Anti-Gun Front Group Works to Mislead Gun Owners and Sportsmen

The American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) was created to mislead sportsmen and convince them to support politicians who oppose the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Its primary goal is to give political cover to anti-gun politicians. 

The truth is, AHSA is a group of political operatives with ties to the most anti-gun politicians and groups in America: 

• AHSA president Ray Schoenke has a long history of campaign donations to the most anti-gun politicians in America, including Al Gore, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Bill Clinton, Dianne Feinstein and Ted Kennedy.
  
• In 2000, Schoenke donated $5,000 to the Brady Campaign, when it was still called Handgun Control, Inc., a group that has supported handgun bans and sweeping bans on millions of other guns. Shoenke's wife donated another $5,000 to Brady.
  
• Former AHSA Board member, John Rosenthal, was the founder and head of Stop Handgun Violence, the Massachusetts anti-gun group.
  
• AHSA’s original Executive Director, Bob Ricker, has been a paid expert witness against firearms manufacturers in a number of lawsuits filed seeking to hold gun manufacturers responsible for the acts of criminals. He was also a paid lobbyist for the anti-gun group Virginians Against Handgun Violence, lobbying to regulate gun shows.

AHSA has continued its activism for anti-gun politicians and causes:

• AHSA endorsed Barack Obama in 2008, ignoring his long record of anti-gun votes and statements that proved that he would become the most anti-gun President in history.
  
• AHSA has attacked NRA for not endorsing the same radical politicians as groups like Sierra Club. That includes politicians like Nancy Pelosi, Charles Schumer and even Ted Kennedy who has repeatedly tried to ban most ammunition used by hunters.  

AHSA is not a pro-gun or a pro-hunter group and has not been a part of any legislative effort that benefits hunters. It has instead spent their money on efforts to elect anti-gun politicians.  

Most recently AHSA endorsed anti-gun Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court. But Sotomayor’s written opinions showed hostility to the right to keep and bear arms.  And, her testimony during her confirmation hearings showed without question her opposition to second Amendment rights: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw77TC1cCI0&feature=player_embedded 

It should be no surprise to any informed gun owner that AHSA has endorsed most of the same candidates for President, Congress and the Supreme Court as the anti-gun Brady Campaign, and the radical anti-hunting Humane Society of the United States. 

AHSA would be more correctly called the "American Association for the Protection of Anti-Gun Politicians."  No gun owner or sportsman should fall prey to its carefully crafted lies and deceptions.