Great Satan, Inc.

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.

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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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Whew!  There’s a slew of shooting events in Arizona this weekend.  I’d need a few clones to make it to all of them.  The ‘plan’ included a road trip to the Big Sandy Shoot outside of Wikieup, AZ.  The Big Sandy Shoot is the biggest machine-gun event in the United States.  Spanning three days, the shoot includes flying targets, tracer rounds, pyrotechnics, and lots of automatic fire.  You can check out the night shooting on YouTube.  R. Lee Ermey featured the Big Sandy Shoot in his Lock ‘N Load television show on The History Channel last week.  Unfortunately, a babysitter couldn’t be found for the puppies, so I’ll have to catch the shoot another time.

Another big event this weekend is the Arizona Game & Fish Department’s Outdoor Expo at Ben Avery Shooting Facility.  The Outdoor Expo is designed to introduce people, young and old, to the numerous outdoor activities we have available in Arizona.  Mz. VRWC was introduced to the various competitive shooting disciplines at this event last year.  She’s been hooked on shooting ever since.

The Dillon Aero demonstration at the 2009 Expo

Arizona’s Game & Fish Department is operated on a “user pay, user benefit” business model and receives no Arizona tax dollars (no tax dollars are used in conducting the Expo either).  AZ Game & Fish is a Government agency that’s awesome to deal with and views the public as current and future customers.

This huge event includes archery, a catch-and-release fishing tank, ATV and offroad vehicles, birds of prey, hunting field courses and education, as well

Cowboy Action Shooting Bay

as a full range of shooting disciplines that visitors can try for essentially the cost of ammo.  You can try your hand at shooting sports such as, the .22 Schoolastic Steel Challenge, rimfire steel, Blackpowder, Cowboy & Cowgirl Action Shooting,  youth .22 and airgun competition, practical pistol, silhouette, and you can try Glock, Ruger, and Smith & Wesson guns too.  I’m sure I’ll spend way too much time there on Sunday.

The other big shooting event this weekend is the Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun match Rio Solado Sportsman’s Club.  This is a huge match with incredibly challenging stages.  Exurban Kevin is working and shooting the match.  You can check out his posts about it here and here, but the photo he posted here on Twitter really tells the story of how challenging stage nine of eleven is.  Cowboy Blob, another gun slinging blogger, was also spotted among the competitors.

If you can’t make it to the three gun match, you’ll be able to watch part of it on Versus, since they were filming the match for their new series, 3 Gun Nation.

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I found a list of crazy Arizona laws today.  As I tried to verify the existence of these mythical laws, I came across numerous laws that I had been blissfully ignorant about. As a public service to my visitors, I’ll pass along these pearls of legislation, so you don’t end up in jail like Mongo.

Dueling
Dueling in Arizona is an absolute no-no. You might think it was already illegal to have a duel in the street, but Arizona Revised Statute (ARS) 26-114 makes it a crime to promote a duel, be concerned in, connive to have, or even have knowledge of the pending gunfight without notifying “the proper authority”.  A violation of this law is punished as determined by court martial.

Tripping Horses
If you come to visit Arizona, make sure you don’t trip a horse, pony, mule, donkey or hinny. If you do, you could be facing a class 1 misdemeanor under ARS 13-2910-09.

Slaughtering Horses for Food
Arizona’s gastronomical diversity apparently has a wide range. ARS 3-2122 makes it illegal to slaughter horses for public consumption without first obtaining a license. This law also requires that the contact information and purchase data for each buyer of Trigger meat is retained for at least one year.

Gathering Cattle for Tournament or Contest
ARS 3-1301 makes it a Class 2 misdemeanor to use other people’s cattle for amusement or contest, if it’s done without their written permission. How’s a suburbanite going win a state fair ribbon if he can’t appropriate someone’s limosin?  Organized cow tipping is probably out of the question.

Toy Guns
ARS 13-3109 makes it a class 6 felony to give a child a toy pistol, if that toy pistol might discharge “dangerous and explosive substances”. This could probably be twisted to cover cap guns (explosive), Nerf guns, and spud guns. After all, you could put an eye out with that thing.

