Great Satan, Inc.

The Bureau of Land Management has confirmed that a total of 15  BLM warning signs were posted about a week ago on BLM land along the Interstate 8 corridor between Gila Bend and Casa Grande in Arizona (roughly 30 miles from the Phoenix Metropolitan area).

BLM also informed us that This is the same area (off I-8 and near milepost 150) where a Pinal County deputy was shot on April 30th, and where 2 bodies were found about 500 to 1,000 yards from a makeshift illegal immigrant camp  known as Antelope Pass.

Click to enlarge image

Click to enlarge image

As you can see from the maps above, Interstate 8 is  far from the Arizona/Mexico border at about 120 miles by car.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu recently stated that Mexican drug cartels now control parts of Arizona .  It won’t be much longer until they control the Phoenix Metro area, unless our politicians get it in gear and start reclaiming the land that they have already surrendered to drug and human smugglers.

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It may sound like hyperbole when people talk about the Southwestern United States getting overrun by a border invasion, but what else can you call it when the US Government surrenders public lands to armed foreign nationals?

Arizona shouldn’t need signs like this. No place in the US should.

You can check the Bureau of Land Management reports to see the damage done to our public lands. The reports document the trash pick up efforts to clean up after the smugglers and illegal aliens; over 234 tons of trash removed in 2009 alone. You’ll notice that we pay for security to accompany the people picking up trash in the desert too.

South of Phoenix, Arizona Game and Fish has Coues Deer hunting permits going unclaimed, as hunters avoid areas with dangerous smuggling routes. The Desert Rat outdoor blog has documented some of the environmental damage. The Desert Invasion site has photos documenting smuggling routes and layup areas from the border to Northwest of the Phoenix metro area (Lake Pleasant).

The National Park Service has even closed the Western portion of Organ Pipe National Monument out of concerns for visitor safety. This area has been closed for years. If you’re planning a visit to Organ Pipe National Monument, stop at Kris Eggle Visitor Center first.

Coronado National Memorial, Southeast of Tucson has the same problems with smugglers too.

The Federal Government has shrugged off the problems for years, comfortably ensconced in Washington D.C. Now Arizona is trying to solve these problems through enactment of SB 1070, but more needs to be done. Regardless of your feelings about the illegal immigration, we can all agree that allowing criminals to take over public lands, kidnap innocents, and shoot people is unacceptable. It’s time to let our elected officials know that they can’t surrender any more of our country. They can work on revising the immigration system later. Right now, they must secure the border.

UPDATE posted June 13th, 2010 – CaptDreadlocke commented at Exurban League about the border danger signs and linked to his photo of a warning sign 70 miles North of the border with Mexico.

Additional information about the Federal Government Illegal Activity Warning signs.

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Today, we posthumously thank those who have served and given the ultimate sacrifice for this country.  Tomorrow, many of us will go back to our daily grind and not give much thought to those that are either currently fighting, or those who have fought and died for our freedoms until Memorial Day comes around next year.

Uncle Ted has another idea.   Make every day Memorial Day

As parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, we owe it to America’s finest to educate the youth of the United States that many brave Americans have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom. Teach them that freedom isn’t free. Teach them that the American military has freed more people from the shackles of tyranny and slavery than any other force in the history of the world. Teach them to remember this not just on Memorial Day, but every day.

Organizations like Soldiers’ Angels make remembering our military and showing our thanks throughout the year easier than ever.  Soldiers’ Angels is a “volunteer-led 501(c)(3) non-profit with hundreds of thousands of volunteers providing aid and comfort to the men and women of the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, veterans and their families”.

They offer dozens of ways to get involved in making a difference in a soldier’s life – none involving a sacrifice as great as the one our military proudly and selflessly provides to us each day.

Happy Memorial Day 2010, Day 1.

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The NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits for 2010 was held in Charlotte, NC last weekend (5/14-5/16/2010). I took the trip out from 2nd Amendment friendly Arizona for this year’s NRA convention to see the festivities, attend the 2A Blog Bash, and experience the educational seminars.

The Charlotte Observer greeted attendees with an extremely offensive piece, begging attendees not to shoot the place up, calling NRA members “a highly partisan lobbying group” for extreme right-wing Republicans. Fortunately, the Observer is extremely out of touch with the good people of Charlotte who warmly welcomed me to their city, asked me about the annual meeting, life in Phoenix, and generously offered me help at every turn. Welcome signs for NRA members were posted throughout the city.

(Click the thumbnails for larger photos*)

Official Welcome Sign, a pin version was worn by hotel staff too.

Organic welcome sign at Matt’s Chicago Dog

NRA welcome sign at Ratcliffe on the Green in Charlotte, NC. Check out Zach Goodyear’s tasty game meat menu for the NRA Annual Meeting.

The NRA learned from last year’s Annual Meeting in Phoenix, implementing those lessons by opening event registration the day before the show, increasing the efficiency and quantity of registration lines to smoothly handle the significantly higher attendance of over 72,000 people.

