its only comfterbly warm."

Some frogs get eaten, some don't.

[need_a_screen_name]

Scoped hunting rifles are already being called sniper rifles. Once the black guns and handguns are gone, the anti-self defense zealots will come for his deer and duck guns. What an idiot. What is sad, is that too many hunters ALREADY feel like this guy does, and see no reason to fight to save the right to keep what they don't own or shoot.

[AF68]

This is just another effort by a crime-ridden, big city anti-gun mayor to divide and conquer downstate Illinois gun owners. It hasn't worked in the past and it isn't going to work no matter how many times Dildo Daley tries it. Instead, how about a little Chicago night club control, Mr. Daley? How many dead today? 17?

[brbethke]

25+ years ago, when I was a young journalist in the People's Republic of Madison, I had the pleasure of covering a speech by some guy (Joel somebody?) from some organization that had "Ban" and "Guns" in its name but has since renamed itself to something less overt. In this speech, to an enthusiastic and supportive crowd of college-town liberals and activist reporters, Joel laid out The Plan. To paraphrase him:

"First, we ban cheap handguns, because everybody is afraid of street crime.

"Next, we ban military-type automatic rifles, because nobody needs a machine gun for hunting.

"Then, since nobody can buy cheap handguns, they won't want to move up to more expensive handguns, so we can ban ALL handguns except for those used by military and police. And we make the soldiers and cops turn theirs in to an armory when they go off duty." (You must remember, this guy and this audience hated American soldiers and policemen almost as much as they hated the NRA.)

"Then, because a true sportsman only needs one shot, we ban everything except single-shot rifles and shotguns.

"And if we do this, then in about five years, all the deer hunters and duck hunters will get fed up and quit, and there will be so few gun owners left that we can go ahead and finish the job, and ban all privately owned guns in America!"

Audience applauds wildly.

And that's about when I started to realize that Madison was not the town for me....

[Always Right]

The problem with gun grabbers is they don't stop. Just look at usually reasonable countries like England and Austailia. It isn't a big step to from restricting some guns to taking away all guns.

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

a man of principle, no doubt.

[Lancey Howard]

The problem for this scumbag Democrat socialist, "Dale Bowman" is the same problem every other scumbag Democrat socialist in the country has - - that pesky Constitution of the United States with its Second Amendment, which of course has absolutely nothing to do with "hunting", and everything to do with.... keeping scumbag Democrat socialists like Bowman from acting out their fantasy of becoming oppressive tyrants.

[Double Tap]

As hunters, we must learn to separate ourselves from the gun nuts, those who would oppose every firearm restriction. Otherwise, we'll be lumped in the crackpot pile.

Yep, that is just what the anti's have been doing for a good part of the last century. Seperate and demonize. This maroon fell for it hook, line and sinker. But what can you expect from Chicago.

[Rockpile]

What does this doofus do for a living? I'd guess that he's a urinalist.

[Maelstrom]

**Message Sent**

Dear Mr. Bowman,



Your article struck a chord with me. I grew up in Van Etten, NY. My first gun was a 12-guage single shot Remington with hard sights. I was 15 and Van Etten is a rural community. "Bucolic" describes the small farming town perfectly.

I went to Boston University and transferred out as soon as possible. I've spent time now in several cities and several states. Buffalo, NY, Erie, PA, Winston-Salem, NC, Chesapeake, VA, as well as others. The gun laws vary in each state and each state has people who claim to only want guns for hunting as well as those people who insist on them for what they say is the "intended purpose" for having a right to own firearms. Throughout that time I've come in contact with both sides of the argument. It's absolutely necessary to find out what the laws are when moving, even if all you want to do is keep your hunting rifle.

I'd ask you to try asking people who oppose guns where their limits are when you consider the things you support. My own questioning has led me to feel discouraged. People who oppose gun ownership don't have any limits to what they'll do. The questioning should outline or reiterate the gun control proposal they claim they want and then ask what they'll do if it doesn't work. I'm a country boy, if something doesn't work, you get rid of it in favor of something that does work, and if nothing works, you learn to deal with it.

When I moved back to NY, I suddenly discovered that the one gift that I most appreciated for it's thoughtfulness and sentimental value was illegal without joining up on a list. That's not right. It assumes that I'm guilty of a crime before I've done anything. There is no compromise, of course, so I left my shotgun behind.

