Wolves And The Second Amendment
Posted by Tom Remington on April 7, 2008
Below you will find a recent article written by Jim Beers. You’ll also find a short bio about Mr. Beers. His article helps readers to begin making a connection between the efforts of those manipulating the Endangered Species Act for personal agendas and those wanting to strip Americans of the Second Amendment rights.
I will also include two other parts along with Jim Beers’ article and bio. One is a bit of an introduction to his article and the last will be a response by someone who has read Beers’ piece.
This information raises some interesting questions about the connections of people once in high places moving to other organizations and landing in high places. You can draw your own conclusions.
First will be Beers’ bio, followed by his introduction, the article and then a response to that article.
Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Centreville, Virginia with his wife of many decades.
Folks,
This is a copy of something I just sent to Charles Kay, a great biologist and friend. Since I just remembered that Charles is probably in Africa, I thought I would send this around.
Remember that the Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service under Clinton oversaw the theft of $45 to 60 Million from the hunting and fishing excise taxes. Those funds that were intended by law FOR STATE FISH AND WILDLIFE PROGRAMS were NEVER REPLACED AND OUR STATE AGENCIES NEVER REQUESTED THAT THEY BE REPLACED (don’t want to offend the boys and girls passing out all those federal grants). The stolen funds were used to pay for the capture, transportation, conditioning, and release of WOLVES IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK to ‘seed’ wolves in the Upper Rockies. That Director established The Defenders of Wildlife as the erstwhile federal “partner” responsible for “paying” for wolf depredations. This was and is merely a smokescreen to fend off complaints of the harm of wolves, only a small amount of livestock loss was ever remunerated and dogs and game herds and other losses were simply unavoidable casualties of this “war”. That ex-FWS Director went to work in a top job with The Defenders of Wildlife as soon as the law permitted (The National Wildlife Federation payed her a big salary while she had to cool her heels after resigning when the Republicans won the Presidential election). As you read the e-mails below, remember she still directs this wolf business for The “Defenders”, lobbies her former associates in FWS, and, I would guess, is a player in the upcoming election where if she is lucky (and we are not) she will be reincarnated in some other position in a “high place”.
Hopefully you may find this worthwhile. FYI
Jim Beers
Subject: Re: Wolves and The 2nd Amendment
Charles,
I believe the entire predator “push” from grizzly increases in range and numbers; to limiting methods of take of cougars (dogs, on-sight as depredating, seasons); to federal requirements (in the works as grant requirements) to make cougars invading places like Iowa, Kansas, etc. Protected Native Species and not classified as unprotected so that any take is difficult; to keeping black bears on the Threatened List in LA and FL (and adding other states opportunistically) and claiming large tracts of Florida as “Florida Panther” Critical Habitat — all are seriously jeopardizing the future of our 2nd Amendment Rights. Not only will game numbers (and hence seasons and harvest and license revenue and ancillary expenditures) decrease: areas open to hunting will decrease and hunter participation will necessarily decrease. Then there is the SAFETY EFFECT. Hunters that leave a kill to get equipment to haul it out or to get help will increasingly return to a predator on the kill. Hunters using bows for big game or turkey hunters or predator callers, all sit still and watch INTO the wind. There will be more run-ins with un-harassed grizzlies and cougars and black bears as food dwindles or as rabies or other disease outbreaks ravage the increasing predator population. What hunter will dare to sit and call after hearing how some guy was attacked FROM BEHIND by a grizzly or jumped by a wolf (a wolf once jumped a Russian lumberjack from behind WHILE HE WAS RUNNING THE CHAINSAW!)? What parent will let their kid go our after school to hunt alone after reading these accounts of attacks?
All of this will shrink the number of hunters and urban hunters especially. While the rural residents (both hunters and non-hunters) will increasingly want, need, and use guns - the anti-gunners will have a big leg-up as fewer and fewer urban folks hunt and become less vociferous in challenging the take-away activities of anti-gunners and urban mayors. Bottom line is a shrinking contingent of gun users and gun defenders with a concomitant increase in the need for guns in a shrinking rural American population that is more and more subject to the imaginary whims of urban voting blocs. Result? More rural residents from families and retirees to resource-dependent businesses and other entrepreneurs leaving rural environs. As an old bureaucrat it looks good for federal growth and bureaucrats that will have less opposition to buying more and more of rural America for everything from re-establishing Native Pre-Columbian Ecosystems to establishing “Corridors” and “Roadless” “Wildernesses” as more rural areas are evacuated. The only “winners” will be bureaucrats, politicians, and the modern rich land-buying aristocrats.
