John Hickenlooper and Dick Cheney go hunting

[gejohnston]

On different teams. Cheney will be on Team Wyoming while the Gov will lead Team Colorado. I hope Dick's bullet misses human (hopefully he will be reminded of the four rules and stay sober) and proghorn alike.

http://www.oneshotpastshooters.com/aboutus.aspx
http://fremontcountyradio.com/2013/06/governor-matt-mead-announces-one-shot-pick/
So, are gun control advocates rooting for CO?

[hlthe2b]

1. I surely don't agree with Hick on fracking issues, but I'll be damned if I want him "Cheneyed"...

Someone kindly load the evil one's gun with blanks, will you?

[gejohnston]

2. just one shot

so I would need just one blank. Any idea what caliber? Since they are on different teams, I would be more concerned about Mead or the other Wyomingite.

[Eleanors38]

3. Imagine the shame in the Pronghorn race: Taken by Cheney.

[petronius]

4. I'm not a hunter (except with a speargun) so maybe I'm missing something,

but isn't 'one shot' pretty much always the goal? Seems like an odd thing to frame an event around...

[gejohnston]

5. You carry only one round.

Once you fire the round, that's it.

[petronius]

6. But if the animal is wounded? There is someone else to fire a second shot

if needed, I would hope. It seems to encourage waiting on that humane second shot, just to 'win' the event. (But of course - with the one obvious exception - I'm sure everyone involved is a responsible and ethical hunter.)

[gejohnston]

7. Now I had to go research the rules

apparently a finish off shot is allowed, but it doesn't count. So, the idea is one shot one kill.
http://oneshotantelopehunt.com/history/one-shot-antelope-hunt/

Imagine Dick and Palin together.

[locks]

8. Control guns and our gov

Thanks for the post. I generally think I am a CO news junkie but had no idea this weird "sporting event" included our DEMOCRAT gov. I'm never surprised at what WY and Dick Cheney does but my Colorado? If you've seen our beautiful pronghorn (a native species found only in the US) you would put shooting them right up there with the poaching of American bison or African elephants.
Also, the fact that this big, money-making event contributes to the town of Lander, WY is sad. The small town of Lander could use a new community center, but it's only claim to fame is that it's the headquarters of one of the finest outdoor schools in the world, NOLS. The school teaches leadership in environmental ethics, technical outdoors skills, safety, and judgment at wilderness expeditions in the US and seven other countries. My grandson had a wonderful, life-changing experience at NOLS. Sure glad he didn't choose to learn how to kill a pronghorn with one shot at an NRA camp.

[gejohnston]

9. I have more bad news for you

Scalia and Kagen are hunting buddies. She was in the area hunting mule deer and pronghorn last year.
Congress has a skeet shoot every year. Team Democrats beat the Republicans two years in a row IIRC.
My Democratic gov before Mead was there, so what can I say?

If he is one of the 99 percent, he won't be doing the one shot hunt. That said, hunting, as long as you eat it, is more ethical and healthy than a factory farm system. I grew up hunting in WY, it stretched my mom's food stamps. Any ethical dilemma ended when I went to a feedlot/slaughterhouse in Dodge City, KS.

That said, I detest trophy hunting. My son learned that when he asked me "think I can hit that squirrel from here" to which I replied "you do, you will be looking up squirrel recipes." There are only two reasons to kill, food and defense. Sometimes euthanasia. He put his gun down as soon as I saw how serious I was.
Since the VA doc suggested I refrain from red meat, my food and ammo bills are pretty low.

While pronghorn were almost extinct 100 years ago, as were many animal species, but scientific management brought them back. The hunt is one day and is still overseen by the WFGD and followed their laws. Poaching a pronghorn or a deer is the same as poaching a bison IMNSHO.

I grew up in Rock Springs, but enjoyed visiting relatives in Lander. I'm glad your grandson a great experience. I have seen plenty of pronghorn, wild horses............. and my wife wonders why I haven't accepted Florida as home. I can deal with the snow, it's the humidity some of the former New Yorkers that get on my nerves. One reason NY is consistently blue for the past 20 or so years is because all of their right wingers moved to Florida and Arizona.

[locks]

10. Not all bad news

My family has lived in Alaska, New Orleans, DC, FL, VA, Chicago, OK, CA, WA, WY. All good people and good places in some ways. I feel very lucky to live in CO, in Boulder, especially with Dems in control but as you well know CO is quite the mixture of red and blue, gun lovers and gun haters, environmentalists and big oil. I just have a hard time when Hickenlooper talks with forked tongue on the subject of guns or fracking. Now after working so hard for so long for CO, human rights, against global warming and big brother, I see Udall has only a 40% approval rating and may not be re-elected. I guess
it was only when we were flower children we believed we could change the world.

[gejohnston]

11. maybe it isn't a forked tounge

maybe it is a matter being more of what I call a traditionalist, or gun culture 1.0 or 1.5. Kind of like Ed Shultz or outdoor writer Zim Zumbo before he pissed off the NRA. Before the 1994 AWB, rifles like the AR didn't sell well because they were viewed as "mall ninja toys" "Matell plastic shit". The "ban" actually made them popular. The founder of Ruger firearms wrote congress supporting a ban on magazines over 15 rounds.
So, maybe he is of that mind. Many gun types do. Of course, some don't.
His views on fracking on the other hand, that's a whole different deal. There was a time when gun and hunting types were a major force in the environmental movement, including supporting the 11 percent tax on guns and ammo. Of course, he and Mead have to deal with the taxes these industries pay. Wyoming, like Alaska, taxes the extraction industries. Unlike Alaska, Wyoming puts the money in the general fund and pays for schools, libraries, etc. It helps with the equal funding in schools, instead of force districts to be dependent on local property taxes. The Stock Grower's Association can't do that. Hopefully, both states will be able to attract greener corporate tax payers to make up the difference. I don't like the oil industry any more than you do, but that's the reality. Even though coal built my hometown, it and oil trashed parts of the Red Desert and I hate them both.