Teen Disarms Chenoweth On Gun Issue She Tells Grandson Of Slain Game Officer That She May Rethink Plan To Disarm Agents

U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth told the grandson of slain Idaho Fish and Game Officer Bill Pogue that she would consider alternatives to her proposal to require a local sheriff’s OK before federal officers could operate in the county.

Her response during the Symposium on Idaho Politics and Government on Friday was prompted by the teenager asking why she wanted to take guns out of the hands of conservation officers.

Pogue and fellow conservation officer Conley Elms where killed in 1981 by self-styled mountain man Claude Dallas when they entered his remote Owyhee County camp to question him about a poaching violation. Dallas is midway through a 30-year prison sentence.

‘I am so sorry for that,” Chenoweth said. “It was a tragic situation.”

But she said in situations like that, she believed the local sheriff should deputize other officers and that Owyhee County Sheriff Tim Nettleton would probably have done that.

“We can never become insensitive to what happened to Mr. Pogue and Mr. Conley (Elms) just like we can never become insensitive to what happened to innocent lives at Waco, Ruby Ridge or Owhyee,”Chenoweth said, referring to fatal sieges by federal officers in Texas and North Idaho.

“If we lose our sensitivity, then the people have lost their leadership, and we can never become insensitive,” she said. “But I think we can never forget what happened out there, and we must continued to work for a reasonable solution.

“I’ve offered a suggestion, but I know there are other good ideas too,” Chenoweth said. “And in the marketplace of ideas I know that we can come up with something that will prevent that. But we’ve got to keep it alive because that’s what’s preventing it today.”

A year ago, Pogue’s daughter, Jodi, wrote Chenoweth to protest her legislation.

In response, Chenoweth said, “I do feel that it sends a very threatening message when armed federal agents approach ordinary citizens.”

But Jodi Pogue-Turner, who works for the State Police and raises money for peace officer memorials in Idaho and around the country, flatly disagreed.

“I’ve been checked while I was fishing and stuff, and the fact that they had a gun on certainly didn’t threaten me or scare me,” Pogue-Turner said. “I can’t understand that mentality at all. That is the exact same mentality that Claude Dallas had when Dad and Conley Elms walked up to him.”