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According to speargunfishingtips.com, a speargun is effective between 3-4 m (roughly 10 – 13 feet). You know; for killing fish. The website has nothing to say about the gun’s effective range for injuring or killing people. (Shot placement, people!) For that, Thunderball is our only guide. The chances of an underwater SPECTRE battle are fairly low, shooting someone with a speargun is a crime, and speargun accidents are as rare as the Devils Hole pupfish (usually non-fatal and normally above the surface). So what’s the problem with spearfishermen and women diving in the same environs as unarmed snorklers? I’m glad I asked me that question . . .

Santa Rosa Island Authority staff wants to ban spear guns and spear poles at a popular snorkeling reef in the Gulf of Mexico at Park East as a safety precaution.

“It’s for families to go out and snorkel and enjoy the site,” W. A. “Buck” Lee, Island Authority executive director said of the reef that is highly publicized to tourists. “You have kids out there looking at fish, you don’t need spear guns.”

That’s the opening salvo from an article at pnj.com. You have to wade through a lot of anti-spearfishing agitprop – which fails to note that there’ve been no speargun injuries or fatalities at the reef in question – to read that yes, Virginia, you do need spear guns at the Park East reef (which is already partially off-limits to speargunnners). The info comes from Keith Wilkins, Escambia’s director of community and environment.

“It’s a shallow dive. So bright. Light penetrates it so well,” he said. “It allows you to dive leisurely and examine everything closely.”

Wilkins would not offer his opinion on the spear gun issue. He said he has not informed commissioners of the issue yet. But he believes there will be many questions to iron out on the road to exploring an ordinance to ban spear guns.

“There’s a lot to consider,” he said. “Would (the ban) just be for spear guns, and poles would be allowed?”

If spear guns are banned from the Park East reef, would the ban also pertain to lesser known shallow reefs that are only visited by avid snorkelers, he asked. He also worries a ban would prohibit the harvesting of the invasive lion fish that can strip a reef of juvenile fish.

“If you’re a snorkeler and want to go spear fishing, you’re limited to where you can go,” Wilkins said. “It’s a difficult issue.”

Common sense speargun control? Do it for the children! Or not.

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31 COMMENTS

  2. Okay…….I should care about this as as a gun owner because……….?
    How does this infringe on my 2A rights?

      • Ok antis are irrational I will give you that. However, spear guns are not arms, at least here in the USA-they are fishing implements hence their b*tching about them has no effect on the rights granted us via the 2nd Ammendment.

        • And the following aren’t firearms either. That doesn’t stop the antis from using them to demonize guns.

          We need to beat back this nonsense on all fronts.

          * Pop-Tarts shaped like Idaho
          * Finger gun gestures
          * Paper cut into the shape of the uppercase letter “L”
          * LEGO guns for Minifigures
          * Deaf child’s sign language name “Hunter”
          * Pencils with accompanying “phew, phew” sound
          * T-shirts with image of firearm
          * T-shirts with words about the 2nd Amendment
          * Hello Kitty toy that blows bubbles
          * Saying the word “gun” on a school bus
          * College newspaper called the “Bullet”
          * Picture of a lead ball for show-and-tell
          * Empty brass 9/11 souvenir

        • When they ban bow and arrow hunting we can tell everyone to calm down, because only “2A guns” matter.

          But wait, the government now decides which guns are protected under the 2A by cosmetic features..

          • Arms are arms. People who can not grasp that are just as big a problem as straight out gun haters.

        • From The Constitution Society:

          “When it was adopted, ‘arms’ included muzzle-loaded muskets and pistols, swords, knives, bows with arrows, and spears.”

          Legal Theory of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
          http://www.constitution.org/leglrkba.htm

          It goes on to point out:

          “However, a common-law definition would be ‘light infantry weapons which can be carried and used, together with ammunition, by a single militiaman, functionally equivalent to those commonly used by infantrymen in land warfare.’ That certainly includes modern rifles and handguns, full-auto machine guns and shotguns, grenade and grenade launchers, flares, smoke, tear gas, incendiary rounds, and anti-tank weapons, but not heavy artillery, rockets, or bombs, or lethal chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Somewhere in between we need to draw the line. The standard has to be that ‘arms’ includes weapons which would enable citizens to effectively resist government tyranny, but the precise line will be drawn politically rather than constitutionally. The rule should be that ‘arms’ includes all light infantry weapons that do not cause mass destruction. If we follow the rule that personal rights should be interpreted broadly and governmental powers narrowly, which was the intention of the Framers, instead of the reverse, then ‘arms’ must be interpreted broadly.”

          • Spend an hour shooting a plain old compound bow and field tip arrows at commonly available kevlar body armor, then try to tell me it is not an effective weapon of war in today’s world. Not to mention modern crossbows.

            Just because a “technology” is old does not mean it is ineffective. Just got to adjust tactics.

    • From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
      http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007392

      “Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.

      Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation:

      ‘First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
      Because I was not a Socialist.

      Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
      Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

      Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
      Because I was not a Jew.

      Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.’ “

    • You should care about this because the argument is identical and will serve as another paternalistic restriction on adults.

    • As an example, in NJ, CO2 and spring air pellet guns and “BB” guns are considered firearms and regulated exactly the same. Stupid? Yes, I know, but it is the law there. Most likely because the word “gun” is involved. Same with spear guns, toy guns, and even nail guns in some jurisdictions. In Mass. people need a permit to by and operate a nail gun, I kid you not!

    • And pepper spray was part of gun control in Massachusetts.

      From 1998 up until August of this year, the Bay State required a Firearms Identification Card to purchase or possess pepper spray.

      That bit of idiocy only took 16 years to get repealed.

  5. How are we supposed to respond to every ridiculous ban they propose?
    “You want spear guns in the diving zones? You support killing children?”
    “You can keep your spear guns if you want them, you just cant use them anywhere or buy extra spears when they break”

  6. Sharks everywhere the anties are worried about a 10ft range spear gun…because it has the word gun and spear. In a world of Honey Boo Boo, antis without thinking ability is all too common.

  7. I saw Thunderball at the theater in 1965…man I’m old. Uh yeah I don’t care about this much.

  8. Just on general principle, they need to get stomped just like any other weapons ban fanatic. Across the board zero tolerance with severe political consequences for anyone advocating this crap. Make it career-destroying political suicide on par with advocating a ban on handguns or semi-automatic rifles.

  9. These spear guns can be purchased at any dive shop without registration or even serial numbers. They are called ghost spear guns.

  10. Never quite understood why spring-loaded ballistic knives are considered an AOW by the ATF, but spear guns are perfectly legal.

  11. Wow. 3-4 meters? We must have been using super spear guns, we shot a lot farther than that, in water and out.

  13. I can see Feinstein holding a speargun up demanding something be done about the scary looking weapons,black with a sling.

  14. I understand that if you fire a spear gun out of the water you will be treated to a nice smack in the face from the rubber band.

    Is that true?

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