The environmentalists and the animal rights radicals never “win” because they will never be “happy” until they are the only ones left and that will never happen. I am reminded of that great line by Eli Wallach as the Mexican bandit chief in The Magnificent Seven. As Yul Brynner invites Wallach to move on and leave the villagers alone, Wallach snarls “If God did not want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep!”. For too long we have been sheep.
Jim Beers
Subject: Wolfs and The 2nd Amendment
Hi Guys,
A friend forwarded me you URL today. My name is xxx I live in Powell, WY. Like you over there, our elk herds are rapidly disappearing. I am working on a freelance article commissioned by Predator Magazine. The subject of the article is the politics of wolf reintroduction. In particular, the connection between Defenders of Wildlife and Handgun Control, Inc, now known as the Brady Campaign.
As you likely know, Defenders is one of the main players in this ongoing circus. They have funded most of the court cases that have kept and will keep wolves listed for the foreseeable future. in 2004 they won two key decisions, one in Federal District Court in Oregon, one in Vermont. Basically these two judges found that so long as there are no wolves in Oregon/Washington, they are still endangered in our area. These decisions were based on the way the US F&W drew the wold management boundaries, and the way that the Endangered Species Act spells out management requirements. On the 28th of this month, the US Fish & Wildlife Service will “delist” wolves. The day after that, DoW et al, will file a motion for injunction which will likely be granted. In order for delisting to proceed, the wildlife management groups in ID, MT, and WY fish &game will have to appeal theses precedents in Federal Appellate court. If they are successful there, DoW will appeal that decision. According to my sources inside the WY F&G they expect that will take 2-3 years. By then the damage will be done. Unless the states can have the original decisions overturned in Appellate court, wolves will remain protected far into the future. As you know, we are already standing on the brink of “too late”.
Wolves cannot be reintroduced in eastern Washington, because DoW was able to have the Mountain Caribou in that area listed as endangered. So, wolves cannot be reintroduced there until the caribou populations have recovered. That will never happen because caribou don’t want to be there in the first place.
So here’s the Catch. The way that U&S F&G has drawn their boundaries between elk species, if DoW can manage to get the Rocky Mountain subspecies listed as only “threatened”, they can stop sport hunting of that subspecies throughout its entire range!!
What better way to cut the financial legs out from under both the NRA and State fish and game organizations.
The connection between wolves and anti-gun groups comes in the form of one Charles J. Orasin. For more than 15 years he was the rabid VP of Operations for Handgun Control, Inc. IN a flurry of Congressional hearings regarding shady fund raising practices in 2000, he disappeared from HCI and reappeared at Defenders of Wildlife as their VP of Operations. Should we believe that he just abandoned his life’s work to kill the 2nd Amendment to go save wolves and sea turtles?
If you look at the string of Federal Court rulings they won after he got to DoW you see and alarming pattern. Did you know that 10-12 years before the wolf planting recovery programs were started, elk were transplanted into areas that exactly match the original wolf reintroduction proposals? Never make the mistake of thinking that reintroduction of wolves has anything to do with “balancing” the ecosystem. For 6 years, the US Fish & Wildlife Service fought Wyoming’s management plan tooth and nail. Seemingly over night, they reversed their position. Why?
In 2003, I read an article that said the National Park Service was considering a study on the impact of wolves on ungulate populations. When you call and ask them about it now, you get a lot of er….uh….well… we ..ah.. never did the study….”Why not?” er …uh…well… we don’t see an impact high enough to warrant spending the money on it. Yet, The studies in Wyoming and Idaho tell a different story altogether. I believe it is the alarming results of state studies that flipped the US F&G literally over night.
The 2007 study done by the WY G&F shows that 4 of Wyoming elk hers are close to calf survival rates that will not support its population WITHOUT growing predation from wolves/grizzlies/lions.
