http://www.nrahuntersrights.org/ NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
INCORPORATED 1871
11250 Waples Mill Road - Fairfax, VA 22030
NRA Battle for Hunters' Rights
Is Focus of New Website
On November 1, 2007, NRA launched a new Website--www.nrahuntersrights.org.
Visitation has been strong and feedback on it positive, but there is one really disturbing thing about the site--the fact that there is a need for it.
The number of licensed hunters has dropped steadily, from 14.1 million in 1996 to 12.5 million today. Gleeful anti-hunters claim that hunting is dying, and no longer of interest to Americans.
But it isn't lack of interest in hunting that's causing the decline.
It's overly complex, nit-picking regulations that turn inadvertent mistakes into criminal offenses. It's too much difficulty in finding a place to hunt, or even to sight-in your rifle. It's overzealous law enforcement. It's archaic minimum-age hurdles that must be cleared before youngsters can hunt. And it's radical anti-hunting groups--and their sympathetic media--that succeed in closing down hunting seasons, even when they are overwhelmingly justified by the science of wildlife management.
"There are more threats to hunting than many of us seem to realize," said NRA Executive Director of General Operations Kayne Robinson, who spearheaded the development of the site. "And many of those threats are caused by government action, abuse, or inaction. Government red tape and bureaucratic hostility have reached a point where people are actually being driven out of hunting. A hunting license is not probable cause to believe its owner is a crook to be searched and interrogated.
"NRA strongly supports game laws based on sound wildlife management, and we vehemently oppose laws that only serve the convenience of the bureaucracy," Robinson continued. "The hunters rights' abuses NRA addresses are not to shield the guilty but to protect the innocent from being treated like the guilty.
"With all these factors combining to make it harder for an average citizen to hunt, we saw a need to keep people informed through a Website devoted to hunters' rights issues."
If you have not clicked on www.nrahuntersrights.org yet, here's a small sampling of some of the story topics already posted, or in development.