This is a pretty cool article/ pictures. The author/photographer followed and photographed this buck for 8 years. It is very interesting to make note of the body changes and antler changes from year to year. I came across this article on the Field and Stream website.
Click Here To Read
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
America's Largest and Most Radical Hunting-Ban Group Endorses Barack Obama
A must read for American sportsmen before the upcoming election. I do not think that this is the only anti-hunting group that is helping to fund his campaign. I got this article from the NRA website.
Click Here To Read
America's Largest and Most Radical Hunting-Ban Group Endorses Barack Obama--It's Just One More Association With Radicals That He Can't Run From: While Barack Obama lies to America's gun owners and hunters about his longstanding public record in support of legislation stripping Americans of essential liberties, his so-called friends are thwarting his campaign of deception. The Humane Society Legislative Fund, the political arm of the radical Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), is the most recent to foil Obama's best laid plans after giving him the organization's unequivocal endorsement. This should be a resounding wake-up call to America's millions of hunters.
Wayne Pacelle, President of HSUS has made no secret of his organization's desire to ban all hunting. Hunters would be well advised to keep in mind the following quotes from Pacelle that expose the true agenda of HSUS:
"If we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would." – as quoted by the Associated Press in Impassioned Agitator, December 30, 1991
"Our goal is to get sport hunting in the same category as cock fighting and dog fighting. Our opponents say hunting is a tradition. We say traditions can change." – Bozeman Daily Chronicle, October 8, 1991
Pacelle knows that he has a proven friend in Obama after his support of Senator Ted Kennedy's legislation that would have banned virtually all rifle ammunition used by America's hunters. If successful, the legislation would have ended the vast majority of all hunting – a fact not lost on HSUS.
In Congress and state legislatures and city councils around the country, HSUS lobbies to defeat every measure that expands hunting opportunities for the country's sportsmen. It says it opposes only the most "barbaric and inhumane" hunting practices. What it doesn't say publicly is that HSUS believes that all sport hunting is "barbaric and inhumane."
There's never been a hunting ban or restriction that HSUS hasn't actively supported. It routinely lobbies to:
- Prohibit the use of traditional lead bullets and shot for all hunting;
- Prohibit urban and suburban archery deer hunting programs;
- Prohibit bear hunting in a number of states including New Jersey, Colorado and Alaska;
- Replace traditional hunting as a wildlife management tool, with expensive and unproven contraception programs;
- Retain Sunday hunting bans in states like Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia;
- Ban the hunting of doves, the most widely hunted game bird in America; and
- Ensure that emotion, not science, dictates wildlife management practices
In addition to its anti-hunting efforts in the public policy realm, HSUS uses its enormous financial resources to regularly file lawsuits to stop hunting and the scientific wildlife management practices that recognize hunting as an essential tool. A recent example of this came when HSUS filed lawsuits that successfully closed millions of acres of wildlife refuges to hunting. This is despite the fact that Congress has determined that hunting is one of the traditional activities that should specifically be encouraged in refuges.
HSUS is also the group most responsible for preventing the removal of the Rocky Mountain gray wolf from the endangered species list despite the finding by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that wolf populations have exceeded original delisting goals by more than 400%. Delisting would have allowed states to implement hunting to control the now healthy and sustainable wolf populations. The overpopulated and unmanaged wolves are taking an unacceptably high toll on game populations, such as elk and moose. This significantly reduces hunting opportunities and endangers the long-term viability of these species. HSUS will stop management through hunting at all costs. It's more evidence that the group could not care less about the consequences of its actions on wildlife, as long as Americans are prohibited from hunting.
In addition to all of this, Pacelle's endorsement of Obama is proof positive that the anti-hunting, anti-gun front group American Hunting and Shooting Association (AHSA) is no friend to the country's sportsmen. AHSA had already endorsed Obama. HSUS and AHSA are now working hand-in-hand to elect the most anti-freedom presidential ticket in the country's history.
Sportsmen must now ask themselves what will happen to America's proud hunting heritage with an Obama administration that is beholden to radical groups like HSUS. We know from his own words that Wayne Pacelle's goal is to end all hunting, so the answer should be self-evident.
