Gun war absurdly wages on

Stories in the news this month offer insight into the chasm that’s widening between gun zealots and hunters who consider themselves sportsmen.

“Two Montanans, ages 18 and 19, recently took full advantage of their assault-style semi-automatic rifles with high-capacity magazines while coyote hunting as they illegally mowed down 10 antelope they happened upon near Canyon Ferry Reservoir.

“A bill working its way through the U.S. Senate would allow people to carry readily accessible loaded guns in national parks.

Sportsmen cringe at these and other trends that taint all hunters.

The parks gun bill, crafted by the National Rifle Association, seeks to placate the paranoia of people who can’t feel safe without a gun on their body, even in a national park.

Currently, guns are allowed in national parks, but – except in parks that allow hunting – the firearms must be unloaded and stored in a manner that renders them less tempting for random violence or poaching.

Current regulations are reasonable and merely seek to give park wardens a leg up on protecting valuable park resources. The Association of National Park Rangers is firmly against liberalizing these gun laws, for good reason.

The measure, known as the Coburn amendment, is endorsed by 48 U.S. Senators who apparently fear the NRA’s political wrath more than the sentiments of the majority of Americans who would recoil at the sight of guns in the front seats of vehicles at Mount Rushmore parking lots and Yellowstone trailheads.

The antelope massacre in Montana is a predictable outbreak from the mentality that made headlines last year with the feeding frenzy on Jim Zumbo, the long-time hunting editor for Outdoor Life.

In a blog, Zumbo said he was surprised to learn that assault-style weapons – semi-autos that can be fixed with magazines that hold more that two dozen cartridges – were being touted as preferred firearms for hunting.

When he denounced that trend – a stand that would almost surely be supported by the majority of hunters – the gun zealots launched an e-mail barrage that had the too-cozy outdoor media and industry execs taking cover. Zumbo’s decades-old career was toast in less than a week.

Nobody in the gun industry seemed to care that Zumbo was right.

The shoot-‘em-up mentality is just fine when applied to targets, but it’s offensive when applied to game, regardless of whether the rapid-fire shooting is legal or illegal.

Montana game wardens were clearly disgusted with finding 10 dead antelope shot multiple times in a savage display of the killing power designed into these weapons. The wardens prefaced their statements by trying to differentiate between hunting and criminal activity.

But the carnage so quickly afflicted by the two young men and their AR-15 and Ruger Mini-14 will leave a hole in the sport’s integrity.

We can only wish those young men had grown up reading Jack O’Connor and Jim Zumbo in their Outdoor Life magazines, rather than Bubba and Ted Nugent.

Big-game proposals: Idaho and Washington are both considering revisions to their hunting seasons for next fall, with biologists in both states working past deadlines to get the latest data they can on the impact this tough winter is having on big game.

Idaho has a bigger plate full of proposals that will be served up at several public open-house meetings next week. Topping the list are a new plan for managing mule deer and the long-debated Wolf Population Management Plan.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission will consider all the proposals at the March 5-7 meeting in Boise.

If the commission adopts the wolf plan, proposals for 2008 wolf hunting seasons would be available for public review and comment in April and the commission would likely meet in May to set wolf seasons, similar to the game management unit quota harvests used for mountain lion hunts.

Deer and elk hunters can appreciate that biologists are tweaking their proposals right up to the final days. I contacted Jim Hayden, Idaho Fish and Game Department regional manager in Coeur d’Alene, on Wednesday just after he’d returned from the latest in a series of aerial surveys.

“We’ll clearly be losing some animals in this winter, regardless of what happens from now on,” he said. “But some areas are virtually free of snow while there’s still deep snow in a band across the central region. So it’s an issue of how the rest of the winter goes in the worst areas.”

Among the proposals sportsmen will be asked to consider this week, Hayden has added the possibility of reducing the cow elk season to three days in the hardest hit units – 4, 7 and 9 – plus some reductions in doe hunting.

Public meetings on the hunting proposals are as follows:

Saturday, 8 a.m., at St. Maries Elks in St. Maries.

Wednesday, 7 p.m., at Boundary County Extension Office in Bonners Ferry.

Next Thursday, 7 p.m., at Idaho Fish and Game office in Coeur d’Alene.