I' m placing this post here because it will NO DOUBT negitively affect hunting in our state not to mention jepordizing ALL firearms hunting in the state of Kansas.
I don' t know if any one in Kansas realizes what happened yesterday when our dear Gov. Kathleen Sebilus appointed our new state game commissioners. 3 New commissioners were appointed and 2 of them are really bad news. New appointees are Kelly Johnston, Doug Sebilus and Shari Wilson.
For me this was a given -
Doug Sebilus is a lawyer from Norton Kansas and is related to the Gov. - go figure.
Bad Choice NO 2 --
Shari Wilson is a project coordinator for the Kansas Association for Consevation and Environmental Education. She has coordinated the annual Kansas Environmental Education Conference and a four-state environmental Education and Nature Conservency and is chair of the Wyandotte County Lewis and Clark Task Force. She was selected for the Leadership 2000 Program and the Kansas Environmental Leadership Program.
*** A Rabid Environmentalist on a state game commission.
And now for the Grand Finally = REALLY B A D C H O I C E No. 1 ------
Kelly Johnston - from Wichita is a president and managing partner of the Johnston Law Offices, PA. He is a member of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association and served since 1999 on the Executive Committee of the Kansas Trial Lawyers associations. He is currently a member of the NAACP, The Serria Club, and THE BRADY CENTER TO PREVENT HANDGUN VIOLENCE. Since 1998, Johnston has continously served as treasurer of the Sedgwick County Democratic Central Committee. He is the holder of a Kansas lifetiome hunting and lifetime fishing license.
A Lawyer that is a gun grabber and has a lifetime hunting license. BTW the state Trial Lawyers Associations were the organizations that lead the lawsuits againist gun manufactures.
It certainly smells like to me that firearms for hunting are going to quickly become a thing of the past here in Kansas. I don' t know what this Gov. is trying to prove, but it certainly looks to me like her true colors are beginning to show through.
Any of you guys that belong to gun organization had better get your groups activated. This fight is the very essence of why we belong to gun organizations. All but the most dire excuses need to be put aside and bring to bear an orginazed effort to block these nominations or to recall the nominations. Individuals can' t do this alone, they can only help. There are dozens of Gun organizations in this state and 12 to 15 very large clubs. GET the WORD OUT. It is going to take the strength in many gun organizations to fight this battle and get this stupidity in check.
The Kansas Senate Judiciary Committee January 23, 2002
SB116 Concerning firearms: Limitations on certain Civil Actions.
Conferee (Kelly) Johnston testified in opposition to SB116. He espressed concerns regarding the billl which he stated would serve to insulate and immunize the firearm industry from civil liability. (attachment 23).
We have documentation now. This guy is a main menber of " Safe State Kansas" a definate anti-gun group. If you need proof go to: http://www.safestatekansas.org/, and see for yourself.
Why, How, could a person with this position be appointed to the KDWP Commission?
I really believe there is no secret to what is happening with this situation.
One of the reasons that these people are so bold with their efforts is because the Gun Clubs in this state all have been absolutley nonexistant on issues involving the Department of Wildlife and parks.
Dana you and I have been to many of the meetings and heard many time over and over and over again how the Commissioners all wish they would get some kind of meaningful input from the Gun clubs.
If any of you out there are lurking and reading this you need to know if you are going to wait on the Gun Clubs in this state do something to defend you againist this menance - I can attest thru involvement that it isn' t likely going to happen. Chances are it won' t.
I have said many times - I will join the first gun/hunting club that actively sets up correspondence with KDWP and continues the effort thru commitment. I would not only join but would take an active role in the effort as well. I have been saying it for years and have had absolutley no response.
Gun clubs in this state had better get over thier single minded efforts with conceled carry and start looking at the bigger picture. I' m not saying concealed carry is not important - it is very important. The biggest problem with this issue being ignored is once firearms are no longer legal for the purposes of hunting, the whole gun control situation gets more difficult. The legality of being able to hunt with a centerfire firearm is THE major support in battling anti-gun propogation.
IMO this very thread was started as a direct result of the inexcusable absence of this states Gun Clubs in KDWP issues. The guy that started this thread didn' t actively imagine or feel that something was not right. There are many problems, and many are caused from the deafining silence from our state' s Gun Clubs.
