Let’s Protect Children at Least as Well as We Protect Ducks

[BarryLaverty]

Why not? 

(NY Times)

Let’s Protect Children at Least as Well as We Protect Ducks
April 21, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

By Dan Ashe

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, commercial hunting was devastating populations of ducks, geese and other water birds. In response, Congress passed the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918, granting the United States Fish and Wildlife Service authority to regulate the killing of migratory birds nationwide. Now waterfowl are thriving in North America, an exception to the general, global trend in the decline of birds and other wildlife populations.

One of the earliest waterfowl protection regulations put in place by the Fish and Wildlife Service restricts the firearms that hunters can use by limiting how many shells a hunter’s shotgun may hold. Anyone hunting ducks, geese, doves or other migratory birds anywhere in the United States cannot use a shotgun that is capable of shooting more than three times without reloading. They also cannot use shotguns larger than 10 gauge in order to prevent situations where one blast might kill several birds in a flock. These regulations have been in place since the 1930s, and have driven the manufacture and availability of hunting shotguns.

Gun controls have been part of waterfowl management for nearly a century, with relatively little controversy even today, and have worked to protect populations of ducks and other migratory birds. There are no semiautomatic assault weapon equivalents for hunting migratory birds, because their use is prohibited. But those weapons, as we have seen in so many mass shootings, at schools and elsewhere, are otherwise widely available.

 

What makes mass shootings so deadly, of course, is the capacity of the weapons the killers use to shoot so many rounds, so quickly, without the inconvenience of reloading. Even reloading these weapons means simply detaching and replacing one 30-to-40-round magazine, for instance, with another.

 

The shooter who killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012 used a Bushmaster AR-15-style weapon, which can fire in rapid succession (a 2018 article in Slate quoted the official Bushmaster manual as saying the gun had a maximum effective firing rate of 45 rounds per minute) and can hold dozens of rounds in its magazine. Reloading an AR-15 takes a matter of seconds. We are all too familiar with the tolls of tragedy after tragedy — Parkland, Pulse, Uvalde, Sutherland Springs and, most recently, the Covenant School in Nashville, where the shooter, armed with a military-style semiautomatic rifle, one handgun and a small 9-millimeter carbine, fired 152 rounds while on school grounds.

President Biden could borrow from the nation’s success in protecting ducks. The executive branch has plenty of discretionary authority to regulate federal lands, including the ability to restrict firearms possession in many areas (a power it now uses to restrict guns in courthouses, post offices and many national parks and on other federal lands). It can and should prohibit shooting assault weapons or any firearms capable of shooting more than five or 10 rounds, without reloading, on federal land, or at any public shooting range that receives federal funding or is under federal license. That’s nearly 30 percent of America.

The challenge for the president will be to overcome a gun culture that permeates federal land-managing agencies and their state counterparts. They will resist. I know, because I was part of that culture for over three decades. That’s why Mr. Biden’s leadership can make a difference.

The president can also ask state governors, tribal leaders and mayors to do the same on their lands, and could urge big, private landholders like timber, energy and agriculture companies to place the same restrictions on their lands. He can also ask the major hunting, fishing and conservation organizations, like the Boone and Crockett Club, Ducks Unlimited and the National Wildlife Federation, to urge state wildlife agencies to ban assault weapons for any hunting. This would put all of these entities into the public spotlight. We may find that people would prefer to buy lumber, power and beef from companies that do not allow assault weapons on their lands, and want to support conservation organizations that put children’s safety at least on par with that of ducks.

 

As a gun owner and hunter, I am thankful for Mr. Biden’s voice on gun safety. It has been passionate. On June 2, 2022, after the Uvalde shooting, he said:

“We should limit how many rounds a weapon can hold. Why in God’s name should an ordinary citizen be able to purchase an assault weapon that holds 30-round magazines that let mass shooters fire hundreds of bullets in a matter of minutes?”

At least nine states and the District of Columbia have placed bans or restrictions on assault-style weapons. What Mr. Biden can do is make it increasingly difficult to use these weapons elsewhere. As he might say, here’s the deal: It’s really not much fun to own a gun that can’t be used in many places, and buying guns that can’t be used, except for that myth of home defense, a big justification by so many, just doesn’t make a lot of sense. And it won’t be very profitable for manufacturers to make guns that fewer people buy.

What I’m suggesting is not going to stop this epidemic of senseless gun violence, but it will help, and it can be done today. As the president also said on June 2, 2022, “It’s time for each of us to do our part.”