Predator Magazine is the only publication that has the hair to have a go at putting out the news that the Endangered Species Act is being manipulated by DoW and their ilk, not to save species, but to do away with the 2nd Amendment. Most folks think I’m just a crackpot, conspiracy nut. But, WHY did MR. Gun Control go to work for DoW? Why did their strategy change so suddenly upon his arrival. I can find but one answer. I sent your URL to Ralph Lemeyer at Predator Magazine. He was asking me to find some wolf kill photos for the article. I think you guys have that covered! I hope we can get together sometime to compare notes.
Best Regards, and keep Hammerin ‘em!
Posted by Tom Remington
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I can’t believe you reprinted this drivel. The second amendment has NOTHING to do with hunting. You are only fueling both anti-hunting and anti-second amendment groups by linking the two together. Go re-read the amendment, it does not mention hunting once.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
I agree with Jim Beers, there wolves should be allowed to exercise their second amendment rights too.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
No kidding? WOW! But some people, and that’s why I reprinted this “drivel” believe that incrementalism is the tool of present used to whittle away at all of our rights.
If animal rights groups can whack away at hunting opportunities, they hope that interest in guns will also dry up, increasing their opportunities at furthering the decline of our right to keep and bear arms.
Is this far fetched? I’m sure some will think so, others won’t and some will, perhaps, do a bit more thinking about issues.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
I didn’t sya it wasn’t incrementalism. I said it wouldn’t be if these morons would stop linking to unrelated topics together.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
If one thinks for a second actions with the ESA aren’t connected to stripping gun rights one has got another thing comming. Using wolves to eradicate game to the point that hunting of that game isn’t allowed makes for one less reason to have guns. Wolves=no game=no hunting=one less reason to have guns. Whittling away at it one step at a time.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Wolves=no game=no hunting=one less reason to have guns.
In your mind maybe. Hunting is not a big reason to have a gun. Hunting is fun, but it is hardly as important as protecting your family and freedom.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Tony, I don’t think you are seeing what is being said. Maybe you are not a hunter yourself and dislike anything which gives hunting a good rep. That’s ok, I have friends like that…But, what is being said is that more and more people are going to have less and less reasons to have guns in their lives..If you only want guns to protect your family or yourself, or just to play with, fine.. But what is happening, is that eventually, in a generation or two, people are going to wonder why we need “those awful guns” and maybe even change the Constution, or more likely, simply pass more and more laws restricting the use or possession of guns. You are probably not old enough to have seen the changes which have already taken place…ask some of the older people like myself, and they will remember….
Don’t let the liberal, anti-gun attitude bring about division in our ranks, they know to divide means to conquer..
April 8th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I saw this asinine logic put to use in the gun control act of 1968 and AGAIN with Reagan’s ‘86 gun ban and AGAIN under Bush I and AGAIN under Clinton and AGAIN under Bush II. Ever heard of the sporting purpose test? Look it up.
By linking the second amendment to hunting you do more harm than good. Why have all of the anti gun advocates said that they have no problem with certain types of hunting firearms? It is to appease people who only care about hunting and nothing else (and there are a lot of them ever hear of the AHSA?). I care about hunting, but it is in no way linked to the right to own firearms.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I think Tony has a pint, and I just want to clarify that I do hunt. By linking hunting to the second amendment and saying that it is the major reason that the constitution contains right to bear arms, opens doors to arguments such as what is a “reasonable” gun to use for sportsman, and I believe that this thinking sells short the constitution as a whole in the long run.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
“By linking hunting to the second amendment and saying that it is the major reason that the constitution contains right to bear arms” Never said it is the major reason, my point was just as Jes said, “more and more people are going to have less and less reasons to have guns in their lives…Don’t let the liberal, anti-gun attitude bring about division in our ranks, they know to divide means to conquer.” Bingo
April 8th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Tony or Cid or whoever you are this day, hour and minute, in fairness to others please use only one name when making your comments. People care about certain issues and take the time to help educate and express their own ideas and opinions and it is only out of respect for others that you maintain one identity.
Thanks!
