"Gun Rackers" Oppose Energy Bill - Salt Lake Tribune

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON -- Move over, soccer moms. A new political constituency of swing voters has landed on the national political radar, hoping to get the attention of a Republican administration they say is in danger of losing their loyalty. Call them the gun rack pack.

A handful of outdoor enthusiasts descended on the National Press Club on Wednesday to decry the threat accelerated gas and oil development on public lands poses to the hunting and fishing culture of the rural West. In the sea of dark suits that is Beltway couture, the seven Westerners stood apart in their Roper boots, Wrangler jeans, quilted down vests, dark felt cowboy hats and Western shirts with a circular bulge of a can of smokeless tobacco in the chest pocket, secured with a pearlescent snap button. "It's time I stood up and was counted," said Wyoming outfitter Courtney Skinner of Pinedale, whose family runs one of the largest elk hunting guide businesses in Wyoming. "We have to protect the things that keep our heritage going."

EDIT

That special interest groups would lob criticism at the GOP's environmental policies is nothing new in Washington. But what makes this particular constituency stand out is that hunters and fishers usually align politically with the Republican party in the West. For instance, Ryan Busse grew up on a ranch, is vice president of sales for a firearm manufacturer in Montana, has hunted and fished since childhood and is a lifelong Republican. But, because of the Bush administration's plan to give the energy industry broad latitude over public lands extraction, he says "millions" of diehard conservatives like himself in the West are molding a new conservative wing of the party that embraces GOP ideals but puts stronger emphasis on protecting wild lands.

"In Montana, and certainly Wyoming and Colorado, hunting and fishing isn't only something we do, it is who we are," Busse said. "Somebody who wants to destroy that, or some of these policies that want to destroy that, even as much as we want to support that person or that party on everything else, who we are is pretty intricate to us and hunting and fishing, it doesn't get any more sacred."

EDIT

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jan/01292004/utah/133673.asp

[mastein]

1. SC and RFK Jr.

have been quietly working hunting groups for years on env. issues in the west. They can be a key block in close states out there, especially NM.

[Kolesar]

2. If we peel off a few of them, we can win swing states in '04

Of course, we are going to need more than colossal Bush antienvironmental arrogance followed by the Dems taking the presidency to make a difference. The enviro haters have imprinted vast misinformation in a lot of the public.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. The Gun Rackers Would Eventually see The Light

I'm glad that at least some of the gun rackers are finally seeing the light and seeing through the propaganda put out by the Boosh campaign about Democrats all being anti-hunting and anti-fishing. I wish these guys would have wised up earlier, but the prospect of being locked out of their traditional hunting and fishing territories looks to make at least some of them wise up.

The only pro-firearms the Shrub might have left on Election Day are the suburban commandos who dream of owning heavy machine guns yet who have never hunted a deer in their lives.

--VG

(Who is not sentimental about cute little deer, especially after a townie deer changed course and ran out in front of his vehicle)

[mastein]

4. You forget the urban

gangbangers and other thugs who see firearms as an extension of their penises. Hopefully, enough of them joined up in the past couple of years so the service can set them straight.

[Township75]

5. Hunters/Sportsmen could be a new voting block for the Dems...

and it would be like a double vote, because we would be taking solid repub votes and making them solid dem votes.

This would also help us secure MI, PA and WV which have strong hunting populations.

If some dems weren't so FU&%$!^G anti gun we would likely own this group already.

I think they would fit in well in the Dem party. They need the greenspace, much like we want the greenspace.

[enki23]

6. "gun rackers" is a silly name

they sound, more or less, like Teddy Roosevelt republicans.