Canales News Briefs

February 6, 2009

To All,

Even though it seems at times that we firearms rights activists are surrounded by those who would disarm us by any means available, we have no choice in the matter. We will fight to the last breath.

And especially for those who would sell out our birthright for a pat on the back at some Sacramento mixer, and 30 IOU's from John Chiang, we only have one thing to say-

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ.

That's Not Rain Falling On My Back Update:

In the strange world of "eco-science", where peer-review of one-tailed White Papers is done by friends with a wink and a nod, experience leads one to believe that pictures can overcome literally thousands of words.

This may be especially so in the matter of the restoration of the California Condor. Here traditional lead ammunition is being portrayed as the "fall guy" for a program that an American Ornithological Union/CA Audubon joint paper last year noted had serious deficiencies (Including an unknown source of lead in the food of "pre-release" condors allegedly fed the carrion of organic dairy cattle. Perhaps that organic feed for those organic cattle came from an un-regulated supplier offshore somewhere...).

Yet it is also clear that condors, and other "species of concern" (Grizzlies, ravens, vultures, etc.) have dining habits that can lead them to consume trash items that either contain lead or other toxics, or even cause harm through internal laceration, impaction, and concomitant infection. Given the industrial origins of much of this trash, it is highly possible that any lead found in the bloodstreams of condors can have sources other than any carrion allegedly contaminated with bullet fragments.

For example, the very same Andean condors that were used to be behavioral "mentors" to juvenile California condors at the beginning of condor restoration efforts seem to show a strange affinity for congregating at garbage dumps in the search for an easy meal, if one is to believe in video from ITN.

Click This Link: Andean Condor Snacktime

Is it possible that those Andean condors brought in to "train" juvenile California condors in "how to be a condor" imparted a love for garbage that had never been previously documented by condor biologists? (Moreover, would the Condor Recovery Team ever admit that they may have chosen poorly in the matter?).

Or, take the claims by various "environmental" advocates that traditional ammunition is the sole possible source of lead to other kinds of species of concern, such as grizzly bears, vultures, ravens, and eagles.

Are we to believe that grizzlies, and other bears, have never gone to garbage dumps and possibly ingested metal bits containing lead?

Or perhaps bears and ravens enjoying garbage at the same time?

(Listen to the calls in the backround).

Or that bears will actively scavenge from park dumpsters, potentially exposing them to lead foils and other more soluble forms of lead compound ?

Or that bears in Condor Country have been somehow trained by vigilant Park personnel to eschew garbage for wholesome natural foods?

Or that perhaps vultures might not join bears at a garbage dump?

(Talk about your "money shots".).

Or that vultures prefer wholesome road kill over one's leftover garbage?

Or that Mother Nature's avians know better than to congregate at dumps and other toxic waste sites (Casmalia, anyone?).

Or that corvids who have been anecdotally associated in the past with a fondness for shiny objects and other detritus would somehow ignore open air dumps and waste sites?

It is time that we hunters and sportsmen and sportswomen finally wake up and smell the brown tofu frying here. In the name of environmental "stewardship" we are being asked to concede the terms of debate for specious reasons (In other words, follow the money.). We are being asked to docilely walk into the arbeitslager of disarmament for the sake of a program that is purportedly failing, and yet 3 breeding pairs away from meeting a primary restoration goal in California itself. If anything, we should be easily forgiven for the sin of wanting to see all the hard data first before consigning our children and grandchildren to the fate of slavery being currently being offered up the Elites.

The reality of the fate of animals in an environment that has been altered by man for literally thousands of years here in the Western Hemisphere is not as clear-cut as the Preservationists would have us believe (What does one think that Native Americans did with condors in the decades before Hernan Cortes pulled off his hostile takeover, anyway? Will the likes of Richard Rogers and Michael Sutton ever admit to the public at large that Native Americans might have had a role in the demise of the condor through "conspicuous consumption" of feathers and other body parts?). If restoration under the Endangered Species Act of condors, or any other species of concern, means that humans and their activities are to be culled completely from the environment, then perhaps it's time to re-think Richard Nixon's greatest mistake.

