The Vote is Set for Late This Week, Call Your U.S. Senators
U.S. Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
Great news, but we are not finished yet. By an overwhelming 92-5 vote, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed an important procedural motion that will allow senators to vote on the Sportsmen’s Act of 2012 (S.3525) currently scheduled for this Thursday, but that could slip to Friday.
Thanks to everyone who called and emailed your senators to help make this upcoming vote possible. Now we need all hunters, target shooters and firearms owners to keep the pressure on. Call your senators again and urge them to vote YES on the Sportsmen’s Act of 2012 (S.3525), the most important package of measures for the benefit of sportsmen in a generation.
While we believe phone calls are most effective at this late stage in the process, you may also send a quick e-mail using the link provided on this page. In either case, your involvement will take only minutes. If this is your first opportunity to weigh in, the timing could not be better. Act today!
This historic legislation includes the firearms industry’s top legislative priority, the Hunting, Fishing and Recreational Shooting Protection Act (S.838) that would clarify that ammunition is excluded from regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
Anti-hunting groups led by the Center for Biological Diversity are suing the EPA to force a ban on traditional ammunition made with lead components that would devastate hunting and shooting sports participation, drive up ammunition prices by almost 200 percent on average and dry up conservation funding.
No less than 46 of the nation’s leading sportsmen and conservation groups including NRA, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, American Sportfishing Association, International Game Fish Association, Center for Coastal Conservation and Boone and Crockett Club are championing S.3525. This bipartisan legislation is strongly supported by the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
The Sportsmen’s Act of 2012 is a package of 19 separate bills—the majority of sportsmen’s legislative priorities on Capitol Hill. (See below for an overview of the components of the bill.) A similar package of bills—the Sportsmen’s Heritage Act of 2012 (H.R.4089)—was passed by the House in the spring by a bipartisan vote of 276 to 146. Passage of this pro-sportsmen’s legislation will promote, protect and preserve our nation’s hunting, shooting and conservation heritage for generations to come.
Your voice must be heard! As you read this, anti-hunting forces are working to defeat S. 3525. So act now, call your U.S. senators at 202-224-3121 and urge them to vote YES for the bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act of 2012.
Sportsmen’s Priorities in the Sportsmen’s Act of 2012
The Hunting, Fishing and Recreational Shooting Protection Act: Specifically excludes ammunition and fishing tackle from the Toxic Substances Control Act, preventing unnecessary regulations that could devastate hunting, shooting, conservation funding and the firearm and ammunition industries.
Making Public Lands Public: Requires that the 1.5 percent of annual Land and Water Conservation Fund funding is made available to secure public access to federal public land for hunting, fishing, and other recreational purposes.
Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act: Makes Pittman-Robertson funds available to states for a longer period of time for the creation and maintenance of shooting ranges. The bill encourages federal land agencies to cooperate with state and local authorities to maintain shooting ranges and limits liability for these agencies.
Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 to urge your senators to SUPPORT the Sportsmen’s Act of 2012. To send an e-mail or a letter to your U.S. senators, click here.
Click here to find complete contact information for your elected officials.
(e) Effect on Other Authorities-
(1) ACQUISITION OF LAND AND WATER- Nothing in this subtitle alters or otherwise affects the authorities, responsibilities, obligations, or powers of the Secretary to acquire land, water, or an interest in land or water under any other provision of law.
(2) PRIVATE PROPERTY PROTECTION- Nothing in this subtitle permits the use of funds made available to carry out this subtitle to acquire real property or a real property interest without the written consent of each owner of the real property or real property interest.
The Government isn’t going to come to take your land away by any new means than they had before. If anything, this makes it slightly harder for them to take land away from private owners as they now are not allowed to spend more than 90% of the budget for the construction, maintenance, and conservation of Public Shooting Ranges and Fish Habitats. Rather than “minor” conservation gains, the gains addressed in this Bill are quite major. Add in the fact that it allows for more privileges for hunter, fishers, and shooters (of Bows, rifles, pistols, and shotguns), while not increasing the budget burden significantly, I would have to say that you could ask for a better bill. Unless of course you’re upset that people will have to fill out paperwork in order to bring their polar bear carcass back from Canada.
NO! DO NOT SUPPORT THIS BILL! The modest conservation gains allowed in the bill are totally offset by giving unelected bureaucrats the authority to steal land from hunters and private property owners. I have emailed and called my representatives and asked them to vote against this bill. I’m not alone here, lots of folks do not support this bill (https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/s3525) including the GOA.
Guns are for sport and target shooting, but today, sadly, America needs protection from the most evil predator on earth…..godless, fascist, Socialists, who care nothing, except for power and gold. Men like this must be confronted with firepower. They know no other kind of respect. Today, the evil predators are everywhere, but most are in Washington DC and our State Capitals. Meanwhile the weakest amongst us still vote to keep the Socialists in power. At some point someone’s got to stop the madness.
Because the NRA is no longer a safety and common sense organization since the right-wing gun nuts started trying to arm criminals, perverts, wife beaters, rapists and crazy people, that’s why this veteran believes having them backing this actually disqualifies it. The NRA I was trained gun use & safety at disappeared, it had common sense people, now the new leadership tell wild lies about americans and try and drive wedges between us. Exactly like the gop, nobody believes a word they say or trust any issue they back. I will be telling my elected officials to OK the 4th amendment again, if that is in question. But until the day comes when I see some protections against crazy people being given fire arms imbedded in NRA propaganda I shall treat everything the NRA or the gop as trafficking in arming nuts and void or help kill any legislation they front. Wish the original NRA could come back, would send my grandchildren to get rained in gun use and safety, but this group I have way to many questions about their state of mind and respect for our citizens, all of our citizens concerns.
This bill is being supported by the NRA and other firearms and hunting special interest groups. You better believe that they wont let legislation get tacked onto this bill that would jeopardize gun rights
Be wary of what they try to attach to this bill!
NO!!! I am afraid of what will be attached to the bill before it is signed. Use your damned heads, people.