Short registration lines were a great improvement over 2009.

But wait, there’s more! Click here to see the rest.

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Congratulations, Northern Arizona!  Shooting enthusiasts and law enforcement in Northern Arizona are one giant step closer to having the shooting range they deserve.

On Saturday, May 15th, The Arizona Game and Fish Commission unanimously voted to approve the purchase of the 160 acre Foster Ranch property for the development of a Northern Arizona shooting range.

AZ Game and Fish’s efforts to establish a range in the Flagstaff area began way back in 1998, and the approval is great news to all the people and organizations that have worked tirelessly for almost a decade to make this happen.

Flagstaff is the largest city in Arizona without a public shooting range, which leaves recreational shooters with few options, and forces law enforcement in Flagstaff to train at a makeshift range at a cinder pit in Winona, Arizona.

The Foster Ranch site is about 10 miles southeast of Flagstaff, and meets the Arizona Game and Fish’s objective of developing a shooting range located within 30 minutes of downtown Flagstaff by the year 2013.  The purchase price of the land is 1.1 million dollars, which is entirely funded through a user pay, user benefit model (read – ZERO Arizona general fund tax dollars).

A request for the purchase of the land now goes to the Arizona Governor’s office for approval (the state doesn’t fund shooting ranges, they merely approve, or disapprove, the budget plan created by the AZ Game and Fish Commission).  We are very hopeful that their approval will be swift in order to reach the 2013 goal.

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Michael Bane, in his efforts with the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), is seeking ways to maintain and grow the shooting sports. One of his discussions has included the need for more shooting ranges to allow more people to safely enjoy the shooting sports in a safe and responsible environment.

Ben Avery Arizona Shooting Range Facility and Rio Salado Sportsmen’s Club are world class shooting ranges. Our Arizona Game & Fish department receives no funding from Arizona’s general fund, yet Ben Avery has a five-star rating from the National Association of Shooting Ranges and is the first government facility to receive this designation.

The Goldwater Institute in Scottsdale, Arizona has a new commercial pushing the Arizona legislature to “fix it’s spending priorities” by confiscating the full $800,000 in shooting range maintenance money budgeted by Arizona Game & Fish Department. Arizona has budget problems due to overspending. When politicians run out of tax money to spend, they often look to raid successful programs. An increase in the state sales tax has been proposed, but the Institute advocates raiding a self-sustaining agency’s funds, gutting an effective program and reducing it to the mediocrity of other government programs.

How do they get the tax money to operate?

While the average person has no idea how the outdoors are managed in Arizona, most of us paying user fees and membership dues to shoot at Arizona’s acclaimed ranges know that our money goes directly to the maintenance of those ranges, as well as wildlife management. In fact, many people buy fishing licenses, hunting licenses, and game stamps just for the purpose of supporting the activities of the Arizona Game & Fish Department.

Even if you don’t buy hunting or fishing licenses, when you purchase firearms and ammunition, you pay Federal Firearms and Ammunition Excise Taxes of 10% for pistols, 11% for rifles and bow hunting equipment, and 11% for ammunition. The Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937, also known as the Pittman-Robertson Act, established this tax and requires that the funds collected are placed in a special trust by the Fish and Wildlife Service under the Department of the Interior. This money is then distributed back to states in matching grants for wildlife conservation, wildlife management, habitat restoration, wildlife research, hunter education, and shooting ranges.

One of the conditions on Pittman-Robertson funds is that states are prohibited from diverting hunter license fees:

(States shall) make laws governing the conservation of wildlife, shall have assented to the provision of this chapter and shall have passed laws for the conservation of wildlife which shall include a prohibition against the diversion of license fees paid by hunters for any other purpose than the administration of said State fish and game department…

Smart politicians knew that some day, a state pinched for money would view outdoor sporting programs as a cash cow they would milk to death, using sporting monies to cover up for excessive spending on other programs. Fortunately, our outdoor user fees are protected by both State, and Federal laws.

How does it work without State tax revenues?

Arizona Game and Fish is a self-supporting, “business-model” agency, generating it’s own funding for survival, unable to feed off of tax dollars in Arizona’s General Fund. The model is based on the same “user pay, user benefit” model that is the basis for the Pittman-Robertson Act. Arizona Game & Fish must provide excellent services to outdoor sporting enthusiasts, or close up shop, just like any other business.

If our Game & Fish department doesn’t provide proper wildlife management or charges too much for hunting license, hunters will go elsewhere or quit the sport, depriving the department of funding. If they neglect the shooting ranges, users will find other places to shoot, taking their money with them. In other words, they have to sing for their supper to get funds from shooters, hunters, anglers, boaters, and OHV owners through licenses, user fees, and motorboat and OHV gas taxes.

Arizona Game and Fish needs participants in outdoor activities to pay user fees, so that they can get those matching grant dollars from the Pittman-Robertson Act, as well as similar Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act funds from taxes on fishing gear. The Federal funds returned to Arizona by these two programs increased the Game and Fish budget by $20,885,600 in 2009. Every customer Arizona Game and Fish gains will generate significantly more funding than just the use fee. Each loss of a customer magnifies the loss wildlife management funds. The result is in a government agency that treats the people that fund it as customers, instead of subservient peasants.

