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In a NY Daily News article titled What doe we do about the deer – The gentle animals are actually a sizeable threat, the author complains about the threat overpopulated deer pose to humans. The author complains that dead deer on the roads are “unpleasant and dangerous.” He further complains about a health threat, car-deer collisions, crop loss, deforestation, climate change, and the lack of natural predators. He then draws the conclusion that deer must be hunted!
This author wants to see increased season lengths, a lower hunting age, longer hours for hunting during the day or night.
It’s interesting that the timing of the article coincided with the controversy over lowering the hunting age for deer in NYS to twelve, and new regulations extending hunting seasons and times. We wonder just how much this author has been talking to the Bureau of Wildlife from where he likely gets his suggestions.
Hunting is not the cure for any overpopulation of wildlife, rather, overpopulation is created for the benefit of hunting! If we truly want to reduce deer populations, then management of wildlife for the sake of the firearms industry’s profit has to stop!
State wildlife managers see the “outdoors” as an incubator and containment area for a continuous supply of victims for hunters. The real question is why hunters carry so much weight in New York and elsewhere when they are a small percentage of the population? We have to follow the money and look at the sales of weapons, such as revolvers, rifles (including “modified” AK-47s and AR-15s), ammunition, bows & arrows, and crossbows and bolts.
Here is just a small sampling of “sporting” weapons you’ll see for sale on the Internet. Notice that their ads rev up the urge to go for it:
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There’s no shortage of AR-15s to choose from. But if you’re operating in the northwest, it might not be enough gun for the largest game or for fighting it out with a Kodiak bruin. However, across most of America it’ll do just about anything you need to do, which is why so many of them have sold and why it’s known as America’s Rifle. The Sig Sauer M400 Tread is rock-solid reliable, comes with a threaded muzzle, and has a full family of Tread accessories available for it. It also has ambidextrous controls. $949; sigsauer.com
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For some, the AK-47 ranks as the greatest battle rifle ever conceived. Others look at AKs like they’re relics of a bygone era that should be junked. For most of the military surplus versions, the latter consensus is closer to the truth. However, in the world of the modern AK, not only can it serve as a functional battle rifle, when paired with the right 7.62x39mm ammunition it can serve a hunter too. This rifle features a left-side charging handle, full-length Picatinny top rail, side- folding adjustable stock, and fully adjustable Tritium iron sights. Of course, all of this goodness does not come cheap. $1,899; iwi.us
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Chambered in the potent 10mm Auto cartridge, the semi-automatic Glock 20 is very popular among hunters who use hounds. Though it is most commonly used on hogs, more than a few bayed-up cougars and black bears have fallen to the Glock 20.
This semi-auto handgun offers a balance between power, large magazine capacity, the ability to take a rapid follow-up shot, and being easy to handle and carry. All of these characteristics are important to hound hunters, who may need to follow their prey on foot for several miles before taking a (usually) relatively close range shot on a dangerous animal. About $650
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Bows and Arrows
Offering incredible velocities of up to 405 fps, the Killer Instinct® Lethal 405 Crossbow Package is rugged, lightweight, and quiet. The lightweight composite frame features an over molded grip and adjustable X-Lok forearm piece for maximum comfort and control, while the included 4×32 scope extends your overall range. Integrated rubber suppressors boast quiet, stealthy performance and lightweight carbon bolts offer improved accuracy. Plus, a lightweight, consistent trigger ensures reduced anticipation and steady control. This crossbow package includes a rope cocker, 3-bolt quiver, string suppressors, 3 Killer Instinct HYPR Lite Carbon Crossbolts with field tips, and rail lubricant, ensuring you’re ready for target practice, right out of the box! $250 includes 3 bolts.
Adding to the income are the bolts and the broadheads.
Can you see the flow of money now?
THE GOVERNMENT CONNECTION
Here’s a summary of how it works and why we say the government is in the firearms business:
With the exception of firearms for the military and police, all other firearms carry an excise tax, collected at the point of manufacture or import, that goes to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).
