Chuck Schumer goes hunting?

[spin]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Charles E. Schumer, who made his early career as a New York City congressman by fighting for gun control, has finally fired a gun himself — on his first hunting trip.

"I got three pheasants," Mr. Schumer, D-N.Y., told New York reporters in a conference call Wednesday, recounting a weekend outing in Nebraska with Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., as he touted a bill he introduced Wednesday to encourage hunters to donate animals to charity.

Mr. Schumer's hunting trip and legislation are part of his transformation to a gun stance more in keeping with his statewide constituency. He bragged Wednesday that Field and Stream magazine named him its person of the year for pushing legislation making more privately owned land available for hunting.

The senator's latest effort would allow hunters and meat processing plants to claim a tax deduction for the value of deer donated to food programs. It also would apply to other hunted animals such as turkey, Mr. Schumer said.
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20091119/NEWS02/311199965

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. Probably like Bill Weld did in MA - go to a fenced game farm and blast away.

[PavePusher]

2. He's about as genuine as a pig in a silk gown. And just as attractive... n/t

[Arctic Dave]

6. What don't you bitch about when it comes to democrats and guns.

Would you feel better if he was talking about a ban of some sort so you could poutrage.

[eqfan592]

7. Ummm, so we have to accept imediately that the second somebody...

...changes their tune on this (or any) subject that they are being 100% genuine and aren't attempting to pander to us in the least for political points?

[Arctic Dave]

8. Maybe, just maybe he is starting to realize that guns aren't as bad as some people think.

Hell, he may even go hunting again if he enjoys himself. But let's not let that stop us from crying and knashing our teeth about imagined offenses.

[eqfan592]

9. I don't think anybody is "crying" about any "imagined offenses" here.

He's had a very bad track record in this area going up to this point, and it's going to take a lot more than a staged hunting trip for people to start trusting him on this issue because of this. He made this bed for himself, Dave, not anybody else.

[PavePusher]

12. Well, I can't draw a new trend from one data point...

But if he repeats this and starts renouncing gun restrictions, I'll bite. Until then, he can bite... something...

[Euromutt]

13. Considering Schumer used to have an NYC CCW permit...

...this would be consistent with his apparent stance that firearm possession is fine for the rich, famous and politically influential, but not for hoi polloi. Maybe it's because I'm from Europe, but shooting pheasants strikes me as rather an upper-class pursuit.

[spin]

16. I have to admit I would have been more impressed if he went deer or wild boar hunting...

Maybe the liberal Democrats like pheasant hunting.

John Kerry bagged 2 pheasants on his hunt (photo op).



I wonder if Kerry will go hunting again to outdo Schumer. Maybe he could bag 4 pheasants and a turkey.

We might have a interesting completion on our hands.

[one-eyed fat man]

19. I think that may be for hunting in Europe in general.

The tradition there is the "game" belongs to the landowner. For a very, very long time, the land owner was always titled. Serfs and peasants were allowed to live on and farm the land, in the Baron's (Graf's, Duke's, Earl's, Bishop's) magnanimity, they didn't even hold title to their hovels. Hunting was reserved for the nobility while peasants and poachers were relentlessly pursued by their gamekeepers. See the origins of the 'ghillie suit.'

Regardless, the dozen or so years I spent stationed in Germany gave me a great appreciation for the modern German tradition. "Waidmannsheil!"

Hunting Class

[S_B_Jackson]

29. Hunting pheasant is hardly an upper-class endeavor...

that is, assuming that you're talking about wild pheasant and not at fenced game farm with semi-domesticated game birds.

Used to hunt with my grandfather all the time....and he was many things, but upper-class wouldn't be one of them. Back in the day, about half of the meat my parents ate as kids resulted from hunted game - especially during the winter - and much of the reason was that it didn't cost anything except the hunting licenses.

[Euromutt]

32. Well, note I said "shooting pheasant," not "hunting pheasant"

As in, the gunners stand in fixed position and beaters flush out the pheasant toward their position; no effort needed to actually find the birds. And as one-eyed fat man notes above, more or less, correctly, putting high-velocity lead into animals has indeed been overwhelmingly been the preserve of the wealthy and landed in Europe.

It is different over here, I acknowledge, and hunting is overall a much more egalitarian pursuit. I think particularly deer hunting is ingrained in the American psyche, perhaps as a big "f*** you" to the British crown; "try and stop me hunting these deer, Georgie boy!"

[Tejas]

14. Sure, and a flying pig in a silk gown just hit my house

:rofl:

[PavePusher]

18. Sigh. Not again....

I'll get the ladder, you grab the nails and shingles...:rofl:

[PavePusher]

17. Hey, I bitch about Republicans who are anti-Second Amendment idjits too.

They just happen to be much rarer in the public venue. Feel free to point 'em out when you find them, I'll be happy to vent on them too.

[spin]

3. Another positive fact about Chuck Schumer and hunting...

he didn't shoot another hunter.

[X_Digger]

5. That's the only thing..

Pfft. As if most gun owners hunt.

Hey Chuckie, you're only appealing to 1 in 5 gun owners.

[safeinOhio]

20. or a wolf from a plane.

Are Schumer doubters all fans of Palin? Just asking.

[PavePusher]

21. Lucky Chucky has been publicly hunting once...

as an obvious vote pandering ploy. He has no credibility on the subject until it has become a multi-repeat event.

"Are Schumer doubters all fans of Palin? Just asking."

