Thurston County no shooting zone

[Widgeondeke]

I got my reply. It only took a few hours.

Mr. Goodwin-
 
Thank you for your comments.  I will forward them onto the County Commissioners for their review as they consider the proposed No Shooting Ordinance.
 
The County is currently reviewing the comments received at the March 1, 2011 public meeting, as well as comments submitted via e-mail, and may make changes to the proposed ordinance based on the comments received.   Your comments and suggestions will be incorporated into this review.  We will add your e-mail to our notice list for future meetings and/or hearings on this issue.
 
 
Robert Smith
Senior Planner
Thurston County Resource Stewardship Dept.
2000 Lakeridge Drive SW


I copied my e-mail and sent it to my hunting buddy. He was sending his in today. I hope to get notified as Mr Smith mentioned of the next meeting. We may need to try and get a carpool going from the North end. 

Thanks guys for keeping us updated on this issue.

[Curly]

I never got a reply on my email to the commissioners.  I sent an email to all the commissioners and one to Robert Smith.  Anybody else not get a reply?

[bobcat]

I didn't get a reply either, and didn't expect one.

I wonder if they disregard the letters in which people call the commissioners imbeciles?   

[sakoshooter]

This is the reply I got from the President of the Washington Waterfowl Association. I emailed them to find out what their involvement was.

Hi Mark,
The WWA has been in attendance at every meeting with the Thurston County Commissioners since this situation came up in mid-2009.
 
It appears to be driven by Commissioner Valenzuela.
 
There has been virtually no progress at all of the meetings ...perhaps five including the first. The "Anti's" say their piece, the waterfowlers say their piece.
 
The sheriffs, both current & past, as well as the WDFW have stated that there is no safety problem, no slaughtering of waterfowl, no issues of shooting prior to legal hours. The Thurston County prosecutor has reportedly told the sheriff's office he would not pursue prosecutions because he does not agree with the commissioner's pursuit of this anti-waterfowling effort.
 
This issue is really about noise. The attempt to make it a safety issue is a 'red herring'  attempt to circumvent WA State RCW's protecting noise associated with legal hunting.
 
It has been pointed out to the commission on more than one occasion that they are attempting to ruin the lawful pursuit of game by lumping said pursuit in with the illegal discharge of weapons in certain inland parts of the county. They have failed to acknowledge this fact. (Many residents of Thurston County are probably unaware that the commission has declared over forty areas "no shooting" zones. It would not surprise me if many of those are illegal also.)
 
The commission has recently created a "board" including resident complainants, a hunter, a member of the farming community, etc. The WWA is very aware of those forthcoming interactions and will be advising ..... even though it appears that the WWA was intentionally left out of the group. The WWA had previously been acknowledged as representing the hunting community.
 
At the most recent meeting, the commission was basically given fair warning that should they attempt to install the "no shooting" ordinance; they will be in all likelihood looking at multiple law suits from a number of different individuals and organizations.
 
The WWA is very much aware of the assaults currently under way in western Washington in Pacific, Thurston, Jefferson, Kitsap and Skagit Counties and one perpetrated in Island County by commisssiners there. We are working in several of these areas to stop or return access opportunities taken away by WDFW, DNR, USFWS as well as county commissioners.
 
That said, it takes resources  ....money and members. Your memberhsip in our organization would help.
 
I have enclosed a membership form and hope you will join us.
 
Sincerely,
Jim Cortines
President, WWA

[ICEMAN]

Thanks for posting this Sako. Almost a bit encouraging...  I have always felt this was a noise issue, and have stated such in my letters.

[PolarBear]

I talked to the guys out at Cabelas last weekend and the wife and I signed the cards and sent the letters.  Stupid hippie out of towners coming in and trying to take away our rights! 

[Curly]

I didn't get a reply either, and didn't expect one.

I wonder if they disregard the letters in which people call the commissioners imbeciles?   

  Yeah, maybe that's the reason......... 

[goober]

Here is an update on progress as sent to me;

NEWS UPDATE
PROPOSED NO SHOOTING ORDINANCE
APRIL 12, 2011


Hi All,

It may seem a little quiet on the frontlines, but headway is being made.  Many of us still have to work for a living, and this makes coordinating meetings between multiple participants tough.  Those that are retired but neck deep in this turmoil are probably wishing they had a good excuse to be elsewhere (like a job).

I have many newcomers that have asked to be on the “Keep Inform List” so some of you may be seeing a repeat of some of the previous information.

The following organizations are now officially on board: Washington Waterfowl Association, Thurston County Farm Bureau, Delta Waterfowl Foundation, and Evergreen Sportsmen’s Club.  People are currently working on getting the NRA and Washingtonians for Wildlife Conservation involved and hopefully they will soon be joining our cause, and people are also working on setting up meetings with Representatives Kathy Haigh, and Fred Finn to see if they can be of help to us.

Cabelas gave the WWA permission to set up a table inside the entry of the Lacey Store to solicit signatures and memberships the weekend of Mar. 2nd.  Nine members worked the table over the weekend and they collected 321 signature cards and passed out a stack of flyers, but not many bites on the memberships.  Marti (my wife) dropped off 300 of the signature cards at the County Courthouse today.  I’m sure they were thrilled to see them.  We had more ready to go, but we thought it would have a better and more lasting impact if we doled them out every week or two.

Rumor has it that the Thurston County Commissioners and staff are surprised at the amount of opposition they have been receiving.  This is evidence that we are on the right track and need to continue our efforts, not relax them.  I have about 650 signatures on file so far and that is only .28% of the 250,000 hunters in this state.  In the beginning I thought we might get 10%, but now I would settle for 1%.  I know that there are others that have e-mailed and sent postcards in but I have no real clue as to how many.  A file of these responses for our records is important, so anyone gathering signatures please stress this point.




