AHSA Delays Membership Bid with OWAA
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) withdrew its application to join the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) after several members raised objections, and the board also wrestled with the question.
An AHSA delegation met with the board, faced some serious questioning, and then withdrew the application. AHSA Executive Director Bob Ricker told Gun Week that the plan now is to re-submit the application for consideration at the mid-year board meeting in about six months.
But instead of departing the OWAA conference, held June 17-20 in Lake Charles, LA, the AHSA group stayed and held a press conference that was alternately described as being “heated” at times, but ended, according to Ricker, in applause from the audience.
AHSA is considered by many in the gun rights movement to be a thinly disguised anti-gun “Trojan horse” organization promoting itself as pro-gun and pro-hunting in order to confuse the rank and file outdoor community, and the press. Several gun rights leaders compare AHSA with the anti-gun Americans for Gun Safety.
The following four position statements quoted from the AHSA website (www.huntersandshooters.org) provide a window onto the mixed positions of the group.
“AHSA believes the DC gun law should be amended to allow law-abiding citizens the right to acquire and keep handguns in their homes and places of business.”
“AHSA supports requiring all transfers of firearms at gun shows to be subject to all federal, state and local laws and regulations currently applicable to federally licensed firearm dealers including the conducting of the instant background check on purchasers.”
“AHSA supports legislative efforts to regulate .50 caliber BMG sniper rifles in the same manner as machine guns are regulated under the provisions of the National Firearms Act of 1934.”
“AHSA believes the FBI should be given reasonable access to National Instant Check System (NICS) purchase records to insure terrorists and other prohibited individuals do not have access to firearms.”
Ricker said their membership application was sponsored by Pat Wray, an Oregon-based outdoor writer and former OWAA board member who has been prominently critical of the National Rifle Association (NRA). Wray was on the board in 2004 when he and his colleagues sent a letter to then-NRA President Kayne Robinson, admonishing him for remarks he made about the Sierra Club during an NRA-sponsored breakfast at that year’s OWAA. Wray actually wrote the draft of that letter.
It was that letter that sparked a rebellion within OWAA ranks. The organization lost more than a hundred prominent gun and hunting writer members, and a considerable number of important industry supporters. The result, according to sources in OWAA, is that the association has suffered financially.
The insurrection led dissident writers to create a new organization, the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA), see related story on Page 11.
Meanwhile, several OWAA board members have been replaced, with new directors promising to steer the association away from what critics saw as a tilt toward the political and philosophical left. It appears they are making good on that pledge, guiding OWAA back to its position as an association of communicators instead of advocates.
Accounts of the AHSA withdrawal, and the press conference, differ. Wray and Ricker both indicated that the press conference went rather well, and that there were only a couple of people with heated objections.
Conversely, Andy Lightbody with Rocky Mountain Television—which videotaped the session—said several writers in attendance clearly had issues with the AHSA.
“One of the comments (from the audience) that I thought was just staggering,” Lightbody recalled, “was ‘The NRA isn’t the problem, you are. Why don’t you just go away’?”
Lightbody told Gun Week that the AHSA delegation “lambasted the NRA” for not fulfilling the needs of its members, and for having “lost focus and lost its vision.”
However, according to Wray, “I thought the AHSA guys did a pretty good job, for their first time, of explaining their vision, and they did a much better job while speaking during a subsequent breakfast they sponsored. There were two people at the conference who seemed intent on causing trouble, but they certainly didn’t reflect the feelings of the crowd and they came across as ignorant and pathetic.”
Ricker concurred, noting, “There was one guy there that was a trouble maker. Everyone else was very receptive. . . . It was the first press conference I’ve ever been to where we got applause at the end.”
Columnist Bill Schneider, writing about the conference in the June 21 issue of New West, noted: “OWAA members gave the organization a mixed response. Some members liked the new group’s plan to listen to hunters and then develop policy instead of the top-down approach used by the NRA. Also popular was AHSA pledge to support Wilderness.”
Ricker and Wray both defended the fledgling organization—which ironically started about the same time POMA began last year—as an alternative to outdoorsmen and women seeking a more moderate approach to gun and hunting issues, and conservation.
As Ricker explained it, “We’re not out to ban guns, we’re not out to call for restricting the rights of law abiding citizens to buy guns, but there needs to be a fresh approach to fighting inner city gun violence.”
He said most traditional gun groups “have turned a blind eye to the conservation issue.”
Defends Rosenthal
Ricker defended AHSA co-founder John Rosenthal, who started a gun control organization in Massachusetts called “Stop Handgun Violence.” He has advocated licensing and registration of gunowners and firearms. Rosenthal also served on the board of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence at the invitation of Jim Brady, Ricker recalled.
“He became frustrated,” Ricker said. “He didn’t think they were headed in the right direction. He resigned that membership.”
Ricker said Rosenthal “was trying to find a way where you could be a gunowner” and do something about urban gun violence.
“That’s why he became involved in American Hunters and Shooters. Guys like Pat Wray and others believe us,” Ricker said.
Wray told Gun Week that he spent considerable time talking with AHSA leaders, “particularly exploring the backgrounds and explanations of John Rosenthal and Bob Ricker, whose history can be considered troubling.”
“I have to say I was impressed with both of them,” Wray said, “and can understand their past actions when viewed in the context of time and place. I am convinced they are honest and above board when they describe their hopes for the future. I am waiting to see their finalized platform before I join their organization, but anticipate no trouble. I think they are the real thing.
“In short,” Wray continued, “I believe they may well be the answer to the prayers of many hunters, who have been hoping for an organization that will fight for our hunting heritage, work for the protection of wildlife and habitats, and stand up for their (Second) Amendment rights, without the rabid, everyone-is-an-enemy approach of the NRA. I know for a fact that many other people at the OWAA conference felt the same.”
Turning Point
There are signs that AHSA’s withdrawal of its membership application marks a significant turning point for the OWAA, and especially its board of directors. One director, speaking on background, suggested that AHSA faced tough odds at being approved for an OWAA supporting membership. Another said he was concerned because a press release from AHSA said the group was formed to “restore pride in shooting and hunting,” which he interpreted as a claim there is currently no pride in either endeavor.
That same board member said he was disappointed that the AHSA seemed to say less about itself, while making statements that were defamatory of the NRA.
But the board encouraged Ricker, Rosenthal and their companions, AHSA President Ray Schoenke and AHSA Advisory Board Co-chairman A. Austin Dorr, to stay for the conference and get acquainted with more OWAA members. They were joined for the press conference by Joseph Vince, a member of the AHSA board of directors and former special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The OWAA board, said one member, does not want to create another situation where members depart over an issue of who is allowed to be a supporting member. In addition to the NRA flap, there was also a firestorm when an animal rights organization was allowed to join a few years ago. They have since departed.
Noted one board member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, “I think this happening was excellent for OWAA. Shooters and hunters are back on the OWAA board now. We’ve got it back.”
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