The government does a better job now of protecting ducks and geese than it does protecting children and teachers. Let’s start protecting them the same way we protect waterfowl. Hopefully, even better.

Dan Ashe was the director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service from February 2011 to January 2017.

 

[RETIREDFAN1]

Definitely......let's stop murdering them before they're born.......

[EnjoyLife]

I used to do a lot of duck hunting. Started out with a Remington 870 and later on a Beretta A300...and both of them were plugged to hold no more than 3 rounds...one in the chamber and two in the mag. Got checked by the game warden several times and he always made sure the plug was in place. Anyway, despite what some on here think...I am not anti-gun...but I do not have a gun fetish either. The reason so many mass shooters choose an AR style weapon is not because they are inherently more powerful than other guns...but because of their high volume of fire. As I have said before...the guy in Dayton popped off 49 rounds and shot over 20 people in less than a minute. That would have been nearly impossible to do with (for example) my bolt action M77 Ruger that is limited to 5 rounds before reloading.

[ObiOne]

Y'all think 2a is about hunting 

[Monte1076]

23 minutes ago, EnjoyLife said:

I used to do a lot of duck hunting.

So did I:

[EnjoyLife]

I did a lot of that kind of duck hunting also lol.

[Monte1076]

23 minutes ago, EnjoyLife said:

I used to do a lot of duck hunting. Started out with a Remington 870 and later on a Beretta A300...and both of them were plugged to hold no more than 3 rounds...one in the chamber and two in the mag. Got checked by the game warden several times and he always made sure the plug was in place. Anyway, despite what some on here think...I am not anti-gun...but I do not have a gun fetish either. The reason so many mass shooters choose an AR style weapon is not because they are inherently more powerful than other guns...but because of their high volume of fire. As I have said before...the guy in Dayton popped off 49 rounds and shot over 20 people in less than a minute. That would have been nearly impossible to do with (for example) my bolt action M77 Ruger that is limited to 5 rounds before reloading.

You DO realize how fast someone can squeeze off rounds with a semiautomatic pistol though, right? And if you've practiced enough, you can swap magazines VERY quickly and continue firing.

[EnjoyLife]

1 minute ago, Monte1076 said:

You DO realize how fast someone can squeeze off rounds with a semiautomatic pistol though, right? And if you've practiced enough, you can swap magazines VERY quickly and continue firing.

I certainly do. Im not sure but I think some of them can hold 16 rounds. 

[Monte1076]

3 minutes ago, EnjoyLife said:

I certainly do. Im not sure but I think some of them can hold 16 rounds. 

Those must be small caliber. I think a 9MM semiauto pistol holds something like 9 or 10.

[DoubleTeam]

You do realize that most hunters are law abiding citizens. Not a very good correlation between shooting duck and shooting people. I bet most of the duck hunters don’t shoot people either. 

[Monte1076]

8 minutes ago, DoubleTeam said:

You do realize that most hunters are law abiding citizens. Not a very good correlation between shooting duck and shooting people. I bet most of the duck hunters don’t shoot people either. 

Joe Biden also thinks a 9MM round can blow the lung out of a body. A lot of these politicians, and frankly people who write op-eds like the ones above, don't know what they're talking about.

[EnjoyLife]

1 hour ago, Monte1076 said:

Those must be small caliber. I think a 9MM semiauto pistol holds something like 9 or 10.

Maybe, but I seem to remember reading that one of the reasons the US Army switched from the M1911 .45acp to a Beretta 9mm was because the Beretta held 16 rounds. I could be wrong about that.

[EnjoyLife]

44 minutes ago, Monte1076 said:

Joe Biden also thinks a 9MM round can blow the lung out of a body. 

Im pretty sure a 9mm round to a lung would do plenty of damage.

[Lobo97]

Here's the liberals idea of 'protecting kids'...

 

Making abortion easier. (so often times you want to argue 'science', but completely ignore when science tells you life begins in the womb)

Teach kids as early as Kindergarten that a man can be a woman, and vice versa. 

Allow grown men to follow little girls into bathrooms. 

Allow men who think they're a woman to sit in a classroom and read stories to kids.

Allow kids to attend drag shows. 

 

And don't come at me with the gun control argument. 

Anytime a school shooting occurs, democrats want to scream gun control. Those same democrats ignore the constant gun violence in democrat led cities, however...Chicago, for example. Biden even goes on TV clamoring for 'gun control', all while leaving thousands of guns (and tanks!) and ammo behind for our enemy. You know, the very enemy that kills people simply for disagreeing with them. 