Kurt Snyder and I met with The Evergreen Sportsmen’s Club’s Board of Directors last Saturday night and they gave us their official backing at that meeting.  They also took flyers and signature cards and said they would have board members, range masters, and cashiers start gathering signatures for us.  Permission was also granted to set up WWA sponsored tables at the upcoming meets to solicit memberships and signatures.  This is very welcomed support on ESC’s part.

We are still actively working on legal strategies and documenting each time the Commissioners blatantly ignore state and local laws, and/or any sense of fairness in this process.  I guess hunting, farming and right minded citizens are not worthy of any consideration on their part.  Hopefully we will be able to prove them wrong on their narrow minded assumptions.

Probably 95% of the people we approach about the proposed no shooting/hunting ordinance are totally unaware of the proposal.  It appears that maybe the public notification laws are slightly lacking, or Thurston County has just chosen to ignore them.  Obviously if you have an agenda that you desire to get accomplished you don’t want to advertise it.  This is a point we may want to keep in mind when we go after a “Right To Hunt and Fish” amendment to our state constitution.  These amendments called RTHF’s have been successfully accomplished in 13 states now.  With such a constitutional guarantee we probably would not be dealing with this no shooting/hunting issue.

We must draw the line in the sand here with Thurston County, win the fight legally, set a legal precedent, and then go to the aid of our friends in the other counties where these unjustified ordinances have already been established.  We must also establish a means to notify and help each other when these jurisdictions attempt to rob us of our privileges and freedoms.

I have a few more items that deserve our attention; The conversion of our National Wildlife Refuges over to unproven salmon enhancement projects at the detriment of waterfowl, the critical areas ordinances under review or consideration in the counties of our state, and the conversion of hundreds of thousands of acres of the Olympic Peninsula to National Park, and wilderness areas.  All of these proposals will restrict access, use, hunting, camping, farming, timber harvest etc and will benefit only one group of our society, known as “Environmentalists”.  If any of you would like further detail on these issues let me know and I’ll get it to you or get you to it.

Thank You,
Jon McAninch
Cedarville Farms
 

[ICEMAN]

Thanks for posting this.

[lokidog]

Thanks for the info, I never got a response from the commissioners even though I asked for one....

[WSU]

Goober,

PM sent your way.

[Mr56Jeep]

Please view this "Is Karen Valenzuela lying?" video.   

**Side note***  How the heck do you imbed a video in a post?

[Curly]

Yes, she is lying.  Either that or she is perpetuating a lie told to her by some anti-hunting homeowners. 

You can embed by simply copying the web address on youtube and pasting it in your message here:

feature=youtu.be

[huntrights]

The proposed Thurston County No Shooting Zone Ordinance has not gone away. 

Your help is needed to continue getting the word out to more people.  All hunters, recreational shooters, and freedom loving people need to be informed about this travesty, and take action to oppose it.

Here are several links, some of which have been posted before, but this brings many of them together in one place.

• Link to article – Ken Schram is with us: http://www.komonews.com/opinion/kenschram/Ken-Schram-Im-with-the-duck-hunters-on-this-problem-146444095.html#idc-cover

• Link to a video regarding Valenzuela’s ridiculous comments: http://www.myfreedomfoundation.com/index.php/stop_thurston_county/view/do_our_commissioners_understand_anything_about_the_ordinances_they_approve

• Link to a KOMO video in which Valenzuela make her comments that exemplifies her ignorance regarding the subject: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Hunters-fighting-to-stop-Thurston-Co-gun-ordinance-146372925.html?tab=video&c=y

• Link to a video regarding the TCNSZO is a bad idea: http://www.myfreedomfoundation.com/index.php/site/view/thurston_countys_no_shooting_ordinance_a_bad_idea

• Link to video showing petition signing at Cabela’s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNbS0KH9Eds

• Link to Sheriff Snaza video – no issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c03HI2E82cY&feature=relmfu

• Link to video – public meeting last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibI0jR7AYhk&feature=related

• Link to video – the workgroup – how to get involved to stop this ordinance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOVS_KR2UD4&feature=relmfu

• Link to video – citizens testifying against the ordinance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkgNC4bCGKA&feature=relmfu

• Link to video – Humor – The beginning of the ordinance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mdj0QAyJpw

• Link to video – Humor – change of name to Controlled Shooting Zone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imLOCeEoOOs

More info: http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php?topic=93557.0

[goosegetter79]

Saw this on www.duckhuntingchat.com.


This tonight from The Freedom Foundation:

"Commissioner Wolfe formally announced at today's Commissioner Meeting that a "majority" of the Commissioners have decided to not do anything more with the No Shooting Ordinance. They directed staff to spend no more time on this ordinance. She also stated there was no safety concerns to justify this ordinance - based on WDFW and Sheriff's responses.

Reading between the lines, however, two things stand out:

1. A "majority" means that someone dissented, and I suspect it was Commissioner Valenzuela. The fact they are divided (which I have never witnessed in three years) is huge and shows a big rift.

2. They clearly felt the pressure of thousands of signatures, emails, and most importantly hundreds of people showing up for the work session. Combined with the people testifying at the meetings, the videos, and the negative media coverage - it became a sure political loser for them. They finally recognized it, and they folded.

Everyone ..... deserves some of the credit for this result.

The fact is that without the time spent over the last few months, the willingness to drive to the meetings, get people out for the work session, the emails, the signs, etc. - they would have passed this ordinance. Now it is dead, and there was no need for costly court action, expensive attorneys, etc.

Good job everyone.

Now, lets talk about Kitsap, Jefferson and Island County..."