I’ll post more of these laws as I come across them.  If you hear about someone being arrested for giving a kid a toy gun and having duel with him or her, while eating a horse burger and riding a stolen prize winning Brahma bull, it wasn’t me.  Mongo did it.

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Dear Senator McCain,

My friend, we are friends aren’t we? You’ve used the phrase “my friends” again and again during your recent Presidential campaign. Since we’re friends, I’ll just call you John. Please let me start again, taking our friendship into consideration.

Dear John,

Thank you for your service to our country. I could never truly fathom the depths of hell you went through during your time as a P.O.W. Your story of perseverance in the face of adversity is compelling.

Following your return to civilian life, I’ve had my differences with your positions on quite a few matters. I’ve had my differences with others too, including the New York Times’ assertion that you are the Maverick ™ Senator from Arizona, as well as the belief held by some, that you are uniquely more qualified to make my decisions than I am.

Dear John, as a candidate for President, you refused to run negative ads about your Democratic opponents. Strangely, your campaign staff had no problem running a negative whisper campaign against your own running mate, Governor Sarah Palin. I know I was slow to get in line behind you until Governor Palin was selected, but I was thoroughly flummoxed by a campaign strategy that had your staff trashing your running mate. Perhaps, someday, you can help me understand the brilliance of this strategy.

Strangely, you’ve had no qualms about running attack ads against fellow Republicans. In fact, you’ve run attack ads against Republicans who aren’t even running for office. Just the other day, one of your commercials claimed that local radio personality and former Arizona Representative J.D. Hayworth wasn’t a “real conservative”, while noting how much government overspending occurred under his watch. Unfortunately, that spending was under your watch too, and even larger amounts have been spent after Mr. Hayworth returned to Arizona, while you’ve remained in D.C.

Dear John, while we’re talking about negative campaigns, I see that you’ve developed a set of … radio ads that declare you are leading the fight against a President on a “far left crusade” out to destroy the United States of America. One could assume that this fight would be against; big spending bailouts, damaging reforms done in the name of health care, illegal immigration to insure the safety and job security of Americans, dependence on foreign oil, and a crippling Cap-and-Trade tax scheme to “solve” Global Warming. Unfortunately, these left-of-center positions are actually your Presidential campaign planks, positions you just happen share with President Obama. It is difficult for a mere citizen to see how you could possibly win this fight against your own positions.

Dear John, your stance on border enforcement issues highlights your representation of Arizona. Your prior amnesty based stance included a distasteful belief that those who want effective immigration enforcement reform and detest living with the devastating consequences of a porous, insecure, open border, aren’t as enlightened you are. Your aristocratic view shows just how Maverick ™ you really are. While you’ve lived in Washington, my hometown of Phoenix has become the second most likely place in the world to be kidnapped. I know you don’t want your constituents to appear xenophobic or receive special earmarks recovering the costs of an ineffective Federal border policy, but people are still suffering due to D.C. inaction.

Dear John, you’ve talked about how you were, “elected to change Washington” and “let Washington change” you. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, my friend. You have had over 25 years to change Washington. The “change” thing hasn’t worked out so well. I believe it’s time for you to take a term off from office, relax and spend some quality time in Arizona while you try to undo the changes Washington has made to you. I think a long vacation in Arizona is a change that would do you well.

Respectfully,
An Average Arizona Voter

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This is not another version of the 494 stories about the shooting last night in Mesa that were copied and pasted from the news wire.  The shooting occurred a mere 957 feet (319 yards or .18 miles) from our home,  and we happened to be outside when the whole thing went down.

Here is our first hand eye ear-witness account of the events that occurred WAY too close to our house last night:

Last night, about 11:30 pm MST, Capitalist Pig and I went outside for a cigarette.  A few minutes later, we heard 8 or 9 gunshots coming from fairly close range.  Five or six rounds followed by a second or two pause, then three shots – each spaced about a second apart.  We surmised the following from what we heard:

• The shots were being fired from the Northeast, and were VERY close.
• A handgun was being used, probably a .40 or .45 caliber
• We were on the muzzle end of the shots – a very uneasy feeling to say the least.

In retrospect, it would have been in our best interest to go inside at that point, but we did not.  I’m not sure what CP was thinking at this point, but my brain was still trying to process what I had just heard.