Just asking? Bullshit. You are making a blatent accusation. I offer you an invitation to the world.

[safeinOhio]

23. Then on 9 out 10 issues you would most likely support Schumer

and on only 1 you'd support Palin? I'm not a one issue voter and I want to understand if you consider the total total record of an office holder or only one aspect. For me the real world has more to do with the total progressive agenda. I would never vote for a Palin even if she was 100% correct on 2nd Amendment issues. If a Senator bends to the will of his district, as Schumer is doing, great. I would offer complaints for what he does wrong and not question what he does right.

[PavePusher]

25. Wow.

Again with the Palin thing? Did I not make myself clear? I will not engage your strawmen. Please try to stay on topic.

[eqfan592]

26. This reasoning is not an excuse to just "lay off" of a politician when they are wrong on an issue.

And that's no matter how right they are on everything else. If they are wrong about something, it's our duty to call them out on it. So unless you can point out where somebody made a favorable comment about Palin in all of this, as if she is somehow preferable, then this is nothing more than a straw man argument.

[spin]

22. Interesting, it might just be a possiblility...

However, most politicians seem to prefer hunting birds rather than larger game. Far less controversial.

[Euromutt]

27. I actually happen to be active in wolf conservation

Aerial gunning of wolves in Alaska has long been one of my pet hates, and both Palin and her predecessor Murkowski have not made themselves popular with me by employing the "predator control" loophole to keep issuing de facto aerial wolf hunting licenses which, to paraphrase Monty Python, practically have the word "hunting" crossed out and "predator control" written on them in crayon, even after the Alaskan electorate had passed two referenda banning aerial hunting. The person issued the license has to pay for the privilege of supposedly assisting the state's predator control program, and gets to keep the trophy, and yes, the paperwork literally uses the word "trophy"; it's a fucking hunting license!

Like around 80% of gun owners, I don't hunt myself, but I'm not opposed to hunting in principle, and I'm not even opposed to culling predators when they become problematic. I don't even have a major philosophical issue with the high-tech equipment used by deer and elf hunters to take the game with the minimum of effort, because we're talking food. But when it comes to non-food animals, such as wolves, we're talking hunting for sport, and that means there has to be a challenge. I wouldn't have a huge issue with a guy who left his transportation behind at the edge of the hunting area and stalked and shot a wolf on foot--that takes some skill, considering wolves can run 30 mph for hours--but there's no sport to chasing a pack of wolves to exhaustion with a light aircraft until it's practically impossible to miss.

When McCain announced Palin as his VP candidate last year, the aerial gunning issue alone was enough to make me detest her, even before I knew anything else about her. I'm not a single-issue voter by any means, but there are certain issues that can make or break a candidate for me, at least in the primaries; I'm resigned to holding my nose to some extent during an actual election. I won't vote for a candidate who's anti-choice on abortion or vocally anti-gay rights, period (so that was McCain out, let alone Palin). I won't vote for a candidate who actively supports measures that will restrict my freedom to defend myself or others (I wrote in Bill Richardson last year).

The problem with Schumer is that there isn't a whole lot more to him than being anti-gun (at least for people who aren't in as privileged a position as him, seeing as how he's perfectly happy to get an NYC CCW permit and shoot pheasant), and what's worse, he's evidently prepared to play fast and loose with the rest of Bill of Rights to circumvent the 2nd Amendment, such as supporting denying the freedom to own firearms to people who aren't actually suspected of having done anything wrong, but are suspected--on the most tenuous grounds possible--of maybe intending to do something wrong at some unspecified future. That's the difference between a criminal suspect and a "suspected terrorist": the crime that the criminal suspect is suspected of has actually taken place.

Okay, fine, he's pro-choice, and supports same-sex marriage (or at least, that what he claims), but what has he actually done on those issues? When you get right down to it, how much difference is there between Chuck Schumer and, say, Rudi Giuliani?

[GreenStormCloud]

4. Three pheasants on first hunting trip?

Were their wings clipped and he ground shot them?

[spin]

10. Nah, Chuck is just a natural shot...

I'll bet he could put 10 out of 10 rounds in the 10 ring on a 25 yard pistol target with a .45 automatic.

[Euromutt]

28. Or maybe he spent some time on the trap/skeet range beforehand

After all, trap/skeet is essentially simulated upland bird shooting. The targets aren't called "clay pigeons" for nothing.

[spin]

31. I suspect that Chuck is actually a damn good shooter...

he did have a concealed carry permit. He probably likes guns, but politics come first.

Hopefully he's not one of the politicians who are anti-gun just to keep "those people" for owning them.

[Katya Mullethov]

11. Now he can qualify everything with " I hunt , but "

I hunt but , I roll with a Tec9 .



Just one of many attempts at posturing as practiced by career parasites in both houses .

[spin]

15. Chuck appears to have a smile on his face..

He probably enjoyed shooting the weapon.

While he is wearing a headset to protect his hearing, he is not wearing safety glasses. Not good.

[oneshooter]

34. Hope springs eternal, bu don't count on it. N/T

[jody]

24. Schumer is lucky Cheney wasn't in the hunting party. n/t

[spin]

30. There might have been a shootout. (n/t)

[Xela]

33. Step in the right direction...

...but now he needs to go out and get himself an evil black rifle and start punching paper targets (heck, I'd settle for and SKS or a Garand)...

...better yet, get him signed up in a Gunsite class.

Xela