Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
If your best friends at the NRA told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it? That variation on mom's old think-for-yourself admonition comes into play with the NRA's renewed pressure on state lawmakers to reject a proposed ban on live pigeon shoots.
(The reaction from sensible people who haven't been following the live pigeon shoots issue closely probably is, Haven't we stopped doing that yet? The short answer is nope, we just had a live pigeon shoot in Berks County in June.)
It's doubtful a ban, which has been debated in the state Legislature for years, will pass as the legislative session wanes, although we can always hope. But one development this year deserves special note: State Sen. Rich Alloway, R-Chambersburg, a hunter and NRA member, refused to follow the NRA over the cliff.
As reported by the Times-Tribune of Scranton on Monday, Alloway, who is chairman of the Senate Game and Fisheries Committee, voted for a ban when it came before the Judiciary Committee of which he also is a member. Alloway reportedly gave emotional remarks, describing himself as a lifelong hunter who eats game but doesn't kill for sport.
"When I see this blood sport pigeon shooting, I reject it," the newspaper quoted him.
Well aware of the potential consequences of independent thought, Alloway noted that it's laughable the NRA would label him as anti-Second Amendment because of his support for the ban. We agree — after all he championed expansion of the state's Castle Doctrine and many hunter-friendly ideas.
Good for him for knowing when to say when, in the case of live pigeon shooting — we hope and expect that sportsmen in the true sense of the word will thank him for standing up for common sense and ethics regardless of the bullies shouting in his ear to just jump.
We won't rehash most of the self-evident reasons that live pigeon shooting as a "sport" in Pennsylvania has got to go the way of dog-fighting, chained bear-baiting and other once-popular animal abuse for entertainment.
http://readingeagle.com/ap/article/editorial-sen-alloway-heeds-advice-of-moms-everywhere