"Get Out of Rural America Act" Could Dry Up Hunting/Plinking Lands
Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.org Thursday, May 6, 2004
Long-time GOA activists will remember CARA, known by gun owners
and other opponents as the Condemnation and Relocation [of
Hunting and Shooting Lands] Act.
Well, CARA is back... but under a new name.
The new bill is being dubbed the Get Outdoors (GO) Act, H.R.
4100, although it is more accurately dubbed the "Get Out of Rural
America Act."
What does H.R. 4100 do?
It would allocate $3.125 billion annually -- much of it for
government bureaucrats to acquire private lands that have been
historically used for hunting and fishing.
But once the land is under government control, there is no
guarantee that such lands would continue to be used for such
sporting purposes. When rural land disappears, opportunities for
recreation -- especially plinking and hunting -- tend to
disappear as well.
Republican Representatives Don Young (AK) and George Miller (CA)
are the chief sponsors of this legislation. What is their reason
for offering this legislation, when there is very limited
constitutional authority for the federal government to own land?
"Obesity is a public health crisis of the first order," Miller
said. "And the Get Outdoors Act is a sensible way to help
mitigate that public health crisis."
No, that is not a joke. The ostensible reason for the "GO Act"
is to help slim Americans' waistlines by providing more
opportunities to hike around the woods.
Obesity is costing Americans $100 billion annually because of
health-related problems. So the $3.125 billion annually they
propose to spend under the "GO Act" is, in their way of thinking,
a bargain.
The Land Rights Network, which opposes this bill, points out that
instead of using the money to steal people's land, they could
"buy 15 million really good treadmills for that kind of money and
really help folks fighting obesity."
LRN is just poking fun, of course, because it knows (and so do
we) that there is no authority in the Constitution for setting up
a "fat police."
The real truth is that the land-grabbing radicals are feverishly
trying to use any argument to justify their agenda. In 2001,
they tried to justify CARA in the name of helping sportsmen.
Last year, when they tried to attach CARA to an energy bill, the
implication was that CARA was good for preserving our natural
resources.
Now they're back... but this time it's being done in the name of
reducing obesity. A weighty reason to be sure. But not at the
expense of private hunting lands!
Make no mistake and don't be fooled by what the politicians tell
you. True conservationists want resources protected for the
future USE of sportsmen. Radical preservationists, on the other
hand, want to ban human activity.
H.R. 4100 would give future administrations, working in concert
with environmentalist extremists and even the United Nations,
automatic access to literally billions of tax dollars. The money
would ostensibly be used to preserve lands that would benefit
plants and animals or "conserve open space ... or have historic
or cultural value" -- a blanket authorization that could apply to
just about any land in the United States. As these
preservationists are more than generally unfriendly towards
hunting and shooting, the lands could then be closed to those
activities.
Even if you buy the hollow promise of the authors of H.R. 4100
that recreational use will be considered in these ongoing land
grabs, there is still the fact that the federal government is
swallowing up more and more private property.
Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) has been an ardent opponent of CARA and
its recent emanations.
"I believe the federal government owns too much land now," he
said. "If the government wants to buy more land, they should sell
some and use the proceeds to buy more."
Well said.
ACTION: Please contact your Representative and urge him or her
to oppose H.R. 4100. You can use the pre-written message below
and send it as an e-mail by visiting the GOA Legislative Action
Center at
http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm (where phone and
fax numbers are also available).
----- Pre-written letter -----
Dear Representative:
As an avid sportsman and defender of the right to keep and bear
arms, I cannot support H.R. 4100, the Get Outdoors Act.
The sponsors of this legislation say they want to reduce obesity
in this nation. But let's be serious. There is no
constitutional authority for the federal government to act as the
"fat police" or to spend billions of dollars to buy up private
lands in the name of getting more people outdoors.
Letting government bureaucrats grab more land is never the avenue
to achieving more freedom. The history of government-controlled
land has been one of betrayal to gun owners and sportsmen. The
trend has been to close off more and more government-controlled
lands to anyone but unarmed hikers.
Please let me know your views on this legislation. Thank you.
Sincerely,
**************************** Please do not reply directly to this
message, as your reply will bounce back as undeliverable.
To subscribe to free, low-volume GOA alerts, go to
http://www.gunowners.org/ean.htm on the web. Change of e-mail
address may also be made at that location.
To unsubscribe send a message to
gunowners_list@capwiz.mailmanager.net with the word unsubscribe
in the subject line or use the url below.
Problems, questions or comments? The main GOA e-mail address
goamail@gunowners.org is at your disposal. Please do not add that
address to distribution lists sending more than ten messages per
week or lists associated with issues other than gun rights.
--- You may unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time by
visiting
http://capwiz.com/gunowners/lmx/u/?jobid=39492846.
******************
Why do liberals trust the bad guys to be good and expect the law-
abiding to be bad?
******************
Firearms, self-defense, and other information, with LINKS are
available at:
http://www.ourpeak.com/davisda Check the index.html
page for additions and updates. Previous E-mail messages are
being archived.
********************
