Phony gun groups, Part 3: 'American Hunters and Shooters Association'

February 13, 6:30 PMCharlotte Gun Rights ExaminerPaul Valone

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Part three of the “Phony gun groups” series will examine how the “American Hunters and Shooters Association” (AHSA) represents the most sophisticated effort to date by gun control organizations seeking to divide and neutralize the impact of gun-owning voters on elections.

As previously noted, losses by anti-gun politicians in the 1994 and 2000 elections induced gun control advocates to adopt a new strategy of camouflaging both their organizations and the politicians they support. While early efforts by “Americans for Gun Safety” (AGS) to claim a “third way” in the gun debate were relatively crude, they led to more sophisticated efforts by the “Union Sportsman’s Alliance” and, more importantly, AHSA, to deceive gun-owning voters.

What differentiates AHSA is its effort to appeal directly to centrist hunters and “sportsmen” who often fail to support segments of the gun-owning community beyond their own (e.g. hunters who did little to oppose the 1994 “assault weapon” ban). While AHSA has an estimated membership of only around 150, its web site and literature abound with videos of shotgun-wielding “sportsmen.”

AHSA leadership says it all…

Beyond its gun-friendly façade, however, AHSA has demonstrated repeated antipathy to the Second Amendment. Announced at a 2006 press conference of the divided “Outdoor Writers Association of America” by then-executive director Robert Ricker, AHSA wasted little time in attempting to discredit and marginalize the NRA.

“[W]ho is the real ‘enemy in camouflage?” asked AHSA president, Ray Schoenke. “My answer was simple: It’s the leadership of the NRA.” Perhaps Schoenke’s attack would ring truer had he not expressed it on “DailyKos.” But given Schoenke’s political donations to gun control supporters such as Al Gore, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Ted Kennedy, Carolyn McCarthy, and John Kerry, the forum should come as no surprise. Schoenke and has children have also generously donated $20,000 to Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI, a/k/a/ “The Brady Center”).

Ricker, too, has a checkered past: Once a gun industry lobbyist, he switched sides and started testifying for cities trying to end-run the legislative process by litigating gun makers out of business. His rationale? “I was paid to put forth that position.” Well, that explains that.

Then we have John Rosenthal, president of the ASHA Foundation, leader of “Stop Handgun Violence” in Massachusetts, and former board member for Handgun Control.

‘Friend of the court,’ perhaps, but not of you

When AHSA filed an ostensibly pro-Second Amendment amicus (“friend of the court”) brief in the case of Heller v. DC, for example, it allowed that:

“The argument advanced by [AHSA] would in no way prevent the D.C. Council from enacting reasonable regulations relating to possession, safety, and registration of firearms in the District. Indeed, it has a responsibility to the public to do so. [AHSA believes] that the District’s Gun Law was a laudable effort.” [Emphasis added]

With friends like these …

AHSA supported repeal of ‘Tiahrt Amendment’

AHSA also supported New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his coalition, “Mayors Against Illegal Guns,” in its failed effort to repeal the Tiahrt Amendment. Had they succeeded, the BATFE would have been forced to release biased gun tracing data, thereby reinforcing inflated claims of illegal “gun trafficking.”

‘Sportsmen for Obama’

But the centerpiece of AHSA’s efforts was its 2008 “Sportsman for Obama” campaign, using both video and radio ads.

What AHSA fails to mention about Barrack Obama is his stated support for reinstituting the 1994 ban on semi-automatic firearms, registering private gun sales at gun shows, adopting “smart gun” technology,” and repealing the “Tiahrt Amendment.”

More recently, Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, has addressed HCI regarding the administration’s intention to deny firearms to anyone on the national “no fly” list. While denying firearms to potential terrorists sounds good, in reality those on the list may be placed there arbitrarily and have no access to due process of law. Translated, Attorney General Eric Holder would have the ability to deny anyone the ability to possess firearms.

Implications for the future

As anti-gun organizations become increasingly skilled at camouflaging their intent, defenders of the Second Amendment incur a proportionate obligation to “out” those organizations to the public, the media and, most importantly, to other gun owners. When you see ostensibly pro-gun groups advertise on Versus or elsewhere, vet them carefully. Many are not what they seem.
 

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