The American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA)

[one-eyed fat man]

In 2008 the AHSA became a true media darling, when it endorsed Barak Obama for President. If anyone mentioned the Senator’s anti-gun past, there was an AHSA spokesperson to respond that it was time to look beyond all that.

The group garnered some news again in 2009, when it endorsed Sonya Sotomayor for U.S. Supreme Court.

Ray Schoenke, AHSA's founder declared, “Based on the available case history, it appears that Sotomayor honors precedent. Now that D.C. v Heller is precedent, gun-owners should feel secure that their rights are safe,”

Of course, we all know the rest of the story - Sotomayor was confirmed, and promptly sided with the minority in McDonald v. City of Chicago, throwing the precedent Schoenke assured us she believed in right out the window.

Where were they this past election cycle? Plenty of posts about who the NRA did or didn't endorse. Many here expected them to become a voice for progressive gun owners after they finally dropped their support for a renewed Assault Weapons Ban.

Research on Internal Revenue Service filings by “American Hunters and Shooters Association Foundation, Inc.”, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, may provide an explanation.

In 2006, AHSA recorded just $50 (!) as coming from membership dues, yet the group spent $88,634 more than it received in that first year. In 2007, the foundation reported just $5 (!!) in membership dues. And in 2008, the last year reports are available, the foundation reported $0 in membership dues(!!!). They ended the year with just over $42,000 in the bank - having depleted a quarter of a million dollar surplus from 2007.

The AHSA website, www.huntersandshooters.org, has been offline since early October, and emails to the organization bounce. The fact that AHSA disappeared in an election year of this magnitude suggests that they are gone for good.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. Actually it suggests that they were a fake.................NT

[aikoaiko]

2. Very interesting....

Thank you for the follow-up information.

I remember how this group was heavily promoted as a progressive alternative to other gun rights groups. They was a healthy amount of skepticism in this forum about their change in language and whether or not they were the real deal.

Based on the lack of membership dues paid, I can see that many people were skeptical.

[X_Digger]

3. They couldn't fool enough people to survive.. so sad.

Brady Campaign + Camo + Deer / Duck gun != legitimate gun rights group

[AtheistCrusader]

4. Clearly astroturf.

Who made it? Don't know. I can think of a couple likely suspects though.

[benEzra]

11. When they were first founded, IIRC they shared an office building with the DLC...

who you will recall were the architects of most of the disastrous attempts at gun-control "triangulation" in the '90s.

I do believe that once they finally got rid of gun control lobbyist John Rosenthal, Ray Schoenke did finally see the light and reverse course on AHSA's prior support for gun bans. But having spent so much money, time, and media capital fighting to outlaw the most popular civilian rifles in the country, the shift toward a pro-gun position was unfortunately way too late to save them. They had been a gun control organization so long that gun owners viewed them as a facade.

Had they started out as a bona fide pro-gun-owner group to start with, things might have turned out differently. They certainly had a lot of goodwill in the press for the first couple of years.

[Hoopla Phil]

5. Their funding was finally tracked down and found to be coming from gun control groups.

After the curtain was pulled back they just quietly closed up shop. I've read a couple of articles about it, here's one.

http://www.saysuncle.com/archives/2008/02/29/american_hunters_and_shooters_association_screech-2/

[old mark]

6. Most gun owners on the right consider AHSA to be a fraud - a gun control group

pretending to be a pro-gun group, and mainly full of the stupid Liberals who think they can fool the Gun Owners!!!

Check REAL pro gun groups, like the JPFO, and you will see the difference.

mark

Link to JPFO homepage:

http://jpfo.org/

(Jews for Preservation of Firearms Ownership)

[spin]

7. I just watched the "No Guns For Jews" Trailer on the JPFO homepage ...

I will have to take the time to watch the entire film.

Thanks for the link.

[old mark]

8. Even the neo nazis respect Jews who own guns...they are a very active

organization, and well worth investigating...they are about as apolitical as a real gun rights group gets in the US.


mark

[friendly_iconoclast]

9. At least one DUer was a supporter:

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x274573

safeinOhio (1000+ posts) Sun Dec-13-09 04:00 PM
Original message
Support the 2nd Amendment and not the NRA
You can now do it with this group.

http://www.huntersandshooters.org/about
The American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) is a national grassroots organization committed to safe and responsible gun ownership. We are a mainstream group of hunters who are looking to belong to a gun owners association that doesn't have a radical agenda.....

[derby378]

10. 'Tis a shame

I've been on the phone with Ray Schoenke a couple of times, and I've chatted extensively with a couple of members of the AHSA board who have now gone on to other things.

But our work as pro-RKBA Democrats continues on nonetheless...

[X_Digger]

12. Glad you chimed in.. any word from any of your contacts? n/t

[derby378]

13. Not much lately

Both are trying to settle into new lives with new jobs, which is pretty much my story as well.

[Euromutt]

14. The outfit got off to a bad start, and I guess it never recovered

There's no question the AHSA started off as a bunch of astroturf Fudds, willing to countenance any restrictions on private firearms ownership as long as it didn't affect firearms best suited for hunting deer, wildfowl or clay pigeons. That clearly wasn't catching on with too many people, so they brought Zak Johnson (of the Democratic Party of Oregon's Blue Steel Democrats) on board, and the language got a lot better, to the point that I was considering joining.

But I think many others, like myself, were a little leery given the AHSA's inauspicious beginnings as a gun rights group, and decided to stand back and observe for a bit before shelling out any dues. And that seems to have been slightly too long for the AHSA to stay afloat.

[DissedByBush]

15. It was simply a stealth gun control group

The leaders had close ties with Handgun Control, Inc. and Crime Gun Solutions (does research for Brady).

[lawodevolution]

16. I've mentioned the possibility of corruption among gun control groups. This also goes under lies,

manipulation and deception.

My theory is that in any group that exists over a long period of time and changes leadership and also employees at every level, eventually corruption will enter the group.
Gun control groups will benefit when:
1. Violent crime increases
2. More children die in gun accidents
3. Crazy people commit mass shootings

They will benefit in these areas:
a. Financially with more donations, such donations pay their wages
b. Increases in membership, attention and importance
c. and they may get real successes in pushing legislation again.

Before you donate to one of these groups, you should consider the possibility that your money will be used to achieve 1, 2 or 3 and ask yourself is a, b or c a strong enough motivator?
We already know they block gun safety programs like the Eddie Eagle program. I can't see what is wrong with teaching children that when they see a gun to “stop. Don’t touch. Get out of the area. Tell an adult.” But this threatens the Brady campaign’s finances if those kids don’t shoot themselves and they can’t allow that: http://blog.bradycampaign.org/?cat=169