Click Here To Read
America's Largest and Most Radical Hunting-Ban Group Endorses Barack Obama--It's Just One More Association With Radicals That He Can't Run From: While Barack Obama lies to America's gun owners and hunters about his longstanding public record in support of legislation stripping Americans of essential liberties, his so-called friends are thwarting his campaign of deception. The Humane Society Legislative Fund, the political arm of the radical Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), is the most recent to foil Obama's best laid plans after giving him the organization's unequivocal endorsement. This should be a resounding wake-up call to America's millions of hunters.
Wayne Pacelle, President of HSUS has made no secret of his organization's desire to ban all hunting. Hunters would be well advised to keep in mind the following quotes from Pacelle that expose the true agenda of HSUS:
"If we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would." – as quoted by the Associated Press in Impassioned Agitator, December 30, 1991
"Our goal is to get sport hunting in the same category as cock fighting and dog fighting. Our opponents say hunting is a tradition. We say traditions can change." – Bozeman Daily Chronicle, October 8, 1991
Pacelle knows that he has a proven friend in Obama after his support of Senator Ted Kennedy's legislation that would have banned virtually all rifle ammunition used by America's hunters. If successful, the legislation would have ended the vast majority of all hunting – a fact not lost on HSUS.
In Congress and state legislatures and city councils around the country, HSUS lobbies to defeat every measure that expands hunting opportunities for the country's sportsmen. It says it opposes only the most "barbaric and inhumane" hunting practices. What it doesn't say publicly is that HSUS believes that all sport hunting is "barbaric and inhumane."
There's never been a hunting ban or restriction that HSUS hasn't actively supported. It routinely lobbies to:
- Prohibit the use of traditional lead bullets and shot for all hunting;
- Prohibit urban and suburban archery deer hunting programs;
- Prohibit bear hunting in a number of states including New Jersey, Colorado and Alaska;
- Replace traditional hunting as a wildlife management tool, with expensive and unproven contraception programs;
- Retain Sunday hunting bans in states like Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia;
- Ban the hunting of doves, the most widely hunted game bird in America; and
- Ensure that emotion, not science, dictates wildlife management practices
In addition to its anti-hunting efforts in the public policy realm, HSUS uses its enormous financial resources to regularly file lawsuits to stop hunting and the scientific wildlife management practices that recognize hunting as an essential tool. A recent example of this came when HSUS filed lawsuits that successfully closed millions of acres of wildlife refuges to hunting. This is despite the fact that Congress has determined that hunting is one of the traditional activities that should specifically be encouraged in refuges.
HSUS is also the group most responsible for preventing the removal of the Rocky Mountain gray wolf from the endangered species list despite the finding by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that wolf populations have exceeded original delisting goals by more than 400%. Delisting would have allowed states to implement hunting to control the now healthy and sustainable wolf populations. The overpopulated and unmanaged wolves are taking an unacceptably high toll on game populations, such as elk and moose. This significantly reduces hunting opportunities and endangers the long-term viability of these species. HSUS will stop management through hunting at all costs. It's more evidence that the group could not care less about the consequences of its actions on wildlife, as long as Americans are prohibited from hunting.
In addition to all of this, Pacelle's endorsement of Obama is proof positive that the anti-hunting, anti-gun front group American Hunting and Shooting Association (AHSA) is no friend to the country's sportsmen. AHSA had already endorsed Obama. HSUS and AHSA are now working hand-in-hand to elect the most anti-freedom presidential ticket in the country's history.
Sportsmen must now ask themselves what will happen to America's proud hunting heritage with an Obama administration that is beholden to radical groups like HSUS. We know from his own words that Wayne Pacelle's goal is to end all hunting, so the answer should be self-evident.
Father's bow shot kills grizzly attacking his son
This is a pretty scary story that I am sure everyone has thought about before.
Click Here To Read
Father's bow shot kills grizzly attacking his son
By Carole Cloudwalker
This document was published online on Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Printable E-mail Archives 68 comment(s) Comments
A bloodied Ron J. Leming, 37, bends over the 11-year old grizzly bear (No. 1029) that attacked him twice Friday along Castle Creek on the South Fork while he and his father, Ron G. Leming, 62, were on their annual bowhunt in search of elk. The elder Leming managed a tough shot with an arrow that killed the bear and saved his son’s life. (Photo by Ron G. Leming)
A Cody bowhunter in search of an elk found a grizzly bear instead in a Sept. 12 mauling incident on the South Fork.
And Ron J. Leming, 37, attributes his father's lifetime of bowhunting for saving his life.
“There are not many people who could stand their ground like that, especially with a bow and arrow,” Leming said Wednesday.
