Hoo-Wray for Pat Wray for revealing the far
right-wing politics of the NRA (HCN, 1/23/06: What’s the
NRA’s beef with roadless areas?). Anymore, the NRA is all
about amassing dues-paying members to support the group’s
anti-conservation lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C. One way it
does this is by appealing to the interests and pandering to the
fears of the general hunting bloc at large.
There is more
to hunting than four-wheelin’, blind-sittin’,
beer-drinkin’, and the cornfield-shootin’ of deer. If
the mass of NRA members in America could witness the ravaging
currently being wreaked upon the game ranges of the West by their
beloved George W. Bush and his minions in the energy industry,
perhaps they would become enlightened about how mindlessness and
greed are destroying the opportunity for real hunting in this land.
As a lifelong hunter and long-lapsed member of the NRA, I
receive regular calls encouraging me to rejoin. The urgency of my
participation (and remittance of dues) is usually emphasized by
assuring me that the NRA is fighting to preserve my hunting rights.
What bullshit. I will continue to refuse to talk to the NRA
missionaries until they can get it into their gunpowder-smudged
brains that this ain’t 1880 anymore — that there is a
real connection between genuine hunting opportunities and the
preservation of wild places and open ranges.
John Fandek
Cora, Wyoming
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Good hunting requires wild places.
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