Wednesday Morning Quarterbacking and More

Mar 2, 2016
Today's average Wednesday. March's first hump day after Super Tuesday. Whatever you'd like to call it.

Essentially, it's the day that national news organizations fill their schedules dissecting election results that really didn't elect anyone to office. OK, it may have further thinned the Republican herd and solidified Mrs. Clinton's hold on the Democratic nomination, but it really wasn't an election, per se. Primaries are, essentially, popularity contests. Popularity contests don't put people in office-at least not officially.

But they do help clarify the opponents for what promises to be one of the nastiest presidential elections in decades.

Uplifting thought for a Wednesday, huh?

And this afternoon in Washington, a blue panel from the outdoor industry will meet at the National Press Club to release their recommendations on how to avert the still-growing fish and wildlife crisis in the United States.

Chaired by former Wyoming governor, David Freudenthal, and Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris, the panel will offer suggestions on how to "proactively manage species to reduce taxpayer costs and the regulatory red tape that comes when species are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act."

Boiled down to its essence - and using the phrases "growing fish and wildlife crisis" and "1,000 percent increase in species petitioned for listing under the ESA" from our Media Advisory it seems those "concrete suggestions" will try to positively offset the continuing campaigns of animal rights activists grow the ESA. Their ultimate goal is to essentially squeeze hunting and fishing to death via rules and regulations.

We'll be taking part and will have details in tomorrow's edition. Hopefully, there's something that can be done to add more science and less emotion to wildlife management. That's a guaranteed recipe for conflict, but it's what has preserved and restored the country's fish and wildlife resources.

We've been gratified by the response to our recent suggestion regarding a non-political awareness campaign on behalf of the country's normal people who just happen to own guns. We've received lots of positive feedback, including dealers who tell us they're not only going to ask gun buyers to kick in a buck to help raise awareness about "normal" people who own guns, they're going to match that dollar from their profit on each gun.

In a category where there's not a lot of margin, that's a big step- but we believe a big step is what it will take to slow the highly-funded efforts of those who want to strip our right to firearms.

One of our readers wrote and asked a candid question: "what is a dollar from someone who buys a gun really mean when it's compared with the millions of dollars someone like Bloomberg's willing to spend to restrict guns?"

That's not a tough one to answer. Yes, Mr. Bloomberg has millions of dollars to spend -and that buys a lot of influence in Washington. But each of those singles represents something that- if exercised- is far more powerful than money. Each dollar contributed represents a voter- and, despite his billions, Mike Bloomberg's vote means not one iota more than that new gun owner's vote.

When you look at it that way, it only takes two people - a $2 bill's worth of votes- to negate, and overcome, Mr. Bloomberg's ballot.

That's why we've continued to be able to hold off those challenges. Not because of our having more money -the anti-gun groups have the ability to raise huge chunks of cash from wealthy and like-minded donors.

What they don't have- and fail to realize- is they lack the will of the people.

We can still make corrections in the course of the country - but we're all going to have to get involved.

Right now, we're contacting industry folks to see if they'll help us give this big idea some form and substance. And we're getting a web-based signup ready for dealers around the country to let us know they're going to support the plan.

At that point, we'll get that word out -and start populating the web with helpful information from the many outdoor and shooting industry groups.

None of us is as smart as all of us.

We'll keep you posted.