“I would have been mauled way worse, if not killed, if Dad hadn't had the nerve to stand his ground and shoot that bear with his bow. There's not many people who could have done that.”
Leming said his father's shot with a compound bow severed a major artery in the bear and hit his heart. The bear then moved about 80 yards down hill after being shot before falling dead over a log.
Leming's father, Ron G. Leming, 62, rushed to his son after the grizzly's initial attack, and managed the compound bow shot as both his son and the bear were running down the hill.
“Dad had missed two shots at elk” earlier in the several-day hunting trip to the family's favorite spot, Leming said.
“The night before, Dad said a prayer for God to guide his arrow.”
Leming added that while his father had elk, not bears, in mind as he prayed, he's glad the right arrow found divine intervention.
“If my Dad hadn't been there, who knows?” Leming said. “The look the bear had, the way he was doing ... I could have done absolutely nothing.”
Leming and his father had taken their gear 15 miles up the trail from the Boulder Basin trailhead for their annual bowhunting outing. Though they had spotted a black bear and her cubs, there had been no sign of grizzlies, which Leming said was unusual.
On Friday morning they headed out from camp, located at about 9,500 feet in elevation, and spotted a good elk.
The elder Leming was standing about 30 yards down the hill when his son heard a noise behind him and turned to see the bear standing there.
“He was king of the woods,” Leming said. “He thought there was an elk in there and he would bring it down.”
Leming yelled at the bear, but it charged him.
Trying to pull the trigger release string on his bow, Leming realized there was no time to shoot the bear himself, so he moved behind a tree and began running around it to buy time. Then he ran down hill, figuring he could move faster in that direction.
“I passed my dad and I saw an arrow fly right by my leg, about two feet away,” Ron said. He realized his father had shot at the bear, but he was unsure if the arrow went home.
“I took three or four more steps and I fell,” he said, “The bear was on top of me.”
Leming was kicking at the grizzly and possibly put his hands out defensively.
“It's kind of blurry,” he said.
The bear grabbed Leming's arm and, “I felt like I was in a vice, with the power that thing had,” he said.
He managed to rise and head for a forked tree, where the bear again jumped on his back.
“It was pretty scary,” the long-time hunter said.
The bear attacked again and Leming was hitting him with his bow as well as struggling with the animal, who suddenly moved away.
“He took a few steps toward Dad, then he started walking down the hill. I told Dad to kill him, but he (bear) was already starting to check out,” Leming said.
The bear soon fell on a log, dead.
“I got super cold - I think I was in shock,” Leming said.
His father kept asking how badly he was hurt, and he said he felt OK, considering what he'd been through.
“Things got blurry and I lay there for about 45 minutes. I thought I was going to pass out.”
The two men finally were able to get back to camp - Leming walked because he was unable to mount his horse.
They made sure the camp was clean and Leming “stood on the bear box” to get on his paint mare, Josie, which his father led over.
They took their other horses and got to the trailhead, then loaded the horses and even stopped by the Leming home to drop them off before going to West Park Hospital.
Leming was admitted overnight. He received stitches for wounds to his hands and arm, and the bites on his back were patched up as well.
Dennie Hammer, information specialist for the Game and Fish Department in Cody, said the men spotted a bull elk and were about to take aim when the elk spooked, probably because he spied the bear.
“They were trying to call in the elk when he spooked,” Hammer said.
Leming stood up and so did the grizzly, an 11-year-old male that was about 15 feet from the hunters.
“The bear charged and bit (Leming) on the right arm,” Hammer said.
“His father shot the bear with an arrow,” Hammer said.
The bear, though mortally wounded, charged the younger Leming again, this time biting his left hand and arm, as Hammer described the 9 a.m. incident.
By the time a game warden could reach the spot where the attack took place, the bear's body was badly decomposed because of high temperatures during the weekend, Hammer said.
For that reason, the bear's carcass was left where it fell. Hammer said it appears the grizzly was known to game officials, though he did not know whether the bear had worn a tag or radio collar.
He was captured in 2003 after he broke into a shed at Brown Thomas Meadows on the upper South Fork, Hammer said, and was relocated to the Jackson area.
The Friday incident remains under investigation, but Hammer said it appears to be a case of self-defense.
In such instances, it's legal to kill a grizzly bear, he added.
He said while grizzlies are no longer considered a threatened species, no hunting season for them has been established. They are under G&F management and eventually a season will be set, Hammer added.
