Page 174 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

152 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
guns and the alien shooters shall be eliminated at the same time ! Each state has the power to regulate, absolutely, down to the smallest detail, the manner in which the game of The People shall be taken or not taken and such laws are absolutely constitutional. If we can legislate punt guns and dynamite out of use, the machine guns and silencers can be treated similarly.
No immunity jor wild-life exterminators.
The following unprejudiced testimony from a New York business man who is a sportsman, with a fine game preserve of his own, should be ofgeneralinterest. ItwaswrittentoG.O.Shields,March21,1906.
Dear Sir:
Regarding the use of the automatic shot-gun, would say that I am a member of two southernduckingclubswherethesegunsareusedveryextensively. Ihaveseenaflock of ducks come into a blind where one, two, or even three of these guns were in use, and have seen as many as eleven shots poured into a single flock.
We have considerable poaching on one of these clubs, the territory being so ex- tensive that it is impossibe to prevent it. We own 60,000 acres, and these poachers, Iamtold,nearlyallusetheautomaticguns. Theyfrequentlykillsixoreightducks out of one flock—first taking a raking shot on the water, and then getting in the balance ofthemagazinebeforetheflockisoutofrange. Infact,someofthemcarrytwoguns, and are able to discharge a part of the second magazine into the same flock.
As I told you the other evening, I am not so much against the gun when in the hands of gentlemen and real sportsmen, but, on account of its terrible possibilities for market hunters, I believe that the only safe way is to abolish it entirely, and that the better class should be willing to give up this weapon as being the only means of putting a stop to this willful game slaughter.
Very truly yours,
Arthur Robinson.
HOW GENTLEMEN SPORTSMEN REGARD AUTOMATIC AND PUMP GUNS
Each one of the following organizations, chiefly clubs of gentlemen sportsmen, have adopted strong resolutions condemning the use of auto- matic guns in hunting, and either requesting or recommending the enactment of laws against their use
Lewis and Clark Club
League of American Sportsmen Wild Life Protective Association
John M. Phillips, President G. O. Shields, President W. T. Hornaday, President
:;
New York Zoological Society
The Camp-Fire Club of America
Boone and Crockett Club
New York State Fish, Game and Forest League
New York Association for the Protection of Fish and Game . . Alfred Wagstaff, President
WHERE AUTOMATIC GUNS ARE BARRED OUT BY LAW
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Pennsylvania, 1907 New Jersey, 1912 Saskatchewan, 1906 New Brunswick, 1907
British Columbia, 1911 Ontario, 1907 Manitoba, 1909 Alberta, 1907
PriNCE Edward Island, 1906
Henry Fairfield Osborn, President Daniel C. Beard, President W. Austin Wadsworth, President 81 Clubs and Associations