Arizona Game and Fish also holds an Outdoor Expo every year to introduce people to Arizona outdoor recreational activities they otherwise would never have the opportunity to try. Mz. VRWC learned the basics of shooting at the 2009 Expo and has worked diligently to pay for the experience by buying quite a few guns, buying ammo, becoming a range member, and paying for training at Arizona shooting ranges.

One of the amazing things that happens with a model like this is, people voluntarily pay money to Game and Fish, when they could just as easily spend their money elsewhere. In fact, non-profit organizations hold auctions and other fundraising activities to help fund outdoor activities through additional matching grants and gifts, as well as providing volunteers for activities like shooting range maintenance.

The Arizona Elk Society, the NRA Foundation, the Friends of NRA groups, and numerous other groups raise money and provide grants to Game and Fish for wildlife management, hunter education, gun safety training, shooting range maintenance and construction. How many other government agencies provide services so valuable that recipients happily donate their own time and money back to the agency?

What happens if a state takes outdoor sports money away?

If the state starts raiding the Game and Fish money, most likely we would lose all of the $20,885,600 Arizona receives through the Pittman-Robertson Act and Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act. Additional state taxes would need to be raised in order to carry out Federally mandated wildlife management and restoration activities. Shooting ranges would probably close due to disrepair and safety issues, while law enforcement departments would have to build their own shooting ranges, or forgo firearms training for officers.

Nonprofit and private donations of time and money to the Game & Fish would probably disappear too. Here’s a few examples of recent grants and donations that would probably disappear:

The Tonto Rim Sports Club Jim Jones Shooting Range received a $11,500, as a gift from the Zane Grey Committee’s Friends of NRA, for range repairs and improvement. March 16, 2010

Arizona Game and Fish Department offered a $25,000 grant for improvements at the Elzy Pearson Rifle Range in Casa Grande, provided matching funds were raised. Friends of NRA provided the matching $25,000.

Arizona Friends of the NRA (National Rifle Association) and the NRA Foundation recently awarded the Arizona Game and Fish Department $16,000 in grant funds to purchase shotguns and small caliber rifles, which will be used by certified instructors to teach firearm safety and introductory target shooting programs to youth. March 14, 2008

Volunteers put in more than 500 hours to refurbish the High Power Rifle Range at Ben Avery Shooting Facility

Arizona has received 235 grants from the NRA Foundation totaling $1,533,073 from 1992 to 2007.

Why should a state fund a shooting range?

Under the Arizona model, the State doesn’t fund shooting ranges, they merely approve, or disapprove, the budget plan created by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission. The users, along with non-profit organizations pay for the ranges. A great reason for a state to encourage the development of shooting ranges is the creation of multi-use facilities for law enforcement training, civilian marksmanship training, hunter education, and competition use. Shooting competitions and firearms training attract tourist dollars too.

One way our state reduces the tax burden is through the sharing of the shooting ranges with law enforcement. If we didn’t share the ranges, each municipality would spend millions to create a shooting range for each law enforcement agency. Under our system, the Tempe Police pay a modest fee to use the Rio Salado Sportsmen’s Club shooting range for officer firearms training, practice, and firearms qualification testing. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office uses the Ben Avery Arizona Shooting Range. Public ranges in Tucson are used by the Tucson Police, US Border Patrol, and by the military.

President Ronald Reagan stated it best on the 50th Anniversary of Pittman-Robertson when he said, “Those who pay the freight are those who purchase firearms, ammunition, and, in recent years, archery equipment.” These shooting range facilities provide wonderful public services, placing no financial burden on disinterested taxpayers, while improving public safety and recreational opportunities. I’m proud of the service, accomplishments, and effectiveness of the Arizona Game and Fish Department. I believe they are a model government agency that should be emulated elsewhere, whether to increase outdoor recreational opportunities, or to build additional shooting ranges without unfairly burdening people who would never use the facilities.

For additional information on how Pittman-Robertson funds are used for Range Development, please see http://www.nrahq.org/shootingrange/pitmann.asp

The Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act taxes fishing gear and provides matching grants in the same fashion for managing state fishing programs.

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I’ve been meaning to learn more about Buz Mills – Gunsite owner and candidate for Arizona Governor.  Yesterday, I received a Buz Mills brochure in the mail, and I was struck by a simple, yet powerful statement made on the back cover:

BUZZ MILLS

Committed Conservative

Successful Entrepreneur

NOT A POLITICIAN

Sounds good, but I’m going to need to know more.  If he’s half as good as he sounds, I’m all in.

Looks like I’m not the only one that’s liking what they’ve  seen so far.  Rasmussen Reports conducted a telephone survey of likely voters in Arizona last week , and in a head-to-head match up with Terry Goddard (current AZ Attorney General), Buz Mills leads Goddard 43% to 37%.

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