In his latest attack on the Second Amendment, gun owners and the firearm industry, President Biden, through his Department of Education, decided to block federal funding from scholastic programs that benefit youth hunting and archery programs.
President Joe Biden’s campaign was widely recognized as the most anti-Second Amendment presidential ticket in American history. Turns out that wasn’t hyperbole.
He calls the hundreds of thousands of Americans in the firearm and ammunition industry, many of them veterans, “the enemy” and his over-the-top lies about firearms are repeated despite having been fact-checked as false numerous times. After all that, the president has reached a new low.
The latest decision by this administration is beyond the pale. President Biden, through his Department of Education, decided to block millions of dollars of federal funding from scholastic programs that benefit youth hunting and archery programs.
Wrongheaded
When repeatedly attacking the Second Amendment, gun owners and the firearm industry, the president constantly tries to assuage those skeptical of claims – “this isn’t about hunting,” “you don’t need that to hunt deer,” “I own shotguns.” The Second Amendment isn’t about hunting at all, but the President’s recent decision reveals his utter contempt for lawful and safe gun ownership.
This latest move is an attack on hunting and a calculated backdoor assault on gun rights and firearm ownership.
White House officials attempted to go unnoticed in their decision to withhold critical federal funding under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 for elementary and secondary schools nationwide with hunting or archery programs in their curriculum. There was no fanfare behind the decision. No announcement from the White House Rose Garden or a major presidential speech. Instead, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona simply confirmed the wrongheaded decision when they could no longer ignore requests for comments.
“This prohibition applies to all ESEA funds,” a Department of Education spokesperson said, according to Fox News. “The prohibition went into effect immediately on June 25, 2022, and applies to all existing and future awards under all ESEA programs. The Department is administering the bipartisan law as written by Congress.”
The decision to withhold the ESEA funds for hunting and archery programs under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) impacts thousands of schools and millions of American students.
Bipartisan Brushback
The administration’s claim that the decision to withhold the funds is “based on the plain text interpretation” of the BSCA has been roundly rejected by lawmakers in Congress on both sides of the aisle.
“We were alarmed to learn recently that the Department of Education has misinterpreted the BCSA to require the defending of certain longstanding educational and enrichment programs — specifically, archery and hunter education classes — for thousands of children…,” U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) wrote in a letter to Secretary Cardona. “The Department mistakenly believes that the BSCA precludes funding these enrichment programs. Such an interpretation contradicts congressional intent and the text of the BSCA.”
Sens. Cornyn and Tillis wrote that the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act provides $1 billion for such activities under Section 4108 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 – or “activities to support safe and healthy students.” They added, “Critical educational programs like archery and hunter education fall well within this scope to promote student safety and health.” Mental health experts are already warning that blocking the funds and eliminating these programs will contribute to mental health problems for young participants.
U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) rebuked the administration for their actions.
“Any defunding of schools who offer critical programs like archery and hunting clubs would be a gross misinterpretation of the legislation and yet another example of this Administration trying to advance their radical agenda with blatant disregard for the law,” Sen. Manchin said.
Sen. Sinema was equally aggressive in her brushback.
“We agree with Sens. Cornyn and Tillis — this is not Congressional intent, hunting and archery classes should be eligible for funding and not penalized,” she said.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are just as irate. House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) led the effort to push back against the Department’s misguided decision by sending a letter, co-signed by 66 additional Members of Congress, calling on Secretary Cardona to immediately reverse course.
“We write in strong opposition…of this decision to eliminate support for longstanding archery and hunting education classes in school,” the letter states.
Reps. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) and Richard Hudson (R-NC) have already introduced legislation to reverse the Biden administration’s misinterpretation and wrongheaded course of action.
With Congress out of Washington, D.C., for August and Members in both chambers back in their districts, they will no doubt continue to hear more disgust from constituents as news of the under-the-radar attack on hunting becomes more widely known.
