Hunting Works for Arizona held a presentation and sporting clays shoot in December at Ben Avery Shooting Range Facility. Hunting Works for Arizona (HWFA) was created to promote the economic partnership that exists within the hunting and shooting communities and the greater Arizona economy.
Our membership consists of businesses representing a cross-section of the Arizona economy. These include sporting retailers big and small, restaurant owners, hotel, motel and resort operators, gas stations and convenience stores, hunting and shooting organizations, chambers of commerce and of course all the taxpayers of Arizona (hunters and non-hunters alike) who benefit economically and aesthetically from the license fees, taxes, and jobs the hunting and shooting industry provides both directly and indirectly.
How much direct economic impact does hunting have in Arizona?
$323 million in direct annual spending on lodging, food, gas, and gear.
Creating 4,700 jobs with $107.5 million in salaries and wages.
Paying $15.3 million in Arizona sales, fuel and income taxes.
A more than $429.3 million total impact on the state economy.
Ben Avery Clay Target Center
HWFA Co-Chair and Arizona State Representative Jerry Weiers noted just how expensive it can be to hunt, due to planned and unplanned expenses, as he shared a few of his hunting stories.
Mark Thomas, Director of Communications for the National Shooting Sports Foundation addressed how intertwined hunters, sport shooters, hoteliers and even law enforcement officers are effected by anti-gun and anti-hunting efforts.
Mr. Thomas noted how the intent of lead ammunition bans was not for the safety of animals. The lead ammo bans are a stealth attempt to stop all hunting, under the guise of helping the environment, despite the lack of any supporting evidence. He also noted how a ban on lead ammunition would harm not only sport shooters, but law enforcement officers as well. If lead is banned as an ammunition, our Police officers won’t be able to buy effective ammunition. Unfortunately, almost any lead substitute for bullets would be unacceptable, as the substitute metal would violate the Federal law about mythical “cop-killer-bullets“.
Mr. Thomas also explained how Modern Sporting Rifles (AR-15s) are the hunting rifle choice of today’s returning war Veteran’s and how that is no different than how WWI Veterans chose the .30-06 1903 bolt action rifle for hunting, or how WWII Veterans chose hunting rifles chambered in .30-06 like the M1 Garands they carried during their service to our country. He cautioned hunters that replacing the wood stocks of prior hunting rifles with plastic stocks didn’t change the function of the rifles. AR-15 black rifles, referred to as “assault weapons” by major media outlets, are just similar to the weapons today’s Veterans used while serving, and would be the most logical choice of hunting rifles for today’s military Veterans.
After the presentations, it was time to hit the Rattlesnake Course at Ben Avery Clay Target Center. The best way to describe Sporting Clays is, it’s like golf, only louder and more fun.
Arizona Representative David Gowan Shooting Sporting Clays
Federal Ammunition provided the shotgun shells for the match. Thank you Federal, Hunting Works for Arizona, and the awesome staff at Arizona Game & Fish for a great day at the range.
Robb Allen over at Sharp As a Marble has a plan for his USPSA match on Sunday. ExurbanKevin at Misfires and Light Strikes has a plan for his IDPA match on Sunday. Mz. VRWC and I are participating in an IDPA Regional Match this weekend, called the South Mountain Showdown, at Phoenix Rod & Gun Club. Surely, I have a plan for shooting this event, I think. The plan has to be somewhere around here, now where did I leave it?
The plan, meticulously based on the only three IDPA club matches I’ve shot so far…is:
Muzzle safety – Don’t point the gun at anything I don’t intend to destroy, including my own body parts, or my match is over early (instant disqualification).
Maintain the 180 degree rule at all times – Don’t point the gun in a direction greater than 90 degrees to the left or right of the downrange berm (instant disqualification).
Only shoot has fast as I can accurately shoot – Any faster than that will waste ammo, time, and incur penalties. (You can’t miss fast enough to win.)
Have fun and enjoy the experience.
Maintain a relaxed approach to fend off the Red Mist, facilitating quick and safe draws from concealment.
That’s it! That is my plan for this match.
I know how to pull the trigger smoothly, line up the sights correctly, and how to be safe while handling firearms. Any other “things” I could plan on doing would probably exceed the mental bandwidth available after the timer buzzes.