The FWS keeps 8% for their administrative costs to apportion the excise tax collected to the wildlife management divisions of states so they can ensure more use of firearms and ammo via hunting.
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A state’s portion of the federal excise tax is determined in part by the NUMBER OF HUNTING PERMITS IT SELLS and the size of the state. The formula allows a state like Montana that has a lot of land but a low absolute population (though a high percentage of hunters) to still get a sizeable portion of the excise tax.
See the statistics below for various states:
New York is 54,556 square miles; Total population about 20 million; <3% of the population hunts (600,000); their 2020 P-R apportionment was about $15,500,000
Montana is 147,040 square miles; Total population about 1 million; >63% of the population hunts (630,000); their 2020 P-R apportionment was about $15,500,000
California is 163,696 square miles; Total population about 40 million; <1% of the population hunts (400,000); their 2020 P-R apportionment was about $27,500,000
Texas is 268,597 square miles; Total population about 29 million; <4% of the population hunts (1,600,000); their 2020 P-R apportionment is $27,500,000.
A state like NY with a high population but not so much land can also get a substantial portion of the tax. Visit the link for the 2020 listing of what the states took in from the Pittman-Robertson tax of the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration.
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With a name like “Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration,” Please don’t think that they are restoring endangered or threatened species, they are instead restoring the populations of animals that have been decimated during the hunting season, so that the carnage can continue year after year.
In fact, wildlife management for hunting is likely the cause of endangered and threatened species. There is no focus put on those species and no economic incentive to help them.
Such an economic scheme motivates state wildlife management divisions or bureaus to push for laws like lowering the hunting age, which obviously leads to the purchase of more firearms and ammunition, bows and arrows, and crossbows and bolts!
Many people think of hunting as a necessary evil to keep animal populations “under control.” That’s the propaganda put out via outdoor programs such as “Adventure NY.” But it’s truly the wildlife management division’s connection to the firearms industry that should be the focus of concern. Yet this is a seemingly politically untouchable area. If firearms are ever going to be brought under control, we must focus on divisions of our government that are connected to the profits of the firearms industry.
Deer management is about ensuring a sizeable population of wildlife for hunters who are purchasers of weapons.
Wildlife management is a balancing act full of design that involves habitat manipulation, setting killing seasons, artificially skewing sex ratios, acquiring land, and working with “partners” with the goal of supplying victims for hunters who benefit firearms manufacturers.
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The repercussions of this partnership between the government and firearms manufacturers and importers should be broadly understood:
Every person who is killed in the city with a firearm, whether the weapon is a handgun, AK-47 or AR-15, and whether or not the user has a hunting permit, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife bureaus financially prosper. In NY, the state beneficiary is the Bureau of Wildlife within the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)! Additionally, let’s not forget state and county taxes on firearms.
The wildlife economy that is driving weapons usage via hunting needs to change. We can’t have the government claim to be working against the firearms industry while they are both working hand in glove.
An alternative to hunting is wildlife watching. In a wildlife watching economy, wild animals would not be intentionally manipulated so they can be killed for the sake of the firearms industry.
Our appeal to federal, state, and local government is to sever economic ties with the firearms industry.
THE HUNTING/FIREARMS DIVISION OF OUR GOVERNMENT HIDES BEHIND SMOKE SCREENS AND EUPHEMISMS – THE REALITY IS BRUTALITY AGAINST ANIMALS AND PEOPLE.
While wild animals are the intended victims of wildlife management for hunting, the people who’ve died by firearms are mere collateral damage so that hunters can continue to stimulate the firearms economy. The unholy alliance between the firearms industry and their government partners (wildlife management divisions) must be severed for the sake of our society and wildlife.
The NY Daily News writer has it wrong, GOVERNMENT WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AGENCIES ARE OUT OF CONTROL, NOT DEER!
By Anne Muller, editor of the C.A.S.H Courier. She can be contacted at wildwatch@verizon.net.
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