Follow the Facts
The Biden administration is no stranger to making gun control and anti-hunting policy decisions completely devoid of facts and science. The decision to withhold ESEA funding for schools with hunting and archery programs is another on a long list.
Scholastic hunting education and target shooting programs foster generations of the nation’s safest and most responsible gun owners. When Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted a law penalizing the marketing and advertising of firearm-related activities to minors, the repercussions shut down one of the largest youth shooting sports leagues in the nation.
“As a school-based activity serving students from 6th-12th grade, these provisions serve to outlaw the very name and existence of the California State High School Clay Target League,” the California State High School Clay Target League posted. The league’s president John Nelson added, “The League is the safest sport in high school. Over 1,500 schools across the nation have approved our program. Hundreds of thousands of students have participated, and there has never been an accident or injury.”
In New York, the state recently completed a three-year youth hunting pilot program and the safety record is unquestionable. “DEC’s review of data collected also shows youth hunters followed safety guidelines and showed both respect for wildlife and their fellow hunters while afield,” New York Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos reported. “I’m proud to see that New York’s environment is in good hands with this next generation of environmental stewards.”
HuntingLife.com revealed the early hunting education in New York reverberates. “New York, for example, recently recorded the fewest hunter-related shooting incidents (HRSI) since the state’s hunter safety program was signed into law in 1949. Thanks in large part to the many volunteers that instruct various Hunter Education Programs, the current 5-year average in New York State is 1.5 incidents per 100,000 hunters,” the site reported.
Examples of youth hunters receiving the proper and thorough education and training needed to be responsible gun owners later in life are countless. The Biden administration is choosing to do irreversible damage and cause more harm in an area they claim to care about – responsible gun ownership.
Add this to the list of the administration’s endless attacks on the Second Amendment, gun owners and now hunters, whom they claim to respect.
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Note the real objectives of many/most of the Ruling Class:
–
1 — Increase their wealth and power.
2 — Exploit, use, and abuse the masses at will.
3 — Humiliate the masses to the maximum extent possible.
Plan accordingly.
“3 — Humiliate the masses to the maximum extent possible.”
Why it’s most fun to humiliate *them*.
Concerning that, practice makes perfect… 😉
If Biden is so against firearms why hasn’t he given up his shotgun and any other firearms he owns????
Rank and position have privileges.
So …. can’t do youth hunting and archery programs in school that actually builds skills and character and responsibility …. but can check out the trans indoctrination porn in the school library, mutilate and pump full of dangerous drugs and almost kill (sometimes actually kill) a child to pretend to convert them to the opposite gender, teach them that teen pregnancy is a good thing, and when they get old enough send them off to war.
.40 cal Booger,
“So …. can’t … builds skills and character and responsibility …. but can check out trans indoctrination porn in the school library, mutilate and pump full of dangerous drugs and almost kill (sometimes actually kill) a child to pretend to convert them to the opposite gender …”
All of that falls within the purview of the Ruling Class’ objective number 3 which I listed above (humiliate the masses).
Why do SO many people–by default–extend 1000% trust in the complete strangers who we call politicians?
If some nicely dressed and well-spoken woman or man approached you in a park and asked to take custody of your child for a few days, without any oversight nor accountability, would you hand-over your child? I certainly hope not. Then why would you blindly and completely trust politicians (who are complete strangers) to effectively take custody of you and your family for their term of office without any oversight nor accountability?
The very fact that so many people do what I described above attracts many really awful scumbags to public office.
They bitch and moan about safety, can’t let people carry without training.
And now they move to eliminate training. If the defunding stays in effect, in <10 years they will be denying ownership and permitting to people because they don't have any training.
Just another way to reach their end goal and control "we the people".
” We have seen the Enemy” and it is biden!
Biden is the spokesman for the enemy. Think of the Wizard of Oz. How many and who are behind the curtain?
not even sure why he’s mentioned in any policy issue; he’s totally frickin’ shot. they stuffed him in, he spouts their bidding.
just wait until the election year surprise they’re cooking up.
