I remember how it was -- JR
Biden Will Withhold Federal Funding From Schools With Hunting, Archery Programs
The Biden administration apparently thinks that young archers are a real threat to safety. And, of course, getting rid of hunter safety classes for high school students must be an obvious way to improve safety. The Biden administration’s interpretation of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) will allow them to deny federal funding for schools with hunting or archery classes. The change will end schools having those classes.
Federal funding for public schools is substantial and hard for schools to ignore, with the average state’s public school receiving about 9 percent of their budgets.
Amazingly, some Republicans supported this bill – fifteen Senators and fourteen House members – and all the Democrats. Democrats and Republicans from states with lots of hunters voted for this bill. But with the bill passing by a 65-to-33 margin, it had votes to spare and would have passed without their support. There was more to the bill than just cutting off funds for hunter safety and archery classes, with money to encourage states to adopt Red Flag laws.
Some of these votes are hard to figure out. Democrat Senator Jon Tester represents Montana, the state with the third highest percentage of the population with hunters. Similarly, Senator Angus King comes from Maine and ranks fifth; Joe Manchin from West Virginia ranks ninth; and Baldwin (D-WI) from Wisconsin ranks eleventh. The most surprising Republican Senators were Alaska’s Murkowski (eighth-ranked state for hunters) and West Virginia’s Capito (ninth).
Biden and gun control advocates know that people who grow up around hunting are more likely to own guns when they get older.
But whether it isn’t banning lead bullets and fishing weights or putting thousands of gun dealers out of business, the Biden administration seems determined to use every option available to eliminate hunting.
The only possible claim for lead poisoning is if people eat the lead pellets from shotgun shells. Even then, the levels would be so far below any plausible health standards that it is hard to see anyone taking them as credible risks.
The Clinton administration looked into this and dismissed concerns about lead poisoning from bullets. You can see two letters written in 1999 and 2000 by Dr. William L. Marcus, then-senior science adviser at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water. In those letters, Marcus wrote that the “assertion that the use of lead-based ammunition is hazardous is in error,” as studies of adult shooters at outdoor ranges have not shown increased blood lead levels, and those shooting at “indoor properly ventilated firing ranges have shown no increases in blood lead levels.”
Marcus also noted, “Indoor ranges, when cleaned using prescribed protocols, have shown no increases in the blood lead levels of range personnel, and that lead does not pose an environmental threat when used in ammunition.”
A later 2008 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study and the North Dakota Department of Public Health concluded that lead is so prevalent in meat harvested through hunting that pregnant women and children should never eat it. Unfortunately, other sources of lead poisoning weren't accounted for, and obviously, there are multiple sources of lead in the environment (the mean level of lead in the blood in the US is three micrograms, not zero). In addition, the highest level of lead in the blood for one of the 738 people sampled in the North Dakota study was less than what the government defines as elevated, even for children.
Given this skepticism of the underlying safety risks of lead, the Biden administration’s regulations look to be just another excuse to restrict gun ownership.
Finally, Biden’s Zero Tolerance Policy drove 1,826 licensed gun dealers out of business due to a compliance inspection in 2021 and 2022. Compare that to the 96 that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives put out of business in 2020. The numbers for 2021 were lower in part because it undoubtedly took the BATF time to implement the new rules. Biden claims that this policy revokes the licenses for “rogue gun dealers [who] feel like they can get away with selling guns to people who aren’t legally allowed to own them.” But these gun dealers aren’t selling guns out of the back of their stores to criminals. Biden is putting them out of business for trivial, inconsequential paperwork mistakes.
And it is much more than these regulations, such as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies that make it costly for firearm companies to raise funds to the pressure Biden is putting on banks and other financial institutions not to do business with gun makers.
Biden is using the power of government regulation to crush industries that he doesn’t approve of from oil and gas companies to those in the firearms industry. Companies that are forced out of business now won’t be instantly replaced even when a new less hostile administration is elected. But the higher costs of guns means that the poor and the most vulnerable are going to find it much more difficult to defend themselves and their families.