Click Here To Read
Father's bow shot kills grizzly attacking his son
By Carole Cloudwalker
This document was published online on Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Printable E-mail Archives 68 comment(s) Comments
A bloodied Ron J. Leming, 37, bends over the 11-year old grizzly bear (No. 1029) that attacked him twice Friday along Castle Creek on the South Fork while he and his father, Ron G. Leming, 62, were on their annual bowhunt in search of elk. The elder Leming managed a tough shot with an arrow that killed the bear and saved his son’s life. (Photo by Ron G. Leming)
A Cody bowhunter in search of an elk found a grizzly bear instead in a Sept. 12 mauling incident on the South Fork.
And Ron J. Leming, 37, attributes his father's lifetime of bowhunting for saving his life.
“There are not many people who could stand their ground like that, especially with a bow and arrow,” Leming said Wednesday.
“I would have been mauled way worse, if not killed, if Dad hadn't had the nerve to stand his ground and shoot that bear with his bow. There's not many people who could have done that.”
Leming said his father's shot with a compound bow severed a major artery in the bear and hit his heart. The bear then moved about 80 yards down hill after being shot before falling dead over a log.
Leming's father, Ron G. Leming, 62, rushed to his son after the grizzly's initial attack, and managed the compound bow shot as both his son and the bear were running down the hill.
“Dad had missed two shots at elk” earlier in the several-day hunting trip to the family's favorite spot, Leming said.
“The night before, Dad said a prayer for God to guide his arrow.”
Leming added that while his father had elk, not bears, in mind as he prayed, he's glad the right arrow found divine intervention.
“If my Dad hadn't been there, who knows?” Leming said. “The look the bear had, the way he was doing ... I could have done absolutely nothing.”
Leming and his father had taken their gear 15 miles up the trail from the Boulder Basin trailhead for their annual bowhunting outing. Though they had spotted a black bear and her cubs, there had been no sign of grizzlies, which Leming said was unusual.
On Friday morning they headed out from camp, located at about 9,500 feet in elevation, and spotted a good elk.
The elder Leming was standing about 30 yards down the hill when his son heard a noise behind him and turned to see the bear standing there.
“He was king of the woods,” Leming said. “He thought there was an elk in there and he would bring it down.”
Leming yelled at the bear, but it charged him.
Trying to pull the trigger release string on his bow, Leming realized there was no time to shoot the bear himself, so he moved behind a tree and began running around it to buy time. Then he ran down hill, figuring he could move faster in that direction.
“I passed my dad and I saw an arrow fly right by my leg, about two feet away,” Ron said. He realized his father had shot at the bear, but he was unsure if the arrow went home.
“I took three or four more steps and I fell,” he said, “The bear was on top of me.”
Leming was kicking at the grizzly and possibly put his hands out defensively.
“It's kind of blurry,” he said.
The bear grabbed Leming's arm and, “I felt like I was in a vice, with the power that thing had,” he said.
He managed to rise and head for a forked tree, where the bear again jumped on his back.
“It was pretty scary,” the long-time hunter said.
The bear attacked again and Leming was hitting him with his bow as well as struggling with the animal, who suddenly moved away.
“He took a few steps toward Dad, then he started walking down the hill. I told Dad to kill him, but he (bear) was already starting to check out,” Leming said.
The bear soon fell on a log, dead.
“I got super cold - I think I was in shock,” Leming said.
His father kept asking how badly he was hurt, and he said he felt OK, considering what he'd been through.
“Things got blurry and I lay there for about 45 minutes. I thought I was going to pass out.”
The two men finally were able to get back to camp - Leming walked because he was unable to mount his horse.
They made sure the camp was clean and Leming “stood on the bear box” to get on his paint mare, Josie, which his father led over.
They took their other horses and got to the trailhead, then loaded the horses and even stopped by the Leming home to drop them off before going to West Park Hospital.
Leming was admitted overnight. He received stitches for wounds to his hands and arm, and the bites on his back were patched up as well.
Dennie Hammer, information specialist for the Game and Fish Department in Cody, said the men spotted a bull elk and were about to take aim when the elk spooked, probably because he spied the bear.
“They were trying to call in the elk when he spooked,” Hammer said.
Leming stood up and so did the grizzly, an 11-year-old male that was about 15 feet from the hunters.
“The bear charged and bit (Leming) on the right arm,” Hammer said.
