NORWICH – U.S. Representative Richard Hanna is pushing a number of federal initiatives he says will help protect sportsmen in upstate New York from increasingly overbearing regulations from Capitol Hill.
Hanna recently outlined those initiatives at Mayhood’s Sporting Goods in Norwich. With several proposed regulations that hinder outdoor regulations making it to the floor of the legislature, namely gun laws, the need to safeguard the rights of outdoor sportsmen is paramount, he said.
“We have a very proud history of sporting in upstate New York whether it’s hunting, fishing, sport shooting, snowmobiling or other activities,” Hanna said. “What we have seen, especially in New York, is our government attempt to chip away at the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”
To push back in defense of sportsmen, Hanna outlined a number of areas where he’s working at the federal level to address growing needs. He has co-sponsored the Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage Opportunities Act which would require that federal land management officials, working in coordination with appropriate state agencies, open access to public land for fishing, sport hunting and recreational shooting. He also co-sponsors the Renewable Fuel Standard Elimination Act, a bill that seeks to repeal EPA requirements that transportation fuel contain a certain volume of renewable fuels, like ethanol. Such fuels can damage recreational vehicles, meaning more repair costs for the owner.
In addition, Hanna has taken a stance against using EPA funds to regulate lead content in ammunition and fishing tackle, favored reducing barriers to wild game donation, and pushed to allow interstate transportation of firearms.
Chief among those concerns, said Hanna, has been the preservation of gun rights. He cited New York’s Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013 as a model example of government taking the wrong steps to solve a complicated issue; and it’s hurting law-abiding gun owners as well as New York’s gun manufacturers, he argued. Companies like Remington Arms in Herkimer County and CZ-USA in Norwich are becoming harder to keep in the state.
“The SAFE Act isn’t helpful and it doesn’t represent upstate culture. To impose it on everyone in upstate at writ large, overnight, was wrong on every level I can think of,” Hanna said. “There’s a connection people make between guns and violence, and it isn’t real. If you look at the cases, the connection is between a mentally deficient person and violence, or a criminal and violence ... If you look at the last 60 or 70 gun instances, what you see is someone who is mentally deficient or criminal.”
Hanna added there have been efforts among legislators in Washington to block similar laws at the federal level. As a member of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus and the National Rifle Association, he said he stands behind the repeal of the SAFE Act.
Mayhood’s owner Mike Mayhood said he couldn’t agree more, especially with new legislation coing down the pike in Albany that may tighten restrictions of gun owners even further.
“All of the restrictions, if I honestly thought that they were going to do good, I would be more in favor of them. But that’s not the issue. A gun is a gun. A firearm has never killed anybody, wounded anybody or shot itself. There has to be somebody behind the trigger. That’s where the problem lies.”
Hanna has been a leading voice in Congress speaking on behalf of second amendment rights and preservation of New York’s outdoor sportsmen culture, as well as its long history of firearms manufacturing.