Biden's war on hunters
The Biden administration is under fire for regulatory proposals critics have warned could serve as a backdoor attack on hunting and could lead to more aggressive measures targeting hunting.
According to experts and hunting industry officials, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is expected to publish draft hunting guidelines that would substantially curb the type of equipment sportsmen are allowed to use on federal refuge properties. The guidelines are, among other provisions, expected to expand the refuge area where cost-effective lead ammunition and fishing tackle will be banned.
"Raising the cost of hunting, raising the cost of fishing and raising the cost of our crowd doing their thing is objective number one, without a doubt, because they know if you make it more expensive, less people will do it," Todd Adkins, the vice president of government affairs for the Sportsmen’s Alliance, a pro-hunting group, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
"When it comes to the FWS issuing a ban on various refuges as they expand hunting opportunities — that's all we're really asking," Adkins continued. "Number one, are you finding specific problems related to lead exposure at specific national wildlife refuges? And number two, have you evaluated the consequences that this ban will have on the users, both hunters and anglers?"
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"Every year, there's a hunt and fish rule that comes out at the end of the season," Benjamin Cassidy, the director of government affairs for the pro-hunting Safari Club International and a former senior Interior Department official, told Fox News Digital. "When I was in the [Trump] administration, these were big packages to celebrate opening of access, expanding opportunities for access."
"Since this administration's been in, the numbers have shrunk every year to lower numbers. It's really just kind of been masking tape over what's really been bans," Cassidy continued. "We've seen millions of acres closed and we've seen lead bans being put in place."
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Hunting has been an important aspect of the American experience for generations. I suspect these Biden rules will alienate a significant portion of the population. Heck, Biden even named his son Hunter.
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