The good side of this is, if any of the gun clubs step up and fight this fight - they will very probably be able to increase their membership significantly thru active involvement and drastically increase their marketability thru positive active participation with the state' s agency. From what I' ve seen so far I' m not going to hold my breath, I' m going to need it to fight this fight.
I voted for Gov. Sebelius because I simply couldn' t bring myself to vote for the other guy. He wanted to totally commercialize Ks wildlife and lakes. There was even a suggestion of putting resort hotels in state parks. Now who in there right mind would spend big bucks to go to a resort in Kansas? She on the other hand never really made any mention of commercialization during her campaign. I was wrong to think her percieved indifference to the issues would be the lesser of the two evils. This is a slap in the face of all Kansas sportsmen and women. I' m not on the bandwagon of " All hunting in Ks will end as we know it" but it does have to start somewhere and this may be it. My view of the commision has always been that they have suggestions but their point of view has always been shot down by the legislature. Look at the T-tag situation we' re in now. My understanding was that the commision was against them but the legislature just steamrolled their recommendations. Politics make strange bedfellows, it may be now that the commercial lobby may actually be on our side on this one because it could severely dip into their pockets if fees skyrocket. Just my opinion.
Travis
I think a lot of the voters did and did not expect to be blind-sided in this way. It could call for a recall of the Commissioners appointed as well as maybe even a recall of the Gov. I was no fan of the alternative in the Gov. issue either.
I know we don' t agree some issues, but those arguments will have to wait for another day. We put down the differences and pick up on the similarities it times like these. I am no fan of the commercialization, however I did email all the guides and outfitters and gunclubs, and etc. I have been emailing everybody and searching for info on these guys (which I am quite good at) and letting everyone know. So all other issues are now on hold until we get these lulus out.
Just spread the word, contact people with contacts, write an editorial, letter to the editor, letter to Governor, etc. And check back here. I will do all I can to inform everyone.
From the graybeardoutdoors.com handgun hunting forum member cabin4. I think it sums up best what this assult in our State is.
Folks better wake up. This is not just about gun control, ite really about eliminating the 2nd Amendment and its a culture war. Chas Heston tried to articulate this years ago. The gun control lobbies real mission is to strike at the heart of the traditional American culture & heritage. Guns & hunting represent to these anti' s the most extreme example of how bad, in thier minds American Tradition is. By killing the important aspects of the culture, you can eventually eliminate the culture, in this case OURS. They are unleasing " cultural genocide" against us. If you kill the culture, you really kill the people and thier ways of life. Thats what this is all about.
For some folks, this argument is to extreme a view. But if you really think about it, what would it be like if guns and hunting was outlawed !!!!!!!
I urge you all to DO what you can to stop these genocidal maniacs, get involved, write, and this is a fight that you must put your $$ were the mouth is. Its just a fact, it takes $$ to fight these pigs. There are some great organizations that know how to fight this stuff very well. Between your support for them and what you can do on your own for NO $$, it will make a dif. $$ and people numbers are what thse fights are all about.
This started with the republican GOV. choice wanting to expand the selling of the deer herd to the highest bidder. Many hunters voted for the opposite party for reason 1.) Jennison appointed to the Secretary of KDWP who wanted to expand the t-tag and other liberalization issues. 2.) the promise of reform of Kansas State Agencies.
You all want to know how this happened? I' ll tell you exactly how this happened. Complete unadulterated APATHY. That' s why I started this thread with the title that I did. The Gun Clubs and Firearms hunters in particular have been completely asleep at at wheel and COMPLETLY uninvolved in issues dealing with the State' s Big Game Commission. Most guy' s are completely content with letting someone else do the work and they just sit back and coast on the work of the extremely few involved people in this state. This can be verified in fact by just listening to the State Game Commissioners pleading for input from the Gun Clubs here. They don' t get the time of day from them. Some of the leadership of the Kansas State Rifle Association want to see something form someone else before the even consider this situation as was explained to me at the meeting in Lawrence Holidome. There seems to me to be a big problem with the state' s largest RIFLE association not jumping into this with both feet. It seems like to me becoming active with this would be a GREAT oppertunity for a very solid membership drive. Seems like to me the powers that be at the KSRA have it completely backwards. Seems to me you would have to put wood on the fire before you would get any heat. But not these guys - all you get is I told you so!!@!!