“His father shot the bear with an arrow,” Hammer said.
The bear, though mortally wounded, charged the younger Leming again, this time biting his left hand and arm, as Hammer described the 9 a.m. incident.
By the time a game warden could reach the spot where the attack took place, the bear's body was badly decomposed because of high temperatures during the weekend, Hammer said.
For that reason, the bear's carcass was left where it fell. Hammer said it appears the grizzly was known to game officials, though he did not know whether the bear had worn a tag or radio collar.
He was captured in 2003 after he broke into a shed at Brown Thomas Meadows on the upper South Fork, Hammer said, and was relocated to the Jackson area.
The Friday incident remains under investigation, but Hammer said it appears to be a case of self-defense.
In such instances, it's legal to kill a grizzly bear, he added.
He said while grizzlies are no longer considered a threatened species, no hunting season for them has been established. They are under G&F management and eventually a season will be set, Hammer added.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Final Prep For Deer Season
This past weekend I went to Brady for my final preparations before deer season. I had to fill a few feeders, replace some batteries, and make sure that all of my stands were in working order. While I was there I also got a chance to check out my game cameras. Click on the title of this post to see the pictures.
Unfortunately I have not gotten any pictures of anything big yet, certainly not the quality of deer that we saw last year. I am not too worried yet, as I have never really gotten any pictures of good bucks this early in the year in the past. I had most of my game cameras set up on corn feeders that have only been feeding for about a month. From my past experience it seems that the big bucks do not usually start showing up on the cameras until mid to late October.
This is the best buck that I got a picture of, From what I can tell he is just a big 8 point. He may be a consideration for a management buck this year. From the 1st picture he looks to be a mature buck, look at the difference in body size compared to the other buck. The second picture is a head on picture of the same buck. He looks to be fairly wide, 18" or so.
He has really good main beams as you can tell from the first picture, it is ashame that he did not grow any more tines and add some trash.
I got plenty of pictures of some young bucks with potential. This one for instance looks like a son or brother of the Pope & Young buck that I killed last year. His G2 are forked like my buck form last year and if you look closely he has G4's that are just starting to show. This buck still needs a few years, but he has potential to be a really nice trophy.
I thought that the following 2 pictures were funny. You know that you have a pig problem when you see them sleeping right underneath you stand. Oh well, if the quality of bucks that I am seeing does not get any better, at least I will have some good pig hunts.
I am in the process of going back through photos that I got last year and trying to pick out some potential bucks to look out for this year. If I find any that are interesting I will post them.
Unfortunately I have not gotten any pictures of anything big yet, certainly not the quality of deer that we saw last year. I am not too worried yet, as I have never really gotten any pictures of good bucks this early in the year in the past. I had most of my game cameras set up on corn feeders that have only been feeding for about a month. From my past experience it seems that the big bucks do not usually start showing up on the cameras until mid to late October.
This is the best buck that I got a picture of, From what I can tell he is just a big 8 point. He may be a consideration for a management buck this year. From the 1st picture he looks to be a mature buck, look at the difference in body size compared to the other buck. The second picture is a head on picture of the same buck. He looks to be fairly wide, 18" or so.
He has really good main beams as you can tell from the first picture, it is ashame that he did not grow any more tines and add some trash.
I got plenty of pictures of some young bucks with potential. This one for instance looks like a son or brother of the Pope & Young buck that I killed last year. His G2 are forked like my buck form last year and if you look closely he has G4's that are just starting to show. This buck still needs a few years, but he has potential to be a really nice trophy.
I thought that the following 2 pictures were funny. You know that you have a pig problem when you see them sleeping right underneath you stand. Oh well, if the quality of bucks that I am seeing does not get any better, at least I will have some good pig hunts.
I am in the process of going back through photos that I got last year and trying to pick out some potential bucks to look out for this year. If I find any that are interesting I will post them.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Unbelieveable Whitetail Buck Video
This is about 6 or 7 minutes of video of an amazing whitetail buck. It was filmed by Scott Kirkpatrick of Buffalo County Outfitters in Wisconsin. It is hard from this footage to accurately estimate the score, but many experts that have reviewed the footage estimate it in the 240 range. If this buck is killed this year, depending on deductions, it could contend for the new world record. Regardless of the net score this is one very impressive buck!