I'd like to do a rundown on some of the things you listed because you seem to have been mislead by someone along the way:

*A ban on military-style, semi-automatic assault weapons. I absolutely agree. It should have been done years ago. The problem for hunters is the definition of assault rifles; otherwise, it in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

"Military-style" is a cosmetic definition of a gun. A ban on them *was* done years ago. The problem is, first, it's only the appearance that's been outlawed, and second, it does include several shotguns or rifles...based on that appearance or some accessories. Worse, they aren't used in crimes in any significant numbers. However, it will take away from you any semi-automatic rifles you have as well as any old shotguns that can handle an arbitrarily determined number of shells. Which means they'll come for my single-shot last, but they'll probably still come for it.

*Restrict handgun purchases to one per person per month. For my money, you could ban handguns completely. That in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

Restricting the number of handgun purchases doesn't do a damned thing about anything. I'm not even sure what the goal of such a thing is supposed to be. However, banning handguns completely only ensures that any legal rifles or shotguns with shorter barrels will be next. Criminals don't care about it anyway, they can just smuggle them in with the tons of drugs that reach our shores each day.

*Gun fingerprinting. I have no problem with that other than it is another governmental intrusion into our lives. It in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

Gun fingerprinting just puts your name on a list. Though it might be useful for a political hack to use it for punishing gun owners. It actualy does affect your right to own a shotgun or a rifle for hunting. You'll have to make time to get the rifle legal because it'll need to be fingerprinted once every so few uses and cleanings. The shotgun might be made illegal because it's impossible to fingerprint them. More, criminals aren't going to use a gun that will be traced back to themselves. It'll be traced to the poor schmuck it was stolen from and he'll be held liable for it's theft and consequent use in a crime.

*Lengthening the waiting period for taking possession of a handgun from three days to 10. Hey, make it a month, a year, 10 years. It in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

Waiting periods have effectively killed several people by denying them the ability to own a gun when the people concerned knew they were threatened with death. If it "works" for handguns, there's no reason it won't be applied to your shotgun or rifle.

*Require annual background checks of those who hold Firearm Owners Identification Cards. I think that will be a logistical nightmare and should not be enacted for that reason. Otherwise, check all you want. It in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

*Increase the cost of a FOID card. It annoys me. It will cost me. But it in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

*State licensing of gun dealers and a state database of gun information. Go ahead. I think it will be a logistical nightmare; otherwise, it in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

It will, as you can see in Massachusettes and Maryland, restrictions and regulations on Firearm Owner Identification Cards have been raised to the extent that gun dealers have left. So both the cost and availability of shotguns and rifles will be altered for the worse. The Law of Supply and Demand tells us it'll cost you much more than you expect.

*Mandate background checks of people who buy firearms at gun shows. Absolutely. That should have been in place years ago. That in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

This little ditty has been used to disallow the very method by which you received your first gun. So, this would definitely affect your ability to own a shotgun or a rifle. That's right, gifts, exchanges with the neighbors and friends have been regulated as "gun shows". This more than anything else would have kept you out of the fields.

*Increased penalty for secret compartments in vehicles for weapons. Throw the book at them. That in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

This, along with all the other things you support, will impact your life in a million different ways. What is their purpose? If that purpose is not fulfilled will they be repealed or removed?

I'm afraid sir, that you've been caught by a purposeful tactic used to divide people against themselves. It's classic "Laws for Thee but Not for Me" thinking. However, because the purpose of gun control laws are not the proposed purposes none of these laws are removed or repealed except by those who have recognized the pattern.

When your rifle and shotgun "for hunting" are outlawed, will that make you a gun nut or will you recognize the people who have fooled you to their incremental agenda concerning their own phobia's about firearms are the true "gun nuts".

=Maelstrom=

--

[For education and discussion purposes only as they contribute to political debate]

Effective December 15, 1791 Articles in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution. PREAMBLE The conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/charters_of_freedom/bill_of_rights/preamble.html

[Mr. Mojo]

*A ban on military-style, semi-automatic assault weapons. I absolutely agree. It should have been done years ago. The problem for hunters is the definition of assault rifles; otherwise, it in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

When the definition of "assault rifles" all of a sudden includes this idiot's .30-30 lever action or .30-06 bolt action, I'd imagine the "gun nut" crowd will cease to be as nutty.