"Hunter Boycott" Appears To Have Fizzled

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by: Colorado Pols

“More for me?” Sorry.

AP reports via 7NEWS:

Colorado wildlife officials say despite threats that hunters planned to boycott Colorado because of new gun control laws, big game applications are up.

So far this year, big game applications have increased by 18,000 over the number in 2012. Colorado Parks and Wildlife processed 469,000 applications this spring, compared with 451,000 applications submitted in 2012.

The two most consequential gun-safety laws passed in Colorado this year, House Bill 1229 closing the so-called "background check loophole" on most transfers of guns, and House Bill 1224 restricting ammunition magazine capacity to 15 rounds, certainly received wide publicity among gun owners including hunters–as did the threats to boycott the state of Colorado in the wake of their passage. To be honest, based on the fever pitch of irrational outrage stoked over these bills, and misinformation spread around the country, we wouldn't have been at all surprised to have seen at least some drop in hunting license applications for the 2013 season.

So what happened? Why did the state in fact receive almost 20,000 more hunting license applications?

Well, when you get past the endless shrieking from the gun lobby, which was intended to irrationalize the entire debate and disseminate alarmist misinformation, these bills don't impact hunting. Hunters are already subject to strict limits on loaded ammunition, and the innumerable far-fetched scenarios pushed by opponents to the background check law simply don't apply to most people in the real world. The fact is, most hunters own their guns, and those who might borrow one are in most cases covered by the bill's exemptions.

And if they're not, they just need to get a background check, and that's okay by most people too.

You might remember during the budget debate this year when GOP Rep. Bob Rankin unsuccessfully proposed spending $1 million on an "outreach campaign" to hunters, to correct "not a problem based on reality," but a problem of "perception and misunderstanding" about the new gun laws. What Rankin couldn't say, of course, is that this problem of "perception" was created by his fellow Republicans, who pushed increasingly ridiculous and desperate falsehoods about these bills as the session progressed.

Fortunately, it does appear the average hunter is smarter than that stuff.

17 thoughts on ““Hunter Boycott” Appears To Have Fizzled”

ajb says:

June 11, 2013 at 8:19 am

Alternatively, it's the ol' double reverse psychology at work. Hunters may think that because of all the shrieking that there would be fewer people appling for licenses, thus improving their chance of getting one of the hard-to-get licenses.

In related news…Magpul reports record profits while shrieking that legislation will drive them out of business (OK, I made that one up).

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1. JeffcoBlue says:
  
  June 11, 2013 at 8:23 am
  
  My thoughts exactly. I'll bet there were a lot of hunters who thought all the other hunters would boycott and they would have a wide open hunting ground.
  
  Oops!
  
  Speaking of which, did Magpul ever actually move? I don't think they did…
  
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  1. ajb says:
    
    June 11, 2013 at 8:37 am
    
    Latest I read was that Magpul had "moved some manufacturing out of state." My guess is that they'll never leave Erie, but that they'll use this as an opportunity to move some manufacturing to China, being the patriots that they are.
    
    And they sold out their latest batch of "Save Colorado" 30-cartridge mass murder magazines. Laughing all the way to the bank.
    
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2. JeffcoBlue says:
  
  June 11, 2013 at 8:24 am
  
  But that does imply, of course, that these hunters understood we had not actually "banned gun ownership" in Colorado like Sen. Lambert says. So there's that.
  
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  1. ajb says:
    
    June 11, 2013 at 8:38 am
    
    But they figured that the other guy was dumb enough to believe it.
    
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  2. BlueCat says:
    
    June 11, 2013 at 9:30 am
    
    Or hunters, who are used to making plans well in advance and checking out the rules where they plan to hunt, knew about the restrictions already in place from long experience, checked to see if the new laws would impact them in any significantly inconvenient way and found that they wouldn't. Not everyone is as dumb as the GOP gives them credit for. Speaking of dumb, I wonder if the number of hunters from Texas decreased. With the overall increase that would constitute an unintended benefit.
    
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    1. ClubTwitty says:
      
      June 11, 2013 at 9:33 am
      
      Indeed. We should try to get articles in Texas magazines and such about the Draconian gun laws in Colorado, so tough we even lock up dead people! Less Texans is just better all the way around.
      
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    2. Gilpin Guy says:
      
      June 11, 2013 at 2:12 pm
      
      I'd vote for BC's explanation.
      
      I have friends who are hunting guides in Grand County and they have a national clientelle that return year after year. Everybody knows that nobody is going to seize their weapons at the state border so the wonder of visiting Colorful Colorado is not lost on them.
      
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davebarnes says:

June 11, 2013 at 11:14 am

Can you actually kill a deer with fewer than 16 bullets?

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1. Diogenesdemar says:
  
  June 11, 2013 at 11:46 am
  
  … apparently not if you're a Republican …
  
  (Recall that crack shot Sarah Oakley and her lead fling at that pennedcaribou?)
  
  You definitely can't make a good watermelon smoothie with anything less than an entire box of ammo!!!
  
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2. Gilpin Guy says:
  
  June 11, 2013 at 2:13 pm
  
  Har-Har Dave
  
  I guess it depends on how much Jack Daniels you've been drinking before you pull the trigger.
  
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ArapaGOP says:

June 11, 2013 at 1:49 pm

The story says that this does not count over the counter licenses. It's premature until we see the total picture.

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1. Gilpin Guy says:
  
  June 11, 2013 at 2:16 pm
  
  Yes indeed ArapaJoke. I bet you are rooting for a boycott so that all those rock ribbed conservatives who have jobs as guides and sell breakfasts and supplies to the hunters and are the most aligned with their positions will be hurt as much as possible for your ideological trantrums. And you're the person who keeps harping about how important it is to keep jobs in Colorado?
  
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  1. Curmudgeon says:
    
    June 11, 2013 at 3:04 pm
    
    Luckily for the guides, cooks, and all the others involved in the hunting-tourism industry, Guppy's dire predictions on this were just as full of crap as the rest.
    
    Maybe he could head north.
    
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2. ClubTwitty says:
  
  June 11, 2013 at 2:24 pm
  
  Wah! You probably should just scurry and hide as per usual. That's a weak serving right there.
  
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3. BlueCat says:
  
  June 11, 2013 at 4:09 pm
  
  Boycott wins in a landslide!
  
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4. Phoenix Rising says:
  
  June 11, 2013 at 11:03 pm
  
  That's right AGOP – it compares apples to apples, and people who are making their advance plans have actually made more plans to hunt in Colorado than last year.
  
  But I'm sure the over-the-counter license sales will prove you right, and then Mitt Romney will be elected President over Obama to counter the mess.
  
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