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Gov. DeSantis issues direct challenge to Kamala Emptyhead to 'set the record straight' about curriculum
Last month, Harris seized on Florida's new curriculum standards, claiming state officials want to "gaslight" students by teaching them "that enslaved people benefited from slavery."
The curriculum, of course, does not teach that.
Rather, one specific standard says teachers should examine "the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation)." The added "benchmark clarification" explains that "instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."
Harris' claims set off a firestorm against DeSantis, which has included being attacked by fellow Republicans who also criticized the curriculum.
What is DeSantis doing now?
On Monday, DeSantis invited Harris to Tallahassee to discuss the standards with prominent scholar Dr. William Allen, a former chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights who helped craft the standards.
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Allen is a descendant of slaves and has defended the standards vigorously.
"It's past time to set the record straight," DeSantis wrote in a letter. "In Florida we are unafraid to have an open and honest dialogue about the issues. And you clearly have no trouble ducking down to Florida on short notice.
"So given your grave concern (which, I must assume, is sincere) about what you think our standards say, I am officially inviting you back down to Florida to discuss our African American History standards. We will be happy to host you here in Tallahassee," he continued. "I will ask Dr. William Allen — instrumental in the development of our impressive new standards — to join. We welcome you, of course, to bring Randi Weingarten or someone else who shares your view about the standards."
DeSantis said he is prepared to meet as early as Wednesday. Harris is actually speaking in Orlando on Tuesday, so meeting would not be logistically difficult. She is traveling to Wisconsin on Thursday.
Indeed, a short turnaround time is not difficult for Harris because, according to CNN, Harris' team "quickly arranged" the trip to Florida, where she launched her attack against DeSantis and the new curriculum.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/desantis-challenges-kamala-harris-debate-curriculum
**************************************************Australia: Qld schools’ ban on religious knives deemed by Supreme Court to be racial discrimination and invalid
An old controversy.
Queensland’s weapons legislation barring Sikhs from carrying religious knives on school grounds is racial discrimination and is therefore invalid, the state’s highest court has found.
Sikh man Kamaljit Kaur Athwal has won a fight against the State of Queensland over a provision in the weapons act prohibiting the possession of a knife on school grounds for genuine religious purposes.
Initiated Sikhs are required to wear or possess five articles of faith at all times, including a ceremonial sword known as a kirpan, typically worn sheathed and concealed beneath clothing.
Under Queensland law, there is a reasonable excuse to possess a knife for genuine religious purposes, such as the Sikh faith.
But that does not extend to schools, with the legislation stating: “however, it is not a reasonable excuse to physically possess a knife in a school for genuine religious purposes”.
In 2021, Mr Athwal made an application to the Supreme Court seeking a declaration that the Weapons Act was inconsistent with the Racial Discrimination Act and was therefore invalid.
In September last year, Justice Sue Brown dismissed his application.
But the Court of Appeal has this week overturned the decision, finding the provision directed at Sikhs affected “their exercise of freedom of movement and freedom of religion in a significant way”.
“An initiated Sikh, who may be a student, a parent of a student or a teacher, is given the choice of committing an offence against (the weapons act), never entering a school or contravening the tenets of their religious belief by entering a school without physical possession of their kirpan,” the appeal judges wrote.
“By making provision that is directed at their religion, s 51(5) in its substantive operation provides for Sikhs to enjoy the rights to freedom of movement and freedom of religion to a more limited extent than persons of other ethnic groups.
“No other group finds their freedom of religion or freedom of movement limited in that way, by a law directed to a unique feature of the ethnic group’s religious beliefs.”
The appeal judges set aside the earlier order dismissing Mr Athwal’s application.
A declaration was made that section 51(5) of the Weapons Act 1990 is inconsistent with the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 and was therefore invalid under the Commonwealth Constitution.
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