Top News: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
2024 has come to an end and sportsmen experienced several victories and a few defeats this year. We, at the Sportsmen’s Alliance, thank you for staying engaged and taking action.
The animal extremists and other radical elements are pressing to cancel our way of life forever. Through schemes and trickery, their relentless assault on our values and heritage must be stopped. The Sportsmen’s Alliance Government Affairs (GA) Team is ready to take on all comers in 2025, but before we look at what is to come, we wanted to review 2024.
The good news is that several states made positive steps forward for hunting, including opening more Sunday hunting opportunities (DE), expanding firearms and ammunition options for hunting specific game (IL & RI), opening new game seasons (LA), prohibiting hunter harassment (LA), updating online license purchases (WV), and authorizing fluorescent pink in addition to fluorescent orange (MS). Last but not least, a major victory for sportsmen was won when the people of Colorado rejected a ballot initiative to ban hunting and trapping of mountain lions and bobcats. Check out our website to see if your state has any new laws.
Positive moves were not the only thing that happened in 2024. Several states made protective moves for sportsmen in general. These protections include establishing a standard of care for canines to protect sporting dog breeders (IN), prohibiting the use of merchant category codes (MCC) to track credit card purchases of firearms, firearm accessories, and ammunition (AL, GA, IA, IN, KY, LA, NH, TN, UT, & WY), defeating attacks on Pittman-Robinson Funds and Game Commissions (KY, NE, PA, & VT), defeating legislation to turn common hunting rifles into banned assault weapons (ME & VA) and defeating “sin” taxes on firearms and ammunition (CT, IL, MD, NM, & TN). Check out our Legislative Action Center for more information on your specific state.
Sadly, there was some bad news for sportsmen: extended waiting period time (ME & NM), mandatory storage (ME & RI), credit card purchase tracking of sportsmen (CO & NY), additional fees on Federally Licensed Firearm (FFL) Dealers that get passed onto sportsmen (CO), and approval of known animal extremist supporters to a game commission (CO).
Unfortunately, we do have a couple of uglies to report. Even though Coloradans protected hunters by stopping the ban on mountain lion and bobcat hunting, voters did approve an additional 6.5% “sin tax” on sportsmen to pay for criminal violence and the misuse of firearms. We also experienced a major loss when Massachusetts as Governor Healey not only signed an extreme gun control bill into law, but she doubled down by using an emergency preamble, so the new law would take effect immediately. The emergency clause was a political move to ensure that Massachusetts sportsmen and gun owners could not pause the draconian law’s implementation while they put together a campaign to repeal the new law on the 2026 ballot.
Animal extremists have already promised to continue their assault on our way of life in 2025 and the Sportsmen’s Alliance is ready to continue the fight Everywhere in America.
To help sportsmen participate effectively, we will launch our NEW Sportsmen’s Bill Tracker in the first quarter of 2025. We must hold our elected officials accountable for the votes they take. This new tool can help every sportsman do that by checking on how public officials are voting on important sportsmen-related bills. Keep an eye out for our email on a release date.
When we stand together, we remain among the most powerful political forces in American history. Make a commitment to yourself and future generations to stand up to fight, protect, and defend against the rising tide of animal extremism. Share this email with your family and friends and get a commitment from them to kick in when needed. Our values and way of life must be secured today, and together, we can secure our cherished traditions for future generations.
The Sportsmen’s Alliance guarantees hunting, fishing and trapping for the American sportsman now and forever. We’re there when sportsmen need us most. We are the only organization specifically created to protect the individual hunter, angler and trapper – no matter the threat. We will never compromise when it comes to defending our way of life in the courts, in the legislatures, in the public square and at the ballot box. We make this promise to the American sportsman: we will never give up and never give in while proudly securing our future against those seeking to destroy our values, beliefs, and traditions. Stay connected to Sportsmen’s Alliance: Online, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