Click Here if the player does not load
Type The Rest Here
Click Here if the player does not load
Type The Rest Here
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Moon Phases
I have never really given much attention to moon phases, but some people swear by them. I am thinking about watching it this year when I am hunting to see what effect it really has on deer activity. Click Here for moon phase calendar.
Type The Rest Here
Monday, September 8, 2008
Know The Candidates Stance On Gun Control
Whose Got Next?
By Rob Hanson, illustration by Don Coker
Though the heavyweight of issues for voters this time around still might be up in the air, one thing is certain, hunters, shooters and anyone of the outdoorsman persuasion have gun control on their mind.
Before the last election between George W. Bush and John Kerry, in an article titled “The Deepest Divide: God, Guns and Gays” in Business Week in May of 2004, Paul Magnusson wrote, “For most voters in November, a candidate's positions on ``God, guns, and gays''—the trinity of so-called values issues that Southern Republicans have perfected to hammer liberal opponents—won't matter as much as the economy or the Iraq war.”
Those assertions could be even more prominent in this year’s election than the last one as the country surpasses a half-decade at war and teeters on the cusp of economic recession, not to mention brutal prices at the gas pumps.
Still, there are many who feel the Second Amendment was accidentally edited out of the Ten Commandments, and those diehards will go to the voting booth with shooting traditions high on the agenda.
Even though the real election has just begun, both McCain and Obama have been around long enough to polarize the public on their gun-control intentions.
Google “gun control Obama” or “gun control McCain,” (really, try it) and see what happens.
There isn’t a whole lot of informational literature out there, mostly crazy-right extremists shouting about Obama disarming America and a bunch of left wingers shouting back about McCain wanting to arm every man, woman and child.
And it certainly won’t be long before the public gets a glimpse of campaign ads featuring Obama kneeling next to a downed grizzly and McCain interrupting Saturday morning cartoons by cracking the action on a 12 gauge.
That might be a little extreme, but reading everyone and their brother’s blog about gun control and solely relying on campaign ads could lead to misinformed decisions.
Before the candidates unleash their best voter-swaying tactics, take a look each candidate’s views and a few issues they voted on before running for president …
Obama
Millions of hunters own and use guns each year. Millions more participate in a variety of shooting sports such as sporting clays, skeet, target and trap shooting that may not necessarily involve hunting. As a former constitutional law professor, Barack Obama believes the Second Amendment creates an individual right, and he greatly respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms. He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting. He also believes that the right is subject to reasonable and commonsense regulation.—From the official Obama campaign website,www.barackobama.com.
In his time as an Illinois and U.S. senator, Obama has voted on a number of gun-control issues and, for the most part, has been true to his Democrat roots, maintaining a stance that the Second Amendment must be respected, yet local gun bans should be put in place when appropriate.
Obama co-sponsored three bills in the Illinois Senate in the year 2000 that touched on major gun-control issues. The first, a bill that required an applicant for a firearm owners identification card to sign a release waiving any right to confidentiality and consenting to the disclosure of the applicant’s mental health records.
The second bill, SB1318, the Firearms Liability Act, made anyone who transferred a firearm liable for any injury or death that was caused by a firearm.
The third bill is probably one of the most drastic gun-control measures that Obama co-sponsored. Bill SB1614 in the Illinois Senate, had it not been put down, would have made it a felony to purchase more than one handgun in a 30-day period, with the exception of federally-licensed gun dealers. The bill was slightly confusing in that aside from the military and the law enforcement, it also allowed “some hunters” to purchase more than one handgun per 30 days.
After a year in the U.S. Senate, in 2005 Obama voted in favor of a bill that was eventually passed, requiring trigger locks to be provided with all handgun transactions.
Keeping in line with the Illinois Firearms Liability Act, Obama also voted against bills that would protect gun manufacturers from lawsuits (in most situations) following violent crimes committed with their products in 2005.
Although the National Rifle Association gives Obama’s gun control stance and “F,” he has, however, stepped out of character on more than one occasion.
In July of 2006 the U.S. Senate was called to vote on SA4615, an amendment to H.R. 5441, which was appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security. The introduced amendment prevented any funds from being used to confiscate firearms during a major emergency or disaster. Obama voted in favor, and the bill was passed. And according to author David Mendell in his book, From Promise to Power,
Obama voted in favor of an Illinois Senate bill that would give retired police officers the right to conceal and carry. Mendell wrote, “When I queried him about the vote,” he [Obama] said, "I didn't find that [vote] surprising. I am consistently on record and will continue to be on record as opposing concealed carry. This was a narrow exception in an exceptional circumstance where a retired police officer might find himself vulnerable as a consequence of the work he has previously done—and had been trained extensively in the proper use of firearms.”’
