March 28, 2013 03:08 PM UTC

"Hunter Boycott?" Meet The Hunters Against Gun Violence

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• by: Colorado Pols

A press release today from Mayors Against Illegal Guns: 

In Denver, Hunters Against Gun Violence held media availability following their meetings with Senator Bennet and Senator Udall while in Golden, Mayor Marjorie Sloan held a press conference. 
 
“Now is the time for us to take action, because we can’t afford another Aurora or Newtown,” said Golden Mayor Marjorie Sloan.  “We must stand together and support legislation that will help prevent any more senseless gun violence.”
 
“As a hunter and someone who has owned guns since I was a young boy, I believe that commonsense gun legislation makes us all safer,” said Don Macalady, member of Hunters Against Gun Violence.  “Background checks prevent criminals and other dangerous people from getting guns. We need our representatives to take action to help us prevent another tragedy.”
 
The National Day to Demand Action – organized by Mayors Against Illegal Guns in conjunction with Organizing for Action, Americans for Responsible Solutions and other groups – will feature hundreds of mayors, law enforcement officials, faith leaders, gun violence survivors and family members who want Congress to take immediate action to strengthen our background check system and reduce gun violence.  The day is expected to be the largest gun violence advocacy event in history and is part of the largest field campaign in U.S. history to address gun violence.  The coalition recently announced that it is hiring dozens of organizers and opening campaign offices in ten states.

Along with President Barack Obama's visit to Denver next week, extolling Colorado's newly-enacted gun safety laws, this effort looks to capitalize on the recent legislative victory here to build momentum for a federal law closing the so-called "background check loophole"–enacting federally the substantial equivalent of House Bill 1229. Background checks have consistently been the most popular component of recent proposals, and as a Western state like Colorado can go, theoretically anyway, so might go the nation. In the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate, it does appear that nothing more ambitious than what we've passed here at the state level is going anywhere.

Politically, we do see great value in a campaign in support of this legislation fronted by gun owners and hunters. Much has been made of the "hunter boycott" some disaffected conservatives are grumbling about, apparently with no regard to the fact that hunters in Colorado is restricted from carrying anything close to the magazine limits signed into law here anyway. The best reply to the emotion and misinformation from opponents of these bills really is somebody who owns a gun too, and knows they haven't been "banned."