And let's not forget about Geography, something democrats don't seem too keen on. You see, we border a country that constantly smuggles guns and drugs into ours. What is the democrats solution for this? Open borders. 

 

So before you bring up an argument about 'protecting kids', ask yourself what your vote supports, exactly. 

[Monte1076]

9 minutes ago, EnjoyLife said:

Im pretty sure a 9mm round to a lung would do plenty of damage.

Possibly. But I doubt it would "blow a lung out of the body".

[Monte1076]

8 minutes ago, Lobo97 said:

So before you bring up an argument about 'protecting kids', ask yourself what your vote supports, exactly. 

I saw someone make the argument that the U.S. will gradually become more Conservative. Their argument was, essentially:

1. Conservatives are more likely to marry.
2. Conservatives are more likely to have children, and have more children.
3. Conservatives are less likely to abort a pregnancy.
4. Conservatives are less likely sterilize their children or themselves. Which is what "gender reassignment" surgery does.

[Lobo97]

3 minutes ago, Monte1076 said:

I saw someone make the argument that the U.S. will gradually become more Conservative. Their argument was, essentially:

1. Conservatives are more likely to marry.
2. Conservatives are more likely to have children, and have more children.
3. Conservatives are less likely to abort a pregnancy.
4. Conservatives are less likely sterilize their children or themselves. Which is what "gender reassignment" surgery does.

You would think, but it seems to be going the other way, quickly. 

 

I did read something recently though that I thought was great...

If 10 trans 'women' and 2 men were all stranded on an island for 100 years together, what would you find there after 100 years? 12 men's skeletons. 

[Monte1076]

11 minutes ago, Lobo97 said:

You would think, but it seems to be going the other way, quickly. 

Because the left has apparently also said something along the lines of: "We don't have to have children. We have yours."

[BarryLaverty]

This may end up being the cherry on top of a pretty rough week, with a specious argument about how much damage a bullet can do to a child's body, some cobbled-together ##### about 'what liberals want', and just general lunacy from the 'conservative' viewpoint. And, it's a pipe dream if you think that our country is becoming more 'conservative' by some funky population speculation.

[BlahBlah]

5 hours ago, ObiOne said:

Y'all think 2a is about hunting 

No , it is a Texas High School sports Classification.  

[HearEmaGrowlin]

On 4/21/2023 at 6:18 PM, BarryLaverty said:

This may end up being the cherry on top of a pretty rough week, with a specious argument about how much damage a bullet can do to a child's body, some cobbled-together ##### about 'what liberals want', and just general lunacy from the 'conservative' viewpoint. And, it's a pipe dream if you think that our country is becoming more 'conservative' by some funky population speculation.

Sadly, it is a pipe dream of conservative population growth coming from the above.

The real deal is less and less Americans attend church regularly and Jesus is not as big a part of our citizens’ lives as in years past.

That is why there are more Democrats.  

Democrats have few morals and should never try to claim the moral high ground in conversation with conservatives. 
Our country has fallen from grace, because collectively we’re as far from God as we have ever been. 

P.S.

I hope my home interest rate is no more than 6%, because the Biden driven inflation has also already made the cost of my home build increase exponentially in material costs.  Yet, since I have a credit score of 800+ the clown wants me to pay an even higher interest rate than what I’ve earned for years of paying all of my bills on time, every time.

 

When are you Democrats going to learn your party isn’t any good - at anything?

 

[Lion7000]

On 4/21/2023 at 6:18 PM, BarryLaverty said:

This may end up being the cherry on top of a pretty rough week, with a specious argument about how much damage a bullet can do to a child's body, some cobbled-together ##### about 'what liberals want', and just general lunacy from the 'conservative' viewpoint. And, it's a pipe dream if you think that our country is becoming more 'conservative' by some funky population speculation.

Such A illogical take. Smh 

[Olduy]

On 4/21/2023 at 1:01 PM, BarryLaverty said:

Why not? 

(NY Times)

Let’s Protect Children at Least as Well as We Protect Ducks
April 21, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

By Dan Ashe

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, commercial hunting was devastating populations of ducks, geese and other water birds. In response, Congress passed the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918, granting the United States Fish and Wildlife Service authority to regulate the killing of migratory birds nationwide. Now waterfowl are thriving in North America, an exception to the general, global trend in the decline of birds and other wildlife populations.