Watching other shooters fire at lightning speed can create tremendous performance anxiety. At some point, you realize that you can only perform at the best of your abilities. You need this realization to keep your competitors’ performance from inducing the Red Mist.
Many people focus on the hoped for outcome of the event, at the expense of those tasks that have to be performed to achieve that goal. When those tasks are performed correctly, the sum of those tasks will equal the desired outcome, which is a winning performance. My focus will be on managing the tasks I have control over. If I do everything correctly, the result will be safe competition, zero-down scores, and a good place in the results.
Now I just have to remember my plan…where did I put that plan?
Ten of Arizona’s County Sheriffs joined together to demand accountability for those involved in Operation Fast and Furious, a Federally sponsored gun running program which supplied weapons to Mexican drug cartels from at least ten U.S. cities. The Justice Department and Eric Holder have been obstructing a House Oversight Committee investigation into the operation that went as planned.
Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever called Operation Fast and Furious a dishonor to law enforcement and a betrayal of law enforcement officers everywhere. These weapons have been used in crimes on both sides of the border. One of the weapons passed to the cartels by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was used during the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010. Agent Terry’s brother Kent Terry said,”My family and I are very thankful for the Sheriffs of Arizona and the fact they are helping us demand justice for my brother’s murder.”
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu held the press conference at the base of the Peace Officers Memorial, where Agent Terry’s name has been etched.
Sheriff Babeu was joined by nine other Sheriffs, four other Republicans and five Democrats. They made the call for a special investigator into the operation, Eric Holder’s resignation or firing, and criminal charges for those accountable. Sheriff Babeu also noted the Sheriffs found out about the operation through press accounts. (months after the Sipsey Street Irregulars blog broke the story.) He also suggested that the investigation needs to investigate other departments involved in the operation, such as the FBI, DEA, Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department.
Sheriff Larry Dever expressed his embarrassment that he had to apologize for the criminal actions of other elected officials.
One reporter noted a prior operation called Operation Wide Receiver, and mindlessly alluded to this being a partisan jab. If the lazy, partisan reporter had bothered to spend a minute on Google, she would have found out that the firearms in Operation Wide Receiver actually had tracking devices and were under surveillance. Operation Wide Receiver didn’t go as planned, the guns were lost and the program cancelled as a failure. The lazy reporter could then understand that a plan to illegally sell firearms to felons to deliver to Mexican drug cartels, without tracking or surveillance, could not be the next step in an investigation.
Navajo County Sheriff KC Clark said, “I’m outraged that our own Federal Government has betrayed local law enforcement by arming violent foreign criminals and it now appears that Attorney General Eric Holder may have lied under oath.”
Yavapai County Sheriff Scott Mascher said, “The Attorney General can’t be trusted to fairly self-investigate these possible criminal charges of gun running which has resulted in murders of both individuals from the U.S. and Mexico. A Special Counsel must be appointed.”
Previously, pro-second Amendment blogger Bob Owens was a lone voice calling for a Special Prosecutor. As more and more evidence of perjury and White House participation are released, the chorus grows stronger. Even congressman Paul Gosar has suggested that participants in this illegal operation are “vigilantes from DOJ going unchecked” and accessories to murder.
It is time for the President’s staff to stop playing politics with Operation Fast and Furious. This scandal is worse than Watergate, as people have been murdered in this scandal. The President must appoint a special investigator to bring those responsible to justice, or have the history of his administration forever tarnished by this corrupt, murderous operation.
Does anyone in Pennsylvania want to win a nice gun? If so, get yourself to the Bucks County Friends of NRA Dinner this Thursday evening, September 15th at 5:30 PM. You can win a gun in a raffle, like we have, or win a unique collector firearm at the auction, while enjoying a tasty dinner with people that you’d like to hang out with. Doors open for raffles, games & silent auction at 5:30pm. Dinner will be served at 7:15 PM, at Spring Mill Manor in Ivyland, PA.
While online ticket sales have ended, you can still email Christie Caywood through bucksnratickets@pagunrights.com to get tickets to the best investment in the shooting sports you could ever make. The tickets are only $40 per person and half of all net proceeds go to fund projects within the state on youth firearm safety and education programs, hunter education, range development and improvement, women’s training seminars, and wildlife conservation efforts. The other half is used to fund similar projects with a national scope.
Enjoy a great meal, meet people who share your interests, and maybe even walk away with a new gun, what more could you want?
