Ithaca 37
New member
And Howard Dean has been endorsed by the NRA!!!!!!
Thursday, December 04, 2003 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2001806935_gunowners04.html
Gun owners upset at Bush on environment
By Todd Wilkinson
The Christian Science Monitor
As Jimmie Rosenbruch stalked mountain goats in southeast Alaska last month, the Utah sportsman and master hunting guide toted more than a rifle.
The burly, lifelong Republican and acquaintance of the first President Bush also carried personal displeasure over the natural-resource agenda of Bush's son.
In particular, Rosenbruch and a groundswell of other gun owners from the lower 48 are challenging the Bush administration's plan to undo protection of Alaska's Tongass and Chugach national forests by opening both to increased logging and road construction.
For the current president, who relied upon unwavering support from the so-called "hook and bullet" crowd to win in 2000, the kind of public criticism now voiced by political conservatives such as Rosenbruch represents a potential problem in 2004, observers say.
According to a report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, hunters and anglers are a formidable force not only in what they spend, but also in the political power they wield. More than 34 million Americans older than 16 fish annually; 13 million hunt.
Many analysts think most of these people are Republican and supportive of President Bush. But a growing vocal minority now is taking a stand against such issues as the weakening of water-protection standards in fishable waterways and proposals to drill for oil in what have been off-limits areas. These people want a clean, healthy environment, and they believe Bush is straying too far from this principle.
Perhaps no example is more striking than a recent petition signed by hundreds of gun clubs — on behalf of untold thousands of members — telling Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth to keep in place Clinton-era protection of old-growth forests, two-thirds of which lie in Alaska.
"The response took me by surprise, especially in Texas," said Greg Petrich, the petition organizer, who is also a registered Alaska Republican and former commercial fisherman.
When Petrich began circulating the petition in October, he modestly hoped to enlist 100 gun clubs in the lower 48. But the response has been so overwhelming that he now believes he will have 500 organizations signed up by the end of the year. The list includes the Allegheny Country Rifle Club of Pittsburgh (oldest gun club in the United States), 49 combat handgun clubs and 40 shooting groups in Bush's home state of Texas.
In addition, conservation organizations such as Trout Unlimited, with its large membership of suburban "country club" Republicans who love to fly-fish, have questioned the Bush administration's opening of pristine public lands to natural-resource development.
Opinion polls have made the Bush administration well aware that its handling of the environment holds resonance as a serious domestic campaign issue. And analysts see the millions of suburban sport shooters and rural hunters — traditionally the core of the National Rifle Association (NRA) membership — as representing an important swing vote.
One of those joining Petrich's campaign is Carl Rosier, a state game and fish commissioner.
Reached in Juneau, Rosier explained that proposed oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — which he supports — is the battle front that most Americans associate with Alaska. But the Bush administration's efforts to restore publicly subsidized logging of Alaska rain forest also will be a green lightning rod.
"You've got a bunch of timber beasts (former timber-industry lobbyists) setting environmental policy in Alaska, and that's wrong," Rosier said. "In three years, we've witnessed a 180-degree swing from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush."
Yet many backers of Bush believe he has nothing to fear. The NRA doesn't see a large number of gun owners turning against Bush. "Without a doubt, he has the strongest support among NRA members of any modern president," said J.P. Nelson, the NRA's Western field director. "We were mobilized in the last election, and we will be again."
Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company
<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 12-12-2003 21:03: Message edited by: Ithaca 37 ]</font>
Thursday, December 04, 2003 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2001806935_gunowners04.html
Gun owners upset at Bush on environment
By Todd Wilkinson
The Christian Science Monitor
As Jimmie Rosenbruch stalked mountain goats in southeast Alaska last month, the Utah sportsman and master hunting guide toted more than a rifle.
The burly, lifelong Republican and acquaintance of the first President Bush also carried personal displeasure over the natural-resource agenda of Bush's son.
In particular, Rosenbruch and a groundswell of other gun owners from the lower 48 are challenging the Bush administration's plan to undo protection of Alaska's Tongass and Chugach national forests by opening both to increased logging and road construction.
For the current president, who relied upon unwavering support from the so-called "hook and bullet" crowd to win in 2000, the kind of public criticism now voiced by political conservatives such as Rosenbruch represents a potential problem in 2004, observers say.
According to a report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, hunters and anglers are a formidable force not only in what they spend, but also in the political power they wield. More than 34 million Americans older than 16 fish annually; 13 million hunt.
Many analysts think most of these people are Republican and supportive of President Bush. But a growing vocal minority now is taking a stand against such issues as the weakening of water-protection standards in fishable waterways and proposals to drill for oil in what have been off-limits areas. These people want a clean, healthy environment, and they believe Bush is straying too far from this principle.
Perhaps no example is more striking than a recent petition signed by hundreds of gun clubs — on behalf of untold thousands of members — telling Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth to keep in place Clinton-era protection of old-growth forests, two-thirds of which lie in Alaska.
"The response took me by surprise, especially in Texas," said Greg Petrich, the petition organizer, who is also a registered Alaska Republican and former commercial fisherman.
When Petrich began circulating the petition in October, he modestly hoped to enlist 100 gun clubs in the lower 48. But the response has been so overwhelming that he now believes he will have 500 organizations signed up by the end of the year. The list includes the Allegheny Country Rifle Club of Pittsburgh (oldest gun club in the United States), 49 combat handgun clubs and 40 shooting groups in Bush's home state of Texas.
In addition, conservation organizations such as Trout Unlimited, with its large membership of suburban "country club" Republicans who love to fly-fish, have questioned the Bush administration's opening of pristine public lands to natural-resource development.
Opinion polls have made the Bush administration well aware that its handling of the environment holds resonance as a serious domestic campaign issue. And analysts see the millions of suburban sport shooters and rural hunters — traditionally the core of the National Rifle Association (NRA) membership — as representing an important swing vote.
One of those joining Petrich's campaign is Carl Rosier, a state game and fish commissioner.
Reached in Juneau, Rosier explained that proposed oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — which he supports — is the battle front that most Americans associate with Alaska. But the Bush administration's efforts to restore publicly subsidized logging of Alaska rain forest also will be a green lightning rod.
"You've got a bunch of timber beasts (former timber-industry lobbyists) setting environmental policy in Alaska, and that's wrong," Rosier said. "In three years, we've witnessed a 180-degree swing from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush."
Yet many backers of Bush believe he has nothing to fear. The NRA doesn't see a large number of gun owners turning against Bush. "Without a doubt, he has the strongest support among NRA members of any modern president," said J.P. Nelson, the NRA's Western field director. "We were mobilized in the last election, and we will be again."
Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company
<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 12-12-2003 21:03: Message edited by: Ithaca 37 ]</font>
