The Fake Gun Rights Group: American Hunters and Shooters Association

The American Hunters and Shooters Association tries to falsely portray itself as a gun rights group. However it is really a gun control organization that was created by the anti gun rights crowd, with the intent of deceiving and confusing gun owners.

Reeling from defeat in the 1994 and 2000 elections, the anti gun politicians and their lobbyists knew that they would need to find a way of gaining the support of America’s gun owners.  The simplest solution would have been to stop opposing the Second Amendment right to gun ownership, but they decided to go a different route.  The American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA), an organization founded and staffed by anti gun lobbyists and supporters, was born.

• AHSA president Ray Schoenke has a long history of giving political donations to some of the most anti-gun politicians, including Al Gore, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Bill Clinton, Dianne Feinstein and Ted Kennedy. In 2000, Schoenke donated $5,000 to Handgun Control, Inc. (now the Brady Campaign) and the Ray and Holly Schoenke Foundation also made donations to the Brady Campaign.
• AHSA Board member John Rosenthal remains the leader of Stop Handgun Violence, the Massachusetts anti-gun group.
• A leading organizer of AHSA is Bob Ricker, who has been a paid expert witness against gun manufacturers in a number of reckless lawsuits.
• AHSA supported Bloomberg’s effort to repeal the law that protects confidential law enforcement data from disclosure that threatens the privacy of gun owners and the safety of law enforcement officers—all so that Bloomberg could use the information in reckless lawsuits against the firearms industry.
• AHSA filed an amici curiae (friend of the court) brief in D.C. v. Heller, where they argued in favor of keeping handgun ban.
• AHSA has endorsed Obama/Biden, the most anti gun presidential candidates this country has seen.

Since their inception, the American Hunters and Shooters Association has been run by anti gun rights individuals, has testified before congress in favor of gun control, has endorsed anti gun rights candidates, and has opposed well known and trusted gun rights groups such as the NRA.  Simply put, the American Hunters and Shooters Association is as dishonest and anti-gun-rights as gets.

Sources and more information
http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/5635
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Hunters_and_Shooters_Association
http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?id=232&issue=011
http://www.nraila.org/Issues/Articles/Read.aspx?id=200
http://johnrlott.tripod.com/2005/08/democrats-set-up-fake-organizations-to.html