One of the earliest waterfowl protection regulations put in place by the Fish and Wildlife Service restricts the firearms that hunters can use by limiting how many shells a hunter’s shotgun may hold. Anyone hunting ducks, geese, doves or other migratory birds anywhere in the United States cannot use a shotgun that is capable of shooting more than three times without reloading. They also cannot use shotguns larger than 10 gauge in order to prevent situations where one blast might kill several birds in a flock. These regulations have been in place since the 1930s, and have driven the manufacture and availability of hunting shotguns.

Gun controls have been part of waterfowl management for nearly a century, with relatively little controversy even today, and have worked to protect populations of ducks and other migratory birds. There are no semiautomatic assault weapon equivalents for hunting migratory birds, because their use is prohibited. But those weapons, as we have seen in so many mass shootings, at schools and elsewhere, are otherwise widely available.

 

What makes mass shootings so deadly, of course, is the capacity of the weapons the killers use to shoot so many rounds, so quickly, without the inconvenience of reloading. Even reloading these weapons means simply detaching and replacing one 30-to-40-round magazine, for instance, with another.

 

The shooter who killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012 used a Bushmaster AR-15-style weapon, which can fire in rapid succession (a 2018 article in Slate quoted the official Bushmaster manual as saying the gun had a maximum effective firing rate of 45 rounds per minute) and can hold dozens of rounds in its magazine. Reloading an AR-15 takes a matter of seconds. We are all too familiar with the tolls of tragedy after tragedy — Parkland, Pulse, Uvalde, Sutherland Springs and, most recently, the Covenant School in Nashville, where the shooter, armed with a military-style semiautomatic rifle, one handgun and a small 9-millimeter carbine, fired 152 rounds while on school grounds.

President Biden could borrow from the nation’s success in protecting ducks. The executive branch has plenty of discretionary authority to regulate federal lands, including the ability to restrict firearms possession in many areas (a power it now uses to restrict guns in courthouses, post offices and many national parks and on other federal lands). It can and should prohibit shooting assault weapons or any firearms capable of shooting more than five or 10 rounds, without reloading, on federal land, or at any public shooting range that receives federal funding or is under federal license. That’s nearly 30 percent of America.

The challenge for the president will be to overcome a gun culture that permeates federal land-managing agencies and their state counterparts. They will resist. I know, because I was part of that culture for over three decades. That’s why Mr. Biden’s leadership can make a difference.

The president can also ask state governors, tribal leaders and mayors to do the same on their lands, and could urge big, private landholders like timber, energy and agriculture companies to place the same restrictions on their lands. He can also ask the major hunting, fishing and conservation organizations, like the Boone and Crockett Club, Ducks Unlimited and the National Wildlife Federation, to urge state wildlife agencies to ban assault weapons for any hunting. This would put all of these entities into the public spotlight. We may find that people would prefer to buy lumber, power and beef from companies that do not allow assault weapons on their lands, and want to support conservation organizations that put children’s safety at least on par with that of ducks.

 

As a gun owner and hunter, I am thankful for Mr. Biden’s voice on gun safety. It has been passionate. On June 2, 2022, after the Uvalde shooting, he said:

“We should limit how many rounds a weapon can hold. Why in God’s name should an ordinary citizen be able to purchase an assault weapon that holds 30-round magazines that let mass shooters fire hundreds of bullets in a matter of minutes?”

At least nine states and the District of Columbia have placed bans or restrictions on assault-style weapons. What Mr. Biden can do is make it increasingly difficult to use these weapons elsewhere. As he might say, here’s the deal: It’s really not much fun to own a gun that can’t be used in many places, and buying guns that can’t be used, except for that myth of home defense, a big justification by so many, just doesn’t make a lot of sense. And it won’t be very profitable for manufacturers to make guns that fewer people buy.

What I’m suggesting is not going to stop this epidemic of senseless gun violence, but it will help, and it can be done today. As the president also said on June 2, 2022, “It’s time for each of us to do our part.”

The government does a better job now of protecting ducks and geese than it does protecting children and teachers. Let’s start protecting them the same way we protect waterfowl. Hopefully, even better.

Dan Ashe was the director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service from February 2011 to January 2017.

 

So you mean we have to use steel shot?

[EnjoyLife]

4 minutes ago, Olduy said:

So you mean we have to use steel shot?

Tungsten shot was a lot better than steel but man was it expensive.

[HearEmaGrowlin]

Democrats trying to vilify conservatives about protecting children is rich when they’re the party who always wants to kill unborn children as late into the pregnancy as possible.

Then, if the child survives their huge desires to kill it before birth they want to parade men dressed as women in front of them every chance they get, including at school.

Get this junk out of here.  Ridiculous 

Edited April 24, 2023 by HearEmaGrowlin