April 8th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Anything post 2nd Amendment and post the Dick act of 1902 is in fact DE-FACTO law. All debates taking place on the Second are distractions, nothing more. the ESA is being used to destroy hunting, also this nonsense is ANOTHER 2nd Amendment attack, just another of thousands. All de-facto laws concerning guns are being enforced by power structures in violation of the Constitution. We have the right to carry any where!! Even in National Parks! yes they will arrest you, this does not mean they are acting under Constitutional Law, in other words DE-JURE Law, De-Facto Law is being enforced. I have been challenged in the state of Idaho for carrying fire arms with out a hunting license, I went to court and defeated them. De-facto law fails under De-jure law. You had better know what you are about if attempting this action, I do. I represent myself in the courts. Idaho no longer issues illegal bills of attainder to me. It is just not worth their time, Im to educated and it costs to much money to fight me. If Im gonna hunt, then I get the license and tags and I hunt. Folks should read the Dick Act of 1902, it is found in the Congressional Record, House, pages 7706-7713, 321-352, 7594-7595, ” Efficiency of the Militia ” bill H.R. 11654. If my fellow gun owners would get up to speed on the 2nd Amendment and its many valid U.S. court rulings and definitions then it doesen’t matter what gun hating Communists try to confuse the issue with. Hunting is a pastime, pleasure, necessity. Gun ownership is a right, weapon ownership rights even date back to ancient Rome. Self defense is the first law of nature, it is a Liberty, not a priviledge. These Liberty’s were enforced even in the original 13 Colonies prior to the Revolution. Study on Chief Justice John Marshall’s writings, our third Chief of Justice of the Supreme Court, brilliant man. Were Justice Marshall alive today, he would be spitting FIRE at these scoundrels. Read the Origins of the Second Amendment; A documentary History of the Bill of Rights 1787-1792, David E. Young. ISBN; 0-9623664-3-9. Read What you should Know about the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights, By Dr. John Coleman, ISBN 1-893157-03-2. And for Gods sakes folks read your Congressional Globes, annals, Records of Congress. Get Law Dictionarys to help you do the english breakdowns. This hunter has done so for 30 years. For Gods sakes READ. Turn off your black liar box in the house. READ. Or lose this info war we are in. READ.
April 9th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Yahoo! You made me hungry, Greg. Thanks.
April 11th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I’m the guy that wrote the original “drivel”. I was amazed to trip across it here. It was an e-mail to a guy with a website about wolf effects on Idaho elk herds. I don’t think hunting is linked to the Constitution in any literal or interpretive sense. It is, however, inextricably linked in a very practical sense in defending the 2nd Ammendment.
Organizatins like the NRA and Gun Owners of America that defend our 2nd Ammendment rights rely HEAVILY on donations from sport hunters. As we saw with the Brady bill, the definitions of what weapons and/or weapon features were to be banned were discuss and very much based on what people “needed” for “legitimate” sporting uses.
Charles Orasin Formerly of Handgun Control, Inc. then Defenders of Wildlife) beat his head against the Constitutional wall for 15 years. It’s not about what the “framers” might have meant in every syllable. Inside the Beltway, NOTHING is about the Constitution. It’s about what you can get away with. What resources you have to support your position vs your opposition.
You look at the money pulled in by the NRA and GOA vs. Handgun Control, Inc (now The Brady Campaign). The various pro-wolf organizations pull in 15 times more each year than the anti-gun lobby. I believe Mr. Orasin saw the strategic light. The only way to get at the 2nd Ammendment is to disable his opposition by undermining their financial base.
There stands now, a web of legal precedent regarding the protection of large predators, that properly managed could end sport hunting of all ungulate species in the Rocky Mountain states, and wherever wolves might be reintroduced in the future. Whether Defenders of Wildlife and their ilk accomplished this intentionally, who is to say. It is, however, terribly convenient for them.
Until everyone in the sport hunting community understands that there is, in fact, a direct, practical link between sport hunting and the effective DEFENSE of the 2nd Ammendment, we are in real trouble.
Even if there is no huge “conspiracy”, there are 11 organizations joined in the suit to re-list wolves. The top executives of those companies pull in milions in salaries, perks and benfits. What is left of the doantions go to fundraising firms and legal firms. (IRS Forms 990 are in the public domain, look it up)
Wolves are no longer endangered, but should wolves remain delisted some pretty lavish lifestyles are in danger. For more than a decade the wolf and the grizzly have been the “cash cow” product of these organizations. Delisting is the fiscal equivalent to them of telling Ford they can no longer sell pickup trucks.