Too bad someone,anyone doesn’t off this cretin fool.
Caution it is NOT the US you/I grew up in (1st Amendment and all that old fashioned stuff).
Similar words apparently spoken recently on “Social Media” by some Air Force vet in Utah. News report that this morning that a gang of Fedgov thugs broke down his door and killed him. Might be some other minor details of the process/do your own search. But it was apparently words not actual actions by the now corpse. I hope the funeral turnout for this vet numbers in the 10s of thousands (a martyr to republicanism as much as the J6 gulag prisoners).
If news reports are accurate (always questionable) this sounds REALLY BAD for the statists.
75yr old Air Force vet (an AF vet that has a ghillie suit – yea sure).
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/08/09/fbi-gunned-down-utah-man-accused-threatening-joe-biden/
Senator Cornyn can complain now, but it’s BS, and exactly what I predicted back when he co-authored the bill. He’s hoping voters will forget his disgraceful two-faced behavior in the past and believe his current rhetoric. He knew his bill would be misused from the outset. Antigun bills invariably are, and he’s been around long enough to know it. He’s a classical hypocritical “machine politician.”
I hope the gun rights people in the state of Texas run a multi million dollar ad campaign to vote John Cornyn out of office.
You guys need to get organized.
Cutting archery programs? Is there a problem with drive-by archers shooting arrows?
Are gangs armed with bows and arrows causing crime problems?
Is there an epidemic of “bow and arrow violence”?
Are people committing suicide with bows and arrows? (I don’t think that’s even possible, except by accident after stupidly shooting an arrow straight up in the air, which is something that school archery programs would teach kids to never do!)
And the Biden administration’s eliminating funding for gun safety programs, hunter safety programs, and archery safety programs for children just goes to prove that all their talk about “gun safety” is a pack of lies — they don’t care one bit about safety, they don’t care one bit about the safety of our kids, they just want to indoctrinate children into their “guns are icky” propaganda!
Stuck in NJ,
Some people may laugh at the concept of archery equipment being suitable for a “drive-by” or a spree-killer. If there is a crowd and an attacker loaded a crossbow bolt with a broadhead, that bolt would be capable of going through at least three if not four people–and all would likely die from their wounds regardless of where the arrow hits them (not counting grazing wounds of course).
And if a spree killer was on foot (not constrained to an automobile interior where it would be hard to reload a crossbow or shoot a recurve/compound bow), that spree killer could launch several arrows into a crowd before anyone would have any idea what was happening.
For the unaware, a spree killer could easily send 6 arrows into a crowd in 30 seconds and likely murder at least 12 people (two fatalities per arrow since an arrow with a broadhead is virtually guaranteed to sail right through the first victim and deliver a fatal wound into the second victim). And it would all happen in silence for all intents and purposes. Note: because of the silence, it is totally plausible that the crowd would fail to disperse and a spree killer could continue sending arrows into the crowd well beyond the first 6 arrows in 30 seconds–racking up an even higher body count.
We have previously covered a mass archery murder in I think Norway. Three years ago??
Thwarted School Shooting Media Won’t Talk About Shows Protective Measures Benefits.
This is what happens when DEMONcRATS steal and election.
The actual solution to this is to tell the mafia…um bribum…um… federalis we are not interested. This school like some real colleges dont accept federal funds.
The best thing to do is have dads and moms teach the kids the way they did in the old days so when the USA Gestapo comes to the house the whole family can practice kicking them off their property. This will not stop until people wake up and stop voting for these deranged, incompetent Democrats and the people foolish enough to think they will prevail.
The libertarian’s liberals in the left have been distracting everyone, with their irrational crazy obsession, with the “ghostly military-industrial complex”. Trying to destroy it.
They would destroy Raytheon and Haliburton And destroy every American gun Maker as well at the same time.