You want more? Well then, I’m glad you asked! You could also win a pro-gun toaster. No really, you can win an NRA toaster that makes divine, pro second amendment BLTs. Everyone loves this unique and rare item!
If you are on the East Coast, what are you waiting for? Get yourself to this Friends on NRA dinner and support the future of the shooting sports by emailing Ms. Caywood, right now!
As Hurricane Irene approaches landfall, the national news media is freaking out. The message from their “EXTREME WEATHER CENTER” graphics art departments is clear – FREAK OUT! PANIC! ZOMG it’s going to rain! Lots of rain and wind! Argghhhhh!
Don’t get me wrong hurricanes can be really bad, but the news coverage is hysterical. I hope all of my friends, and even my enemies, on the East Coast make it through the storm safe and sound.
While you wait for the storm to blow through, pass the time with a little Le Chic.
We recently attended an advanced screening of “The Undefeated”, the new Sarah Palin film that is due out in theaters on July 15th. The filmmakers call the movie “a two-hour-long, sweeping epic…” and ” a galvanizing prelude to Palin’s prospective presidential campaign”. I’ll call it a pretty darn good movie that despite leaving a few holes for me, gives you an excellent sense of the real Sarah Palin.
While it’s known that the movie was made to excite current Sarah Palin fans and redefine her as presidential material, I believe this film will prove to be even more valuable to the pull-my-string-I-hate-Palin demographic – those that have a negative opinion about Palin, but if you ask them why they don’t like her, you can see the smoke coming from their ears as they work to keep their head from exploding. If you have friends and/or family members that have bought into the myths created by the mainstream media and other moonbat liberals with Palin Derangement Syndrome, but are otherwise fairly reasonable people, please take them to see this movie. The film does a good job of giving you no choice but to look at Mrs. Palin as a human being, and I can think of several people that could use this type of re-education.
The Arizona premier of “The Undefeated” will be shown at the AMC Ahwatukee 24 theater on July 15th. You can buy your “The Undefeated” tickets in advance right here. There’s even an 11:30 matinee showing for only $5 bucks, leaving you even less of a reason not to go see the movie.
Gunblogger Bob Owens, a writer for Bob’s Gun Counter and Confederate Yankee blogs, has put his money-where-his-mouth-is for what is right. Like many of us, Bob has been following the Congressional hearings into the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATFE, also known as ATF) critically flawed and “unconventional investigation” into weapons smuggling into Mexico. The “investigation” is known as Operation Fast & Furious, Project Gunrunner, and a few other names that obscure how broad the investigation’s failures actually are. Congressman Darrell Issa has referred to Operation Fast & Furious as “felony stupid”. Bob believes, like many others, that the operation wasn’t just stupid.
How unconventional was the investigation?
ATF, with the cooperation of the Department of Justice and other Federal agencies, decided that the best way to stop the flow of smuggled weapons from the United States into Mexico was to ship more weapons. A few thousand more weapons!
Bob has extensively covered scandals like the death of Marine veteran Jose Guereña at the hands of the Pima County SWAT team, as well as extensively covering Operation Fast & Furious, Project Gunrunner. This time, he has filed a written request with the Federal Government’s Office of Special Counsel, requesting the appointment of an independent Special Prosecutor to investigate the failed operation that lead to the deaths of at least three U.S. law enforcement officers, as many as 150 Mexican law enforcement officers, and possibly thousands of Mexican citizens.
Why would you call that laying it on the line?
Well, Bob is presumably a gun owner, who is certainly in the United States, petitioning his government to seek redress in a case of government wrong-doing. A wrong-doing that at a minimum is:
Negligent “felony stupid” that deserves jail time for responsible parties.
A blunder caused by an abuse of political power used to pursue an anti-gun agenda “by any means necessary”
Or at worst, corruption of U.S. government officials that we could only imagine happening in Mexico.
Whatever the level of corruption, it is so important that Attorney General Eric Holder and other high ranking officials have risked Contempt charges by refusing to turn over documents and otherwise cooperate in the Congressional investigation.
Our hats are off to you!
We here at GreatSatanInc.com salute Bob in taking a stand against this horrific injustice, perpetrated by government officials who allegedly serve the citizens. When the stakes are this high, it takes courage to stand up for what is right. May God bless you and keep you safe, Bob. You are doing the right thing!
