Hoy7 Hunting Team: June 2013

A while back an old friend sent me an email asking if I would fill out a survey for her sister. We were right in the heat of the Newtown shooting spree and she was preparing an article for an assignment she had for a Japanese 'English Language' class newspaper. It was to be the first article she wrote for them and she was looking for it to be a second career as a writer. When I contacted her I told her I would be happy to respond but she may be surprised at the depth of my answers, because if she was looking for yes/no answers to her questions, they are not that easy. Here were the questions and my long winded answers.

Robin,
Bob DaFolder here, old friend of your sister. Just some background for you and an apology if all you were looking for were yes/no answers to your questions. I am a duck hunter. I grew up in a household with many guns and a father who hunted big game on a regular basis and was very active in his local gun club. My grandfather on the other side was also a hunter and raised pointing dogs for hunting and field trials. I was exposed to guns at a very early age and currently possess a concealed carry permit and own shotguns, rifles and a pistol.
Here goes:

What is your opinion on the use of guns by owners to protect their private property?
I am in favor.
Research the Washington DC gun ban and it's effect on home invasion and crime statistics. There were cases of homeowners being criminally charged with protecting their homes and property with a gun when a thief broke in. This is the core reason many people own guns. My mother is 73 years old and lives alone. I feel better knowing she owns, and knows how to use a gun to protect herself.

What is your opinion on mandatory background checks for gun ownership?
All for it.
I'm also all for a registration requirement for all new gun sales. My opinion is that any person who is able to legally buy a gun within the existing legislation has nothing to lose by registering their gun. I am in the minority in this I believe. Many arguments can be made for not having a nationwide database for who owns what gun/guns but I still think this is legit.

What is your opinion on the proposed reinstatement of the automatic weapons ban?
There has been a ban on automatic weapons since 1986. I think you are referring to the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban.
Also for it.
Arguments can be made that people hunt with the military style assault weapons, and some do, but they are a tiny percentage of the hunting public. More than likely they are used at gun ranges and for home protection rather than hunting. The ban on large capacity magazines? Sure. The ban on 'assault weapons' themselves, weapons that mimic military style guns made for killing humans? Sure.

What is your opinion on hunting as a beloved American sport?
It is, without question.
For some insight on why I hunt ducks, and what I get out of it, you are free to look at my blog (shared with Fred and 2 others) www.h7ht.blogspot.com I do ask that all content stays out of your article and nothing is reproduced anywhere. This is a blog for our entertainment and to share with friends, sometimes it can be spicy and taking this blog to literally can be dangerous.

What can America change to make public schools safer from massacres as occurred in Newtown?
Nothing.
This is a tough one. I'm sure there will be changes, and I'm sure they are all things that are done in the spirit of helping, but I think the more we do the more difficult it becomes to be a kid. All the armed guards, pistol packing teachers, metal detectors, closed campuses, fences, drills about hiding under your desk etc. makes it harder on the kids. However tragic it is some defective individual will always be able to murder children. It sucks. Does all this make schools safer? I sure hope so because lots of schools will make changes and every child will be affected so I hope they will be safer.

What does the 2nd amendment mean to you?
It's an outdated vision written by people who had no idea what our future held.
With that being said I think it does keep the government from regulating some of our freedoms away. Kind of a dicey question too. Read the thing over and it has very little bearing on the questions and problems we face with guns today. But then again the spirit of the thing sure makes sense.

Any other question you think might help you say what you think about this issue!
Gun shows.
Walk in, plunk down some untraceable cash and walk out with any legal style gun. No background check, no registration, no questions. In my opinion the single biggest mistake being made today. Why do we have these types of gun shows? In my town of 2000 people we have 4 a year. I bought my pistol from some guy at a table in 2 minutes. He was also selling wood carvings and household items.

I suggested that she send those very same questions to another old friend, Peter D. He had a very different history but is now an active member in a gun club that is target/tactical oriented. His answers:

Unlike Bill, I did not grown up in a hunting family. There were no guns around my house and my parents were quite anti-gun: No guns, toy guns, sling shots etc. I do not hunt. My main use of firearms is for competition.

