LETTER TO MICHAEL MOORE (Director/Screenwriter, Bowling for Columbine), WHOSE VIEWS INFLUENCE A LOT OF PEOPLE

Thank you to Susan Gordon for bringing Michael Moore’s views re hunting to our attention. It caused us to write the letter below. You will find much more detail on the issue of guns in the city in this issue of the C.A.S.H. Courier.

Letter to Michael Moore, his e-mail e-mail address is media@michaelmoore.com..

Dear Michael,

I was disheartened to find that you are “all for hunting.” Perhaps an understanding of how hunting in the woods affects people’s lives in the cities will cause you to change your mind:

Excise taxes on firearms (including handguns) and ammunition pay into what’s called “The Conservation Fund.” The fund is used to promote more use of those items via hunting. The taxes on bullets and guns that are used to kill or injure people in the suburbs and cities also pay into the Conservation Fund. I believe it was Hillary Clinton who, years ago, tried to tap into the Conservation Fund so that a portion of the Fund could be used for victims of gun violence. She wasn’t able to accomplish her goal because of strong resistance from firearms interests.

On the other hand, the General Fund (that which benefits the public) must contribute a 25% matching amount to firearms excise tax revenue raised by the state. Public taxes that are handed over to the Conservation Fund are used to promote more hunting and so more gun use. The actual dollar amount in NYS is about four million dollars. Consider that that’s four million dollars that can’t be used for our senior citizens’ health care, children’s education, or anything else that would benefit the public.

Wildlife management agencies whose job is to promote hunting are the towel boys for the firearms industry. They contribute nothing to the General Fund. Rather, they directly siphon off 25% from the General Fund. They are operating what is tantamount to a private business out of government offices. In that respect, the Bureau of Wildlife further uses up public dollars by having their printing, office help, legal aid, postage, etc., paid for with public tax dollars while only functioning on behalf of a 4% special interest group.

You may also have noticed in your research for the film that many of the young people who massacred their classmates and teachers were either hunters or the children of hunters and had easy access to firearms. They witnessed violence to animals or came from families that cared nothing for the lives of the hunted. It’s not such a big jump from a warm blooded mammal about the size of human man or woman to humans.

If compassion for animals isn’t part of your make up, then at least stay consistent in your compassion for people and your concern about firearms. Hunting has got to go for everyone’s sake.

Best,

Anne Muller
Wildlife Watch/Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting
845-256-1400

Wildlife Watch and C.A.S.H. send out many letters on hunting and trapping throughout the year.