By W. Laird Hamberlin SCI, SCIF CEO
In North America and much of the Northern Hemisphere, this is truly the hunting time of year when seasons for all kinds of big game and birds are in full swing. With that in mind, I encourage all members to go hunting and participate in our shared hunting culture.
Some may question why the CEO of the world’s biggest and most influential hunting organizations should feel moved to encourage members to go hunting. Isn’t it assumed that they would?
Although it is true that SCI members, being the most engaged and dedicated hunters on Planet Earth, go hunting every chance they get, it is impossible to overstate the importance of hunters going hunting and being in the outdoors.
In fact, Hunting is one of the six pillars upon which the future of both hunting and SCI rests. The other five pillars are Advocacy, Membership, Chapters, Event Services (Convention) and Conservation.
It is with that in mind that I also encourage all members to introduce others to the hunting culture. Sometimes this can mean taking a newcomer along on a hunt. Other times, it might mean taking a non-member to a Chapter Banquet, a Texas Trophy Hunters Association Extravaganza or even the SCI Convention itself.
My point is that doing what it is we do makes us who we are, and we also become evangelists for the cause of saving hunting for future generations. Non-hunters will always pay much more attention to what we, as hunters, do than they will to what we say. Lead by example.
By walking the walk, we show the world that we are the solution while the anti-hunters are the problem. Everything ties together, and it all starts when we go hunting because that is what ties us all together in the first place.
With that in mind, by the time of the 2023 SCI Convention in Nashville, most hunting seasons will be over, and it is a great time of year for all of us to get together indoors, talk about our recent hunts, book hunts for the coming years and generally celebrate the hunt and the hunting culture.
For members who have not yet registered for the SCI Convention and have not booked hotel rooms, I encourage you to do so at this time. The SCI Convention will be held February 22-25 at the Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Learn more about the upcoming Convention, click here.
As I look back over the past year, SCI has come a long way and has accomplished a lot. There is not enough room here to list everything, but I do want to point out our victories in California where SCI’s Advocacy efforts have been successful.
Both Assembly Bill 1227, which would have put an onerous excise tax on guns and ammo, and Senate Bill 918, which would have affected the carrying of firearms, failed to pass due to the efforts of the SCI California Coalition.
Also in California, SCI has filed suit against the state of California because of the devastating impact that a law signed by Gov. Newsom would have. Thanks to the efforts of SCI and the hunting community, the California Senate has amended the language to protect hunting and shooting sports. But the amendment doesn’t resolve all problems with AB 2571. SCI’s lawsuit will proceed, in order to invalidate this overbroad restriction on constitutionally protected speech.
See you in Nashville.
Follow Laird Hamberlin on Instagram @lairdhamberlin, on Facebook at facebook.com/lairdhamberlin, and on Twitter @LairdHamberlin.