The second round of shots came about four minutes later.  We heard a faint scream (female voice),  a siren from a distance that sounded like a fire truck, then a “chirp” from what sounded like a police car pulling up to the scene.  Immediately following, rapid fire, sounded like at least 12 rounds.  At least one magazine was being emptied as quickly as possible, and in the general direction of our house (again).

Four minutes would be the minimum amount of time it would take for the police to get there from the Mesa Police substation (1.1 miles from the scene)  If someone had called 911 immediately after the first shots were fired.  While I consider this an exemplary response time from the PD, the old saying, “When seconds count, the police are only minutes away” came to mind right after the second round of shots were fired.

A barrage of police, ambulance and fire truck sirens could now be heard in the distance, and were moving closer to us by the second.  About one minute later, massive rapid fire from several firearms.  I couldn’t tell you how many rounds were fired in this exchange, but I can say that it sounded like several magazines were emptied in a couple of seconds.

At this point, CP and I realized that this was very likely an ongoing situation, and we needed to get inside right quick.  My fight or flight response had kicked in after the first round of fire, but the rest of me apparently needed time to catch up.

I shuffled myself off to the safest place in the house (a small bathroom), and CP was cool headed enough to grab my cell phone and hand it to me before getting out the Ruger P90.  CP then valiantly stood watch – finding a good place in the house to keep an eye on the doors and still have cover.  As I worked on calming myself down, I sent a text to my next door neighbor to let her know that she needed to stay inside and find cover.

I think I had been in the bathroom about 15 minutes when I heard a loudspeaker that may have been coming from the helicopter that was still circling directly overhead.  I think they said, “Do NOT go outside” twice (it was very Charlie Brown Teacher sounding).

If the last part of the story seems extreme, or overly dramatic to you, keep in mind that our normally quiet and somewhat serene neighborhood had just been turned into a gunnery range.  CP saw police cars racing down our street and we could hear the sound of the helicopter changing positions (which it does when it is still hunting for someone), and it was apparent that the situation was not yet under control.  Even after several dozen rounds of fire, the bad guy(s) were still loose, and it was very possible that someone was looking for a place to hide (or worse) in the neighborhood.

At about 1:30 am, the noises had died down, and CP sounded a tentative all clear.  A search on the internet and Twitter for what had just happened was fruitless, so we proceeded outside with caution.  CP did a sweep of the yard (all-clear), and at about 1:45, we heard the sound of fire trucks leaving the scene.

We found out this morning that after this guy killed his ex-wife and friend at a house party then traded shots with the police (where he shot an officer), he barricaded himself in the house for a couple of hours before surrendering.

While we weren’t victims last night, I was still pretty scared during the event.  The only comfort I was able to find while this was all going on is that we had the ability to defend ourselves if the bad guy had tried to make us another victim.  While we both consider firing our weapons at another living thing a VERY last resort, knowing that we could if we needed to – Priceless.

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The Tax Day Tea Party brought several thousand people to Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza today. It was impossible to get a count of the attendees, as we saw a steady stream of people both arriving and leaving for the two hours that we were at the event. I’m thinking there were ten thousand there easily.

A very large group of people crammed into an area in front of the Capitol Building where politicians, concerned citizens and radio and TV hosts were speaking. It was so crowded in that area that we were never able to actually see who was speaking, so we chose to mill around the crowd and take some photos for your viewing pleasure.

We’ll be writing more about the event itself within the next few days, but I wanted to leave you with the best quotes of the day:

A woman holding a sign in one hand and a cell phone to her ear:

I’m standing in front of the capitol with fifty thousand other people and they all hate Obama.

This one is our favorite:

If I would have known that protesting would be this much fun, I would have done it in the ’60’s instead of starting to protest in my sixties.

Some general crowd shots:

Just some of the many clever and creative signs (we’ll post more later):

We would like to dedicate this one to the exurbanleague.com guys:

I’ll post some more tomorrow, but I’ll leave you with this one. I haven’t decided what is more humorous – seeing “hippies” at the Tea Party, or the camera crew grabbing them out of the crowd and making a fuss over them. I might normally say that they got lost on their way to a Phish concert, but they did have Tea Party signs :

P.S. – If you didn’t already know it, Arizona is a beautiful place:

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