Freerepublic.com has apparently just gotten around to noting a February 20, 2008 posting by Bob Hood at Star-Telegram.com that noted sportsman Grits Gresham had passed away on February 20, 2008.

 

    While not wanting to carbon-date myself (yet again), Gresham remains best known to this poster as a flyfisherman and hunter on the 1.0 Version of American Sportsman (back when Curt Gowdy introduced it, when ABC was not afraid to show deer hunts, dove hunts, and catch-for-the-frypan fishing episodes on Sundays in between the end of football season and the beginning of baseball season).

 

    Many are the memories of my dad and I sitting down to watch Grits and Co. follow outdoor pursuits untainted by political correctness. An era has passed, hardly compensated for by the current slate of outdoor shows on cable/satellite channels. At least my dad and I still go hunting, but unless I can find the show on Netflix or DVD, my own boy will never have the joy of watching Grits cast what looked like one hundred yards of 7 weight fly line in the Snake River. We are truly diminished.

 

Link at:

http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/columnists/bob_hood/story/485777.html

 

 

 

Condor Pasa Update- One Boowhet Weft:

     It should surprise no one by now that the California Fish & Game Commission appears to be more afraid of environmentalist lawsuits than the ire of those hunters and outdoorsmen consigned to hunting and depredation pursuits in what is now being "roped off" as "condor country" (These are the very same hunters and outdoorsmen whose license fees pay for the DFG and Fish & Game Commission budget. No license revenue means no salaries nor per diems).

 

     After all, the very same 3 commissioners who voted to accept an Environmental Document that declared that there was no direct link between lead ammunition found in hunter-shot game or gutpiles resulting from hunter-shot game are the same Commissioners who have voted to wildly expand those ammunition limitations beyond that imposed by the Legislature and the Governor through AB 821.

 

    After months of failing to mention to various stakeholders that they intended to include rimfire ammunition and birdshot in a process otherwise dedicated to the proposition of regulating big game and coyote hunting, said 3 commissioners pulled the Mother of All Head Fakes and tossed in half of the NRDC's "wish list" in their current lawsuit against the California Fish & Game Commission (The other half of this wish list is a ban on lead birdshot for upland game, and expanding the lead ammunition ban statewide).

 

    As such, hunters will be forced to use only Government Approved Ammunition (just as soon as the Fish & Game Commission can figure out what "government approved" means).

 

    Given that they themselves have not resolved all conflicts that their proposed regulations have with the California Penal Code, let alone set the standards and process for the ammunition manufacturers to begin getting "Gubmint Approval", it is fairly certain that there will be, at the very least, severe shortages of Government Approved Ammunition on the shelves of retail outlets across one third of California when the new seasons start their cycle on July 1, 2008.

 

   Still, it is not too late to let the DFG and Fish & Game Commissioners Richard Rogers, Cindy Gustafson, and Michael Sutton know how one truly feels (other than spending one's hunting license fees in such other reasonable states as Montana, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Oregon.....) about their personal decision to ban additional forms of ammunition not noted in AB 821. The following persons need to be contacted in the next 7 days if one wishes to register their displeasure in the Commissioner's actions:

 

    Dr. Eric Loft-   eloft@dfg.ca.gov

 

    John Carlson, Jr., Executive Director - fgc@fgc.ca.gov

 

    Jon K. Fischer, Deputy Executive Director,

       Regulations and Policy-                    jfischer@fgc.ca.gov

 

    Adrianna Shea, Deputy Executive Director,

       Special Advisor to the Commissioners-   ashea@fgc.ca.gov

 

 

    One can send them an email to the addresses noted above, or write/call/fax to the following-

 

    California Fish and Game Commission

    1416 Ninth Street

     PO Box 944209

     Sacramento, CA  94244-2090

 

     Phone- 916-653-4899

 

     Fax- 916-653-5040

 

     Important comments may include a request for the Commissioners to vote against any regulations that expands a ban on hunting ammunition beyond the centerfire rifle and pistol ammunition noted in AB 821. Let them know you care (politely, of course.). Let them know today.

 

 

 

Should Law Enforcement Keep Their Guns At Home? LA Times Hints NO:

     David Haldane wrote an interesting story the other day that seems to beg the following question- Should law enforcement personnel (in this case a reserve police officer) be allowed to keep their firearms in their home or otherwise in their personal possession?

 

     In describing the shooting and crippling of Long Beach Prosecutor, and Republican Assembly Candidate, Julie Alban back in 1988, one is confronted with this simple conundrum.

 

    Alban, who per Haldane is apparently running for the Assembly on a gun control platform, was shot by a disturbed suitor who stole her father's service weapon from the trunk of her father's car. Her father, Seymour Alban, was likewise a noted orthopedic surgeon whose past rationale for firearms ownership included the example of the Holocaust (Haldane notes that Alban is Jewish.).  The wound resulted in her being a paraplegic.

 

    Now, in the ensuing years a number of so-called "safe storage" laws have been signed into law in California. And one could theoretically make the argument that firearms locked in a trunk (then and now) could be considered secured from access from minors. But at least as far as intent and current law is concerned, one gets the impression from Haldane's story that compliance with even today's safe storage requirements will not satisfy either Candidate Alban or the Editors of the Los Angeles Times (In the case of the latter...Well, Duh!!!).

 

    In fact, in Dr. Alban's case, it appears that storage offsite only satisfies his daughter and son/medical practice partner as long as the firearms concerned are not at his office or are locked up with a "police friend" or at a police impound locker (One wonders if there is a law enforcement "exemption" for "holding" another person's concealable firearms. Perhaps not.).

 

    Of course, one should face the fact that any personal decision by Dr. Alban to deal with his own firearms in any manner of his own choosing is his own business, allowing for the requirements of the law and the prohibitions of access by minors. But there are strong and logical reasons why law enforcement in general, and even citizens in particular, should have access to firearms as an effective alternative for personal self defense. It is hard to imagine the efficaciousness of a firearms storage methodology that requires the assaulted law enforcement officer, or even civilian homeowner, to have to drive to the local police station, fill in paperwork, and retrieve their firearm from a bonded locker before they are able to defend themselves.

 

    It is, on the other hand, one heck of a way to lead to the confiscation and banning of civilian ownership of firearms.

 

Link at:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-julie10mar10,0,1135938.story?page=1

 

Anthony Canales

SFVMC-NRA

 

Copyright 2008 Anthony Canales,

except as noted.

All rights reserved.