Consider the NRA and other pro-gun lobbyists as the moat around the 2nd Ammendment. The anti-gun folks are getting smarter. They aren’t shooting at the castle again until they drain the water.
April 17th, 2008 at 4:59 am
I also wanted to add that I stumbled over this blog for the first time tonite while doing more research on Charles Orasin and his anit-gun background. I hadn’t seen Mr. Beers article before but it’s not unusual for people to come to the same conclucions separately. I would like to buy he and Mr. remington a cup of coffe or 10 someday. It promises to be a lively exchange.
I became more interested and started reading more 2 years ago. I live an hour from the East Gate of Yellowstone so I spend a lot of time in the park. I haven’t seen a group of cow elk with more than one calf in 3 years when 10 years ago they were everywhere.
I guided elk hunters in the Absorka-Beartooth Wilderness in the headwaters of Hell Roaring Creek north of the Park. Historically it was some of the best elk hunting to be found anywhere. 2002 was my last season. We had 21 hunters in September and took 1 bull on opening day and did not see another elk of any kind for the remaining 3 weeks.
The unfortunate part of this all is that due to the Federal District Court decision, the pro-wolf lobby will likely get its injunction. IN the ensuing legal battle which will likely take several years, the wolf will have completed it’s objective. WY G&F published a study last fall that indicated 4 of our elk herds are in serious trouble NOW. By the time the legalities are done, these herds will be gone and more herds will be in trouble.
Some group will file and win a suit to list the Rocky Mountain supspeies as “threatend” and sport hunting will be stopped by injunction. Just a prediction. We’ll see the reality all too soon.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Mike,
Exactly right. The wolf has been a tool from day one. Now just think ahead a bit more, the financial world we all know is unwinding, This fiat money system (fake) is crashing by intent. This was the objective of the 1913 creation of the European privately owned not federal at all reserve bank. Objective take down a sovereign republic. They have done it. The entitlement bomb including the $9trillion deficit the government shows is now $153 trillion as of the second quarter of 2007, in 1998 it was $33 trillion. The idiots are still lending as fast as they can, or maybe idiots are still borrowing as fast as they can, the bottom line is our public and private land is the collateral for this loan, every American is accountable, “OUR” government went along with this scheme from day one. Foreclosure will be very ugly, when the fiat debt notes which were never real money and are nearly worthless right now crash for good, guess what, no food at the market, soldiers standing guard at gas stations, I wonder how long it will be before mad people want to kill my horses for meat, No elk or deer in the hills, It wil not take long for existing cattle to be plundered, how hungry will a man get before he trades in his gun to feed his family? What else will starving and sick of chaos Americans surrender ? We got this new idea for you people, a north american union jioning Canada/America/Mexico/South America into one nation, Oh and here is some new paper, like in 1929 we will give you 10 cents on the dollar, you gotta pay us rent, you can eat, no guns, we own it all, now shut up. And isn’t just convienient that fishing off the Oregon coast has been shut down, last year we had 1.5 million salmon out there according to “officials” now we got 35,000 salmon out there and fishing has been halted, according to “officials.” Just a prediction, we’ll see the reality of it all soon. Just like they knew those wolves would wipe out our game, I knew it from day one.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:39 am
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April 17th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Greg Farber says:
And isn’t just convienient that fishing off the Oregon coast has been shut down, last year we had 1.5 million salmon out there according to “officials” now we got 35,000 salmon out there and fishing has been halted, according to “officials.”
If you new about fisheries management, you know that is not a scheme by “officials” it is science. The world’s fisheries are being exploited at or above their sustainable capacity. When you over fish, you get catastrophic fisheries collapses like in the pacific.
April 17th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Bill,
I have a friend with a big fishing boat saying its bunkum, I have a friend in the meat and fish business saying its bunkum, and his contacts say its bunkum. Flip I live 700 miles inland from that coast. And those scientists do what those officials that hire them tell them to do. Kinda Al Gores bought off science about “Global Warming”. The fisherie could be over fished and then we could be getting a tall tale as well. Either way I trust the men in the boats over the men in the suits, you do what you want.
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