“The slaughter of the dwindling elephant herds in Africa grows worse by the year,” the New York Times opines, “as organized criminals get rich from selling elephant tusks in lucrative black markets around the world, where a pound of ivory can fetch $1,500. African elephants, whose numbers have been reduced in less than a century from several million to an estimated 500,000, are being killed at a rate of 30,000 to 35,000 a year.” I know! Let’s ban ivory! ‘Cause it’s not banned enough. “Last week, the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it will ban the trade in elephant ivory within the United States by prohibiting all imports and — with very narrow exemptions — exports and resales by auction houses and other dealers.” That sentence doesn’t quite capture the full extent of the regulatory change. Try this from the Interior Department’s own website . . .
The Service will:
- Prohibit Commercial Import of African Elephant Ivory: All commercial imports of African elephant ivory, including antiques, will be prohibited.
- Prohibit Commercial Export of Elephant Ivory: All commercial exports will be prohibited, except for bona fide antiques, certain noncommercial items, and in exceptional circumstances permitted under the Endangered Species Act.
- Significantly Restrict Domestic Resale of Elephant Ivory: We will finalize a proposed rule that will reaffirm and clarify that sales across state lines are prohibited, except for bona fide antiques, and will prohibit sales within a state unless the seller can demonstrate an item was lawfully imported prior to 1990 for African elephants and 1975 for Asian elephants, or under an exemption document.
- Clarify the Definition of “Antique”: To qualify as an antique, an item must be more than 100 years old and meet other requirements under the Endangered Species Act. The onus will now fall on the importer, exporter, or seller to demonstrate that an item meets these criteria.
- Restore Endangered Species Act Protection for African Elephants: We will revoke a previous Fish and Wildlife Service special rule that had relaxed Endangered Species Act restrictions on African elephant ivory trade.
- Support Limited Sport-hunting of African Elephants: We will limit the number of African elephant sport-hunted trophies that an individual can import to two per hunter per year.
I’ve got issues with all this. First, will ANY of these changes help save African elephants from poachers’ guns? Current laws on imported or exported ivory are plenty damn strict and they’ve done sweet FA to stop the killing. I know, I know: if a rule saves one elephant . . . Yes, well, the point isn’t to save one elephant. It’s to save elephants in general.
Like all animals, elephants are a natural resource. Their survival depends on human stewardship. Legal hunting would be lucrative for all concerned. It would give corrupt government officials, professional hunters and locals a cash incentive to protect pachyderms. The more money elephants make for their stewards the more zealous those protectors will be.
Given this equation, the Service’s decision to limit legal sport-hunted elephant trophies to two-a-year per hunter seems both self-self-defeating and churlish. And am I the only one who thinks that banning ivory sales across state lines sets a dangerous precedent? It sounds crazy, but imagine getting pulled over by a Department of Fish and Wildlife Service agent and asked to produce a receipt for your ivory-handled revolver. They might accue you of transporting it across state lines for the purpose of sale. If so . . .
“The onus will now fall on the importer, exporter, or seller to demonstrate that an item meets these criteria (that an antique elephant ivory item is over 100 years old).” While I love me some Ellies I love the “innocent until proven guilty” principle underlying our criminal justice system more. I’m not real comfortable with this bit either . . .
The National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking was developed by an interagency Presidential Task Force, representing agencies from across the federal government, and with significant input from an Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking that includes representation from the private sector, former government officials, non-governmental organizations and other experts on wildlife trade. The Task Force was formed following the President’s July 2013 Executive Order on Combating Wildlife Trafficking. The aim of the Executive Order and the Task Force is to enhance and coordinate U.S. efforts to address the significant impacts to wildlife caused by this growing threat.
Aside from Constitutional concerns about presidential power (with or without “significant input” from citizens), haven’t we learned anything from Prohibition I and II (a.k.a., The War on Drugs)? Banning things does nothing to stop them from being created, bought and sold – even if it makes us feel better. The best way to save the elephants is to shoot them. Legally.
First off, that video is messed up. Second ivory is already banned. It’s like the government banning cocaine again.
As as Christian, I hate politicized religion. This applies to “pet” issues from both the right and the left. In this particular case, however, I find the name of the organization particularly galling since “God’s Call” in my interpretation is what is commonly known as The Great Commission. It irked me enough to send them the following correspondence.
The name of your organization is a misnomer when paired with the subtitle that follows. God’s calling for Christian’s is summarized in the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20). Our foremost as Christian’s is to proclaim the Gospel and bring others to faith in Christ, locally, regionally, and worldwide. Regardless of your politics this is God’s Call to imply otherwise is blasphemy (def. the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God).