Despite a voting record that has some gun owners up in arms, Obama has stuck to his guns on the campaign trail in 2008, insisting that he believes in the right to own guns—just a restricted right to own guns.
“As a general principle, I believe that the Constitution confers an individual right to bear arms,” he said in a transcript provided to the New York Times from the Federal News Service from the Philadelphia primary debate April 16. “But just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can't constrain the exercise of that right, and, you know, in the same way that we have a right to private property but local governments can establish zoning ordinances that determine how you can use it.
“And I think that it is going to be important for us to reconcile what are two realities in this country. There's the reality of gun ownership and the tradition of gun ownership that's passed on from generation to generation. You know, when you listen to people who have hunted, and they talk about the fact that they went hunting with their fathers or their mothers, then that is something that is deeply important to them and, culturally, they care about deeply.”
When asked in the same debate about a controversial questionnaire that indicated support for an all-out ban on handguns, Obama reiterated claims that the survey was filled out by an out-of-line staffer, not himself.
“No, my writing wasn't on that particular questionnaire, Charlie. As I said, I have never favored an all-out ban on handguns,” Obama said. “What I think we can provide is common-sense approaches to the issue of illegal guns that are ending up on the streets. We can make sure that criminals don't have guns in their hands. We can make certain that those who are mentally deranged are not getting a hold of handguns. We can trace guns that have been used in crimes to unscrupulous gun dealers that may be selling to straw purchasers and dumping them on the streets. The point is, is that what we have to do is get beyond the politics of this issue and figure out what, in fact, is working.”
In more recent news, Obama has made it clear that he is interested in bringing back the assault weapons ban of 1994 and has yet to make a decision on the ongoing debate of whether the 1976 bill that bans personal firearm ownership in the District of Columbia is constitutional or not.
To see a complete list of bills co-sponsored by Obama, visit www.ilga.gov.
McCain
“John McCain believes that the right of law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is a fundamental, individual Constitutional right that we have a sacred duty to protect. We have a responsibility to ensure that criminals who violate the law are prosecuted to the fullest, rather than restricting the rights of law abiding citizens. Gun control is a proven failure in fighting crime. Law abiding citizens should not be asked to give up their rights because of criminals - criminals who ignore gun control laws anyway.”—from the official McCain campaign website, www.johnmccain.com.
Despite a few tiffs between the NRA and McCain over his support for background checks at gun shows, he is the more likeable candidate in the eyes of the gun lobby. Even for a Republican candidate, he has almost been pioneer on the gun-control issue, saying that he supports “no gun control.” McCain claims that he does not own any guns currently, but has carried them in the past in his time with the military.
McCain’s long-standing opposition of gun-control efforts dates all the way back to 1993’s Brady Bill, which was voted on in February of 1994. The bill, which allowed waiting periods of up to five days for handgun purchases, was opposed by McCain.
He also voted against the assault weapons ban in 1994 and its renewal in 2007. And McCain did vote for the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act in 2005, which would have protected firearm manufacturers from lawsuits.
However, like Obama, McCain has stepped out of his consistency a time or two. Unfortunately for him, those moves subsequently dropped an NRA rating that he enjoyed for much of the 1990s of “A” to “C” in 2000.
McCain supported the aforementioned background checks at gun shows and in 2005, voted along side Obama in supporting mandatory trigger locks on handgun transfers.
However, McCain has strengthened his relationship with the NRA recently with his “no gun control” rhetoric.
As reported by Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times on May 17 in an article titled “Courting N.R.A; McCain Criticizes Obama and Clinton on Gun Control,” McCain spoke at this year’s annual NRA convention.
“I strongly support the Second Amendment and I believe the Second Amendment ought to be preserved—which means no gun control,” he said. “For more than two decades, I've opposed efforts to ban guns, ban ammunition, ban magazines and dismiss gun owners as some kind of fringe group unwelcome in modern America.
“The Second Amendment isn't some archaic custom that matters only to rural Americans, who find solace in firearms out of frustration with their economic circumstances. The Second Amendment is unique in the world. It guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms. To argue anything else is to reject the clear meaning of our founding fathers."
More voting records available at www.senate.gov.
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