I am on the board of drirectors (membership secretary) for a 750 member gun club here in Connecticut (http://www.metacongunclub.com/). At this point I own a number of pistols and rifles including:

AR-15 Style semi-automatic Rifle (Actual make and model Stag Arms Model 3 - made in the New Britain, CT the town next to where I live) - AR-15 is a generic term for the style of rifle. Hundreds of companies make an AR-15 style rifle, for the most part all the parts on those rifles are interchangeable, they follow a strict pattern. Bushmaster, the brand of rifle used in several mass shootings, is taking a lot of heat lately from the media because they are one of the companies that make this rifle. I would be like saying a Victoria Secret bra was used in the murder and people storming Victoria Secret stores for justice. I use this rifle

in competitions at the club. The standard capacity magazines for this rifle are 10, 20 and 30 rounds. There are higher capacity but they are not as reliable and expensive.

This rifle by name, type and magazine capacity would be banned

A 9mm semi-automatic carbine rifle (Beretta CX-4 Storm). I use this in Class III competitions at the club. Class III is an ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) designation for firearms that break the main stream firearm rules such as fully automatic weapons, rifles with barrels shorter than 16 inches and suppresors (silencers). You can have a fully automatic weapon in the United States, provided that the weapon was made prior to a certain year and is considered "transferable", no new ones are available to the public. The thing is, because there is a very limited supply they are very expensive to purchase. Minimum price at this point $5000 up to $30000 and beyond. These items are registered to the owner, you must carry the paperwork around with the items and you pay a "tax" for each item owned.

Because of their relative rarity and expense, these items are very very rarely an issue in crime. Usually if they are an issue in a crime they have been stolen from the military. My rifle is not a Class III weapon but because of the rarity of them they let us use them in these competitions, otherwise there would only be two or three guys in the match. The standard magazine capacity is 17 rounds. Because this rifle is based on a pistol there isn't any higher capacity magazine for it.

This rifle by name and magazine would be banned.

2 9mm semi-automatic pistols, a SigSauer P226 (Made in Germany / New Hamphire) and a Kahr K9 (Made in Massachusetts). The SigSauer is a full size pistil with a standard magazine capacity of 15 rounds. This pistol was in close competion back in the 1980's to be the standard issue for our military - lost out to the Beretta 92. I use this pistol for IDPA competition (http://www.idpa.com/ ). Although the magazine holds 15 rounds, in competition we limit it to 10 rounds because other type of pistols and revolvers with lower capacity are used. This makes it a little more fair. The Kahr K9 is a compact pistol and holds 6 rounds. This is used in competion against similar sized pistols and revolvers .

The SigSauer magazines would be banned

A .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol (Browning Buckmark - Made in Utah). I use this for falling plate matches. Think of it as a drag race. Two people shooting a rack of standing steel plates. The buzzer goes off and the first one to knock down his plates wins. This has a magazine capacity of 10 rounds.

2 .22 caliber semi-automatic rifles (Both Ruger 10/22 models - Made in New Hapmshire). I use these in the falling plate matches and marksmanship rifle matches. These have a magazine capacity of 10 to 25 rounds.

There are higher capacity magazines but they are not very reliable and quite cumbersome.

The magazines larger than 10 rounds would be banned

1 .22 caliber pump action 22 rifle (Winchester model 61 - Made in New Haven) This belonged to my father in law. I rarely shoot it.

I mention the place where these are made because these are jobs that would be lost if these are banned.

So, now on to the actual questions....

What is your opinion on the use of guns by owners to protect their private property?

People should be allowed to protect themselves and others by any means necessary in and outside of their home. Protecting property with deadly force is another thing. I'm not going to shot somebody for stealing the lawnmower in my garage, I may shoot somebody who has broken into my house before I ask him why he broke into my house. I do have a concealed weapons permit (which means I took a NRA firearms class and have had an FBI backround check - the permit is good for 5 years), you cannot purchase a pistol or revolver without one in Connecticut. I do not carry a concealed weapon. My firearms are locked up in a safe when not being

used at the range.

What is your opinion on mandatory background checks for gun ownership?
Yes! Everybody who purchases a firearm should have a backround check. Currently in Connecticut as I said before, you need a permit to purchase a pistol or revolver. When you do that you also get a quick backround check. You do not need a permit to buy a rifle and if purchasing from a private party there is no backround check. If you purchase from a licensed dealer there is a two week waiting period where a backround check is done. You should need a permit to purchase any firearm and I'll throw in ammunition as well.