With absolutely NO INVOLVEMENT from the Gun Clubs in this state in wildlife and parks issues the stage was set for any demacratic anti-gun Gov. Then along come Kathleen Sabelius Demecratic canidate for Gov and is elected as a moderate. Then bang - she starts plugging in her anti-gun anti-hunting buddies in choice spots to carry her agenda. I' ll tell you how good she is at disguising here agenda - here in Kansas we have a Gov' s turkey hunt on the opening weekend of spring turkey. This Gov went turkey hunting with the Sectary of Wildlife and Parks. She said that she loved every minute of it and would do her best to endorese, promote and support hunting in the state of Kansas.
2 months after Turkey season closes - she appoints these jerks to our game commission, because she knows she can. She knows for a fact how invisible the Gun clubs in our state have been. She also knows the apathy of the gun hunters in this state. What she realizes is she can get away with muder in this environment and by the time enough Gunhunters here get the clue it will be way too late. She knows all this, and this state firearms hunters do not. The firearms hunters in this state (most) all think that someone else will fight this battle and there is nothing to worry about.
I' m trying to find out for sure but I think by the time she gets out of office she will be able to appoint 2 more commissioners. I don' t know that for sure I' m still trying to find out.
Isn' t that just lovely - our " moderate" Demacratic Gov is going to possibly be able to appoint 5 of our 7 Game Commissioners, and the general firearms hunting public doesn' t have a clue. This is going to be a limitus test for us here in Kansas. Until the gun and hunting clubs STOP turning their backs on the Wildlife and parks issues - we will continue to lose.
We have between 80,000 to 100,000 Gun hunters in the state. The representation from the Gun clubs is so sparse it IS invisible. Most meeting there is a complete lack of representation form Gun Hunters. If I were to estimate attendence by Gun hunters it would be maybe 5 guys between 2 meetings sometime during the year. Most EVERY YEAR there are absolutely NO REPRESENTATION from ANY of the GUN Clubs. NONE!!!!Archers have between 16,000 to 20,000. Their representatives numbers are at least in the double digits and there is ALWAYS at least 3 to 5 guys at the meeting representing archers AT EVERY MEETING. The archery representatives are to their credit motivated, committed, and willing to go the distance. I would bet that we will have more support and action on the issue of halting the confermation of the appointees from the archery faction than from the rifle hunting public. I certainly hope that rifle hunter do get motivated. My only response from the KSRA President was an " I told you so." Instead of having his candidate change his position on Jennison, they wanted everything their way and in his words " you got what you deserved." explanation.
We know how to fix our problems here - now it is down to will we do it or not. We must mobilize and overturn these appointments, it is difficult, but quite doable.
If I were a gun hunter here or anywhere else and a member of a gun club, I would start getting VERY involved with the persons that are representing you at the Big Game Commsission meetings. If you don' t have this communications going on with your state agency' s from your gun club you had betterstart rasing hell in your club about that situation. If your gun club is NOT activly and directly involved in game issues in your state, they are shirking a major part of representation for you.
If it can happen in the Great State of Kansas, I guarntee it can happen ANYWHERE.
Get directly involved. Don' t leave it to someone else. That is the only thing that is going to save us.
I voted for the " other guy" because Sebilius has hosed up everthing she has ever touched. Thats why our insurance is so high. For those who don' t know, she used to be insurance commissioner.
As far as going to meetings and getting clubs involved, been there done that and am still doing that.
It just makes it hard to get something across to the KDWP when they know everything and everyone else is stupid.
Some of those people don' t know the business end of any hunting tool and don' t know game management, except what they where taught in college, they have no real world experiance.
My bother -in-law works for the Feds and live here in Kansas and even he can' t believe what is happening.
Someone on this forum said the inmates are running the asylum, perfect case in point.
What have you done and called? Does anyone need any help from me? There is a gun show in Wichita, ks. Visit with the KSRA and PAC booth and help out with some effort or $$. We need you to overturn these terrible appointees.
Kansas Hunters Had better wake up and NOW