Links at:

http://www.wildraven.net/AmericanGrizzly/grizzly_bears_and_garbage.html

http://www.sierraclub.org/grizzly/talking_trash.asp

http://www.imagekind.com/showartwork.aspx?IMID=5143c3ab-7015-444f-9c75-330c026c4a58

http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/3180753v2332704-grizzly-bear-ursus-arctos-horribilis-at-a

http://www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/research/igbst-home.htm

http://wlapwww.gov.bc.ca/wld/pub/beargarbage/garbage_bear_broch.html

http://www.nramemberscouncils.com/newsbriefs/AOUreport.pdf

Remember:

Those of us who personally attended the August 27, 2007 Special Hearing on the condor/lead bullet issue will always remember what is colloquially called "The Barnes Video".

It's not so much that Barnes had decided to "cooperate in a technical demonstration" with a presentation that had the net effect of bolstering pro-lead-bullet ban forces in the meeting. After all, we have seen such kinds of cooperation before, back in the days when the Clinton Administration was wheeling and dealing with various gun manufacturers and others over such issues as "smart guns" and bullet serialization (Though if memory serves, firearms owners and activists were more than a bit miffed with those who cooperated with Clinton and Co. back then).

Still, the Barnes video highlighted a number of factors about the Barnes product line that were not generally known to this hunter/handloader.

For example, what happened when a "Varmint Grenade" hit a prairie dog or two in the video was quite dramatic. In addition, said video scenes showing a relatively explosive application to Cynomys population control efforts allowed knowledgeable observers to tell the hunter/shooters in the room from the "Bambi-lovers"/animal rights activists (Especially the one young female activist several rows to my right, who turned the oddest shade of puce after about the 5th "deconstructed" 'dog.). Or that the Varmint Grenade, due to it's composition, might give some future forensic technician fits when trying to match a particular barrel to a particular projectile (Hint- Varmint Grenades apparently don't retain any shape upon impact. Hence the name. Hopefully Organized Crime doesn't read Guns and Ammo.).

Or take the Barnes Triple Shock X bullet, whose controlled expansion properties remind one of the venerable "Black Talon" brand of rifle and pistol ammunition. Whether or not there is an "over-penetration" problem in close cover hunting, or a possible laceration threat to such scavengers as wolves, grizzlies, and, eh-hmmm, condors for those situations that the Triple Shock is retained in carrion remains to be positively determined.

Still, one cannot forget that a policy "forcing" is happening here, with the current sway of Preservationists and their regulatory sympathizers trying to drive ammunition that is affordable to the vast majority of hunters and shooters out of the market.

This thus lead one to question as to, in California, what is the real purpose of Winchester Olin's introduction of a .22 rimfire using a patented all-tin projectile? After all, hunting with .22 rimfire in California is not exactly permitted by the Fish & Game Code (In fact, one cannot hunt with rimfire.).

And if Olin is not going to the expense of marketing, manufacturing, and distributing a "non-toxic" tin .22 rimfire that uses a bullet material that can be as much as ten times the cost as lead for hunting uses mandated by regulation, then could it be that they expect it's used to be mandated for uses other than hunting? Enquiring minds want to know.

This, and other distasteful possibilities may lead to the success of the kind of gun control Joyce Malcom wrote about in her classic history "To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right". Whether through onerous game laws, confiscatory taxes, or an outright assault on one's individual rights, unless firearms activists get up out of their La-Z-Boys or take time off from the shooting benches, there won't be a right to enjoy later on.

Links at:

http://www.barnesbullets.com/products/rifle/tsx-bullet/

http://www.barnesbullets.com/videos/308_180gr_TSX_6fps_logo.wmv

http://www.winchester.com/products/newitems/whatsnewcontent.aspx?productid=74

Another One Bites The Dust:

Yet another Obama Cabinet Nominee goes down in flames. Sort of makes one wonder if any Big-Time Democrats pay their fair share of taxes at all. Stay tuned.

Respectfully,

Anthony Canales

SFVMC-NRA

except as noted.