I wanted to send it to each office, but you’re only allowed top send three e-mails per hour. I’m going to send messages to the other two once my 60 minutes is up. The views of this organization do not represent Christ any more than the views of Westboro Baptist Church. Organizations (and particular Reverends) that utilize the name of God to drum up support for a political cause are exactly the same as those described in Matthew 18:6 (“If anyone causes one of these little ones–those who believe in me–to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”)
No matter what the “pet” issue these organizations attack perceived symptoms without offering any solutions. There is more to be said on this matter, but I don’t feel like a marathon post where the majority of the topic doesn’t concentrate on guns.
Own a 15 rnd mag and go to hell?
Isn’t this demonizing a class of PPL prior to their destruction?
Violates the UN Charter on Genocide if I recall correctly
The game wardens in Africa tasked with enforcing the anti-poaching laws are not people I envy. Undertrained, underequipped, thrown out in the middle of nowhere and told to put a stop to a crime that the criminals realize is almost universally taboo. The mortality rate on that job is excessively high, last I checked…
Why don’t they march at the motor vehicles office? 44,000 deaths per year.
Interesting in all the ranting about elephant (and similar) poaching fails to start with the ONE central word – CHINA
Congressmen pay attention to letters more than email. Folks who take the time to write and mail something have more interest, drive, motivation and congressmen recognize that.
I agree with the person above who said- if you don’t like the letter and think you can do better. Do so. Now, not just to the Governor, but to every elected politician- including the elected sheriffs and the attorney general who have to enforce the law. The city leaders who can direct the local police departments to ignore it. (kind of like ignoring illegal immigration violations)
Only thing I see missing from the letter is the mental health issue, that’s the driver to much of the violence, particularly the spree/mass shootings. Which I’ll put in letters I write.
So adults with imaginary friends who believe in an invisible man in the sky deem me not fit to own a standard capacity magazine?
And they call me crazy for owning one…
My cousin makes a living carving scrimshaw. He has a narwhal tusk over his mantle. I doubt this will change his business too much.
Too snarky, direct, condescending, or critical? Here’s Eric Reeds response.
https://www.facebook.com/GunRightsAcrossAmerica/posts/10200466426622828
Maybe TTAG can set up a permanent thread for people to mock other people’s religions: Judaism, Christianity, etc. And then invite the resident juveniles here to it to bash to their heart’s content.
Well if people didn’t use religion as an excuse for a political agenda then we wouldn’t.
I don’t know what it is about priests, ministers and the like being hard core lefties. This is my experience anyway ymmv. My grandfather was an episcopal priest and hardcore leftist. The ministers at my current church are hardcore lefties even in a very conservative enclave in dallas. I had a conversation once that if you believe in Jesus’s teachings feeding the poor(the ends) was only part of the equation. The means to that end(charity of the spirit etc) was equally as important if not more important. They always rail for higher taxes etc, but what about taxes is charitable. I have no say in the matter so not only is the spirit of charity gone, but instead of the people receiving being thankful they now think they are entitled. Sticking to the tone of this site they are also very anti gun.
Be assured that mainline Protestantism is “leftie” on everything
There are plenty of conservative clergy who are not, at all.
I would like to see a review as well. The comments on the MidwayUSA link supplied in the post has a lot mixed reviews and mostly bad.
This is excellent training. Trainees learn that they can keep the animal alive no matter what the trainers do to the animal. It is irreplaceable for teaching confidence in corpsmen and medics and incidental medics.
The key is that the site for the training must never be the same place twice, it must be kept secret, and no one should be allowed to know where it is until they arrive. The animal rights people include a lot of very violent terrorists.
If they are so touchy about using the pigs, I hear we’ve got some overcrowded prisons full of people who need to repay their debt to society.
There is no simulator on earth that can replicate actually getting your hands bloody.
Invaluable training.
Great recap, Karla! I couldn’t stop laughing at the bay fire part! I can still see him attempting to stomp out the ring of fire, completely ignoring the much bigger fire behind him! gah… wow, just wow is all I can say in hindsight about that adventure! You’re a great travel buddy!
Just a point of clarification: the law only mentioned handguns, not long guns. Apparently NJ doesn’t care enough about THE CHILDREN to keep them from hurting themselves with rifles or shotguns.
Title has assault spelled assautl, please fix.
The situation was ugly, not the gun. I’d call that carbine a thing of beauty.
No really, you need to be able to pass the same bar as everyone else or else you simply aren’t qualified to do the job.
I think 3D printing, both plastic and especially metal, has a huge future in the area of parts replacement. It can be difficult to stock every last part for every last mechanical thing in the world, but just about any non-electronic part could be fabricated from a digital file ‘on demand’.
I don’t agree with the system but it takes nothing but patience. If you had started the process when you first started thinking about it you’d have your can/sbr/aow by now.
The Kashkari campaign is being run by those that ran the Schwarzenegger campaigns. Just saying.