**The House of Representatives may vote on this bill this week**
“Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act” is a nightmare for human life, wildlife, and public lands. The bill is chock-full of anti-wildlife, anti-Endangered Species Act, and anti-public lands provisions that would undermine wildlife conservation and put imperiled species in greater danger. It is that and an appalling dismantling of firearm safety and a blatant gift to the gun lobby all at the same time.
Here's what the bill covers:
Wildlife provisions:
- One provision of concern would undermine the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by legislatively delisting gray wolves in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
- The bill even goes a step further and undermines the rule of law by prohibiting judicial review of that delisting, thereby, removing a citizen's ability to challenge the delisting in court and hold the government accountable.
- SHARE would protect the practice of baiting birds with grain as they migrate and then mowing them down while they eat.
- Another detrimental provision would put Alaska's wildlife at risk by voiding a federal rule that protects iconic carnivores on National Park Service preserves in Alaska from extreme, unethical, and unscientific hunting practices such as baiting bears and killing mother wolves and their cubs during denning season.
- The bill creates a dangerous loophole that allows trophy-hunted polar bears to be imported. Two-thirds of polar bears are expected to be wiped out by 2050 due to climate change, and the species is predicted to be near extinction by the end of the century.
- Finally, the bill would prohibit environmental reviews of proposed potentially damaging activities on the 150 million acres protected under the National Wildlife Refuge System.
Gun provisions:
- The SHARE Act will deregulate gun silencers. Silencers would be removed from the purview of the National Firearms Act, which means they would be much easier for criminals to purchase and people wouldn't be able to hear where gun fire is coming from in case of mass killing. This would change an 80-year-old law which was put in place because of gang violence in the 1930s.
- Unlicensed sellers and private sales would not require a background check for purchase or transfers of silencers. The current registry of silencer sales will be destroyed.
- The regulation of interstate transport of firearms would be weakened.
- Law enforcement officers who stop people suspected of trafficking firearms across state lines for questioning could be sued personally for detaining the suspect.
- The bill would no longer require firearms to be stored in a container or trunk. Guns would be allowed in the passenger compartment.
- SHARE prohibits the regulation of ammunition and fish tackle based on lead content, which will allow the lead from firearm ammunition and fish tackle to continue to pollute our forests and rivers.
- The bill allows guns on federal water resource developments.
- The authority of the ATF’s (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives) would be removed to use the “sporting purposes” clauses in federal law as a guideline to ban certain firearms and to regulate guns. The Gun Control Act of 1968 specifically banned imported firearms not suitable for “sporting purposes.” The key phrase “sporting purpose” permits products with that designation to be less regulated and, therefore, easier to sell. It is one reason the gun lobby does not want an AK 47 or AR 15 to be called an assault rifle; it prefers the sound of “modern sporting rifle” so as to escape regulation.
- The ATF’s authority would be eliminated to reclassify popular rifle ammunition as “armor piercing ammunition.”
- SHARE provides for the lawful importation of any non-NFA (National Firearms Act) firearm or ammunition that may otherwise be lawfully possessed and sold within the United States.
The SHARE Act will likely increase the revenues of firearm-related industries, but the real price will be paid in American lives lost to gun violence.
Please contact your House representative and Paul Ryan immediately! https://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Or use Resistbot on Facebook and it will find out who represents you in Congress and deliver your message to them in under 2 minutes. https://resistbot.io/
Source Material for this post:
“HR 3668 : SHARE Act.” Ceasefire Oregon, The Ceasefire Oregon Education Foundation, www.ceasefireoregon.org/bills/share-act/.
Milbank, Dana. “Opinion | The NRA's Idea of Recreation: Assault Rifles, Armor-Piercing Bullets and Silencers.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 11 Sept. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-nras-idea-of-recreation-assault-rifles-armor-piercing-bullets-and-silencers/2017/09/11/6d22c616-9740-11e7-82e4-f1076f6d6152_story.html?utm_term=.bff6e9375628.
Hofberg, Mark. “SHARE Act Could Undermine Federal Land Protections.” IFAW - International Fund for Animal Welfare, International Fund for Animal Welfare, 26 Sept. 2017, www.ifaw.org/united-states/node/112631.
Loprieno, Don. “Letter to the Editor: Act Now to Oppose 'Sportsmen's Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act of 2017'.” The Coastal Journal, The Coastal Journal, 3 Oct. 2017, www.coastaljournal.com/2017/10/03/letter-editor-act-now-oppose-sportsmens-heritage-recreational-enhancement-act-2017/.