The greatest internal threat to the future of America, is federal spending on education. As stated by President Eisenhower in his final address to the nation.
And all the strings that come attached with that federal education money.
Chris, that is why Hillsdale College accepts no federal money
And I understand they and Liberty university are the only ones that don’t take federal money.
This is what comes from the district of Communism these days. time for a divorce.
Cornyn got rolled. They took his lunch money and pulled his pants down to his ankles. Now everyone knows what a gullible fool he is. He brings new meaning to “useful idiot.”
And was “corn holed” for extra humiliation.
Get the kids to an Appleseed Project range/meet.
Long winded, grab a sandwich.
Now would be an excellent time for the second coming of our Lord. I’m not demanding, Lord, merely offering a suggestion.
This evil needs to be stopped! The systematic destruction of the nuclear family, The criminalization of those who believe in Liberty – as it is set forth in our sacred constitution. The pressing of the notion the good is evil, and evil is bad. The lie of the government intimation that “they” will keep us “safe” if we surrender our arms is at first laughable, until history is studied and the inevitable outcome leaves us all slaves to the state. The wholesale and traitorous selling-out to our enemies; China, Russia, Those throughout the middle east, by “our elected officials” for their selfish motives is pure treachery! A betrayal of all we hold dear by self-serving, double-crossing, unpatriotic garbage! These sell-outs who think the king of lies will reward them for their diabolical deeds are fools. Satan will dump them, cast them off like trash when he’s done with them. Satan has been let off the “leash” to do his worst as a harbinger of the second coming of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master. I say this boldly and unashamedly!
These bad players need to be held accountable in a real, unbiased court of law, and the criminals be dealt with in the harshest manner possible. Our children need to be taught liberty, morality, ethics, constitutional government – the way it is supposed to work, and a love, and need for Almighty God. We need the people of righteousness to stand, in force, unashamed, not intimidated by the misguided puppets of evil and make things right! We need to take our nation back from the corrupt! This is a nation choice above all other nations – as long as we keep the commandments of Jesus Christ. Really. We will lose our beloved nation if we ALL don’t act decisively, and fast! The time is now!
“The people can not be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.”
-Thomas Jefferson
” The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.”
-Thomas Jefferson
Karry Keane and the NSSF supported the Bi-partisan Safer Communities Act because they like Redflag and safe storage laws and gave these turncoats like Cornyn A-grades on their legislative report cards, and yet now when it is predictably being used like this against us they are whining that they got rolled when this obviously bad law from the start is actually being applied. .
You were behind this law Larry. You and the NSSF are responsible for it and we won’t let the the 2A community forget or gloss over your participation with its passage and continuing support for the RINO traitors who were behind its passage.
There is no point in complaining about it AFTER the bill is signed into law. READ it FIRST. You NEED to understand what your signing your name to.
THIS is just an example of why I have always believed that the Democrats are actively trying to destroy this country and Republicans just sit there and let them. This is what defines ‘the swamp’. Draining it means getting rid of people like Cornyn. We can blame Biden and that certainly is a problem but the finger should be pointed at Cornyn and others like him for crazyness like this.
These people have to be removed from power. That will be the ONLY way to fix this lunacy. I know Trump comes with baggage but I don’t see anyone else ANYWHERE that can handle it without caving.
These tools voted for it and now they’re going to feign shock that the Junta is following through???
A lot of clickbait on this topic, and it’s worth covering, but let’s be a little realistic about how ‘critical’ this really is.
ESEA title IV funding is miniscule for schools. This only affects those few schools that specifically list a hunting/shooting/archery program for those funds, and the funds themselves are just typically max out at $30k with most schools just getting $10k.
Schools can simply bypass this issue by listing a different program for funding to get the money. The school doesn’t lose anything else, and the vast vast majority of schools with these types of programs arn’t going to be affected because they’re either not directly funded by the school itself, or the school is using the ESEA funds for some other program.