What is your opinion on the proposed reinstatement of the automatic weapons ban?
Again, be careful of the terminolgy here. New automatic weapon sales are already banned and existing ones highly regulated. Banning semi-automatic weapons would be be pointless. There are millions of the listed weapons out there already. Most of the versions of the bans do not confiscate the existing ones. The AR-15 rifle was not popular until it was banned. Tell somebody they can't have something and you instantly create a desire for it. When President Obabma took office in 2008 there was a run on guns because everybody felt that he would reinstate the ban. That died down afer a while. Now it comes up again and there are no AR-15's, ammunition, 9mm pitols,

ammunition etc to be found. People are buying everything up. I'm not blaming this on the president, it goes back much further and deeper than that. The only real resolution here would be to turn on a giant magnet to pull out and destroy all the guns. But in the end if it makes them feel better and prevents someone from purchasing a weapon at a moment when they feel most at odds with whatever demons they have I'm ok with it.

What is your opinion on hunting as a beloved American sport?

I don't hunt, But if people want to sit out in the cold wearing silly clothes in order to shoot poor defenseless ducks out the air to satisfy their unresolved gender issues it's fine by me. It's a free country. :)

What can America change to make public schools safer from massacres as occurred in Newtown?

I am not downplaying the recent events, but they are rare. If a person is determined to cause harm they will find the available means to do it. The availblity of weapons is not the cause it's the means. If they are not available they will find another way. In teh early 20th century the largest school massacre was performed by blowing the building up. That guy was not happy with his taxes.

Treat the cause of the issues. Be a good parent, be a good friend, be a good citizen.

What does the 2nd amendment mean to you?
It's either very shortsighted to the events of the time it was written or brilliantly wrritten to protect ourselves from our own government in the future. Like the Bible you can interprate it in many ways. I think it means that it give the citizens a means to protect themselves from the goverment should the government decide to infringe upon life, liberty and the persuit of happiness. Sometimes a government decides it does not want to play by it's own rules and I think our forefathers took that into account. There have been and are plenty of examples where a government has decided it no longer likes certain citizens. Now we can always say that won't happen here

because of our constitution but you never know.

But with these rights come responsibilities and it should be proven that your are responsible enough to handle those rights.

Any other question you think might help you say what you think about this issue!

I agree on Bill's gunshow comments. You should not be able to buy a firearm with out a permit and a backround check.

I don't like the idea of categorizing certain guns as more bad than others its uneducated and arbitrary.

I already by default register firearms purchased through a dealer, the state knows I have it, not need for me to do more than that.

I do not want the government to turn me into a criminal by banning what I already own.

I do not want to pay additional taxes to own or purchase a firearm or ammunition.

I do not think banning guns will reduce crime.

I have purchased each firearm for a specific competition.

I have no plans on ever using my firearms on a living creature.

When I lived in Philadelphia I actual sold my guns because I felt I might have to use them, or have them used on me.

Gun control is an easy answer to an unsolveable question, look how well controlling drugs has gone.

I could go on and on but I hope this helps.

I would hope that if you read this and have any interest in answering the same questions (as you should) you will. If you can't post them completely in the comment section please send them to me. I will provide my email if you don't know how to get in touch with me, but knowing this blog, nobody is reading anyway.

GBCH

Wind? Or Memorex?

It sure was a blustery one today.

Day three started just as you may expect after reading this blog for four seasons now. Being picked up at 4:30 am has it's drawbacks but there can also be some unintended fun that comes along with it. Sitting on my well lit front porch waiting to hear the rumble of good ole American V-8 power that is Lisa, I saw my neighbor lady. She's kind of an odd sort. Maybe she keeps strange hours too or maybe, just maybe, she's up to no good. But when she walks by my house and sees me sitting on the stoop holding a shotgun I know one thing runs through her head, don't mess with his shit.

So sure enough Lisa arrives with all the gear needed for a great day of early season folding. We drive off to the Old New spot a little earlier now. See, everyone seems to be hunting there now. Apparently there is a thread on some hunting web site that tells people to go to this area and that the hunting is good there. We officially hate this web site. How dare they share the public lands with the Public. We all know that the H7HT was here first. We all know that we're the best. But still people are invading our space so now we have to get up before everyone else. You know what they say "The early bird gets the ducks", or something to that effect. Maybe it's"Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice I'll shoot your decoys". Whatever.

So out to the newest spot we go. Rebuild the blind. Set the blocks. Tell some other hunters where to go. Wait for sunrise.