|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Welcome The AOC is the official State Association of the National Rifle Association. We work hand in hand with the NRA, doing at the state level, what the NRA does on the national level, to protect your Second Amendment Rights, promote gun safety and encourage participation in the shooting sports.
On July 9, 2010, Judge Carl Bauman ruled that the Board of Game could not provide guaranteed tags for Nelchina caribou to AHTNA villagers. In 2009, with the advice and consent of Alaska’s Attorney General, the Board of Game authorized sweeping changes to how moose and caribou hunts were managed in Unit 13, the Nelchina Basin. These changes were designed to provide eight AHTNA Indian villages with what the Board had identified as its goal of “virtually guaranteeing” a caribou permit every year to AHTNA village residents. The AHTNA Community Harvest Permit (CHP) hunt was proposed by AHTNA in 2009. Dozens of AHTNA villagers were brought to Anchorage to lobby the Board for a preference over all other users of Nelchina caribou. According to Judge Bauman: “The theme throughout the Board’s Findings in 2006 is that the customary and traditional subsistence uses established and practiced by local AHTNA community members are in line with a traditional subsistence way of life, but the practices of urban-based subsistence users and subsistence users from other rural areas are not.” The subsistence law in Alaska has been shaped by decades of court decisions and minor legislative tinkering. The fundamentals of the law can be summarized as follows:
AOC’s sister organization, the Alaska Fish & Wildlife Conservation Fund (AFWCF), does not have the resources to challenge every regulation passed by the Board of Game that illegally provides preferences to certain classes of Alaskans while discriminating against all others. It had no choice but to challenge this blatantly discriminatory CHP. As a former AOC and AFWCF Board member and life member of AOC, I was honored to be asked to be AFWCF’s attorney to fight this important battle to preserve what is left of our Constitutional right to equal access to our commonly owned fish and game resources. The Alaska Attorney General is sworn to uphold the laws and Constitution of the State of Alaska. At the 2009 Board meeting, an Assistant Attorney General met with AHTNA representatives and ADF&G employees to strategize on how to implement the AHTNA CHP. Before the AHTNA CHP could be authorized, the Board had to reclassify Nelchina caribou as a Tier I hunt, rather than the Tier II hunt it had been for more than a decade. The judge found that the Board did not give the public adequate notice that such a drastic change might occur, and therefore held that the Board violated the Administrative Procedures Act. In addition to violating the Administrative Procedures Act, the Court found that the Board’s decision to change the Unit 13 caribou hunt from a Tier II to a Tier I hunt “was arbitrary and unreasonable because it was not supported by evidence in the Administrative record.” The State Attorney General defended the AHTNA CHP in court by arguing that only AHTNA villagers were “true subsistence users.” The Attorney General disparaged all other Alaskans who have customarily and traditionally hunted Nelchina caribou when he described urban Alaskan hunters as follows: Judge Bauman’s decision overturning the Board’s special allocation of our commonly owned resources to a narrowly defined group of Alaskans is an undisputed victory for AFWCF. Until policy makers in Juneau question whether the ADF&G Division of Subsistence, the Boards of Fish & Game, and especially the Attorney General’s office who advises them, are protecting our fundamental rights, these entities will continue to pander to interest groups seeking discriminatory preferences to harvest our fish and game. There will be no Tier I hunt this year for moose or caribou in Unit 13 unless the Attorney General appeals the decision and asks Judge Bauman to allow the CHP for 2010 while the appeal takes its course. We need to let our elected officials know that it is unacceptable to conduct an illegal hunt for another year, and unacceptable to continue to legitimize an illegitimate hunt. Thank you AOC and AFWCF for the honor of helping secure this important legal victory, a victory that will help preserve what is left of our way of life. Read Summary Conclusion | Read Full Conclusion
McDonald v. City of Chicago AOC joined in with over forty other state firearm associations in an Amici Curiae in support of Otis McDonald, et al. being heard before the Supreme Court of the United States. (The brief for the state firearms associations as Amici Curiae can be viewed on the AOC website) Otis McDonald is a retired union worker and community organizer who wanted to keep a handgun in his Chicago home for self-defense. The City of Chicago bans the ownership of handguns within its city limits. Otis sued, and on June 28, 2010 the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion on his case. The Court found that Chicago’s ban on handgun ownership was unconstitutional; the case has now been sent back to the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court for further proceedings consistent with the Supreme Court’s opinion. (The Courts opinion in the McDonald v. City of Chicago case can be viewed on the AOC website) The 5-4 decision reiterates and expands the Supreme Court conclusion that individuals have the right to own handguns for their protection. While the 2008 Keller case assured individuals the right to own handguns in the District of Colombia the McDonald case sets the legal precedent for protection of individual 2nd Amendment rights over states and local government regulations. The court’s decision is a clear victory for law-abiding firearms owners. The attorney, James W. Hryekewicz, for the state firearms association cautioned gun owners not to assume that states and local governments could not continue to prohibit the possession of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings. State and local governments will continue to be able to require firearms owners to obtain permits that may include requirements such as taking firearms training. Individuals convicted for violent crimes, mentally ill, or with drug or DWI convictions could still be forbidden from possessing firearms. AOC will continue to work with other state firearms associations to assure the 2nd Amendment rights bestowed on Americans are not unnecessarily infringed upon by state or local governments. All law abiding firearms owners have good reason to be thankful for the contributions made by the NRA, numerous firearms associations, and legal attorneys for their time and finical support in defending the individual right of citizens to defend themselves with the use of firearms. Your contributions as an AOC member helped pay for our defense. Opinion - McDonald v City of Chicago McDonald v City of Chicago - State Firearm Ass'n Brief McDonald v City of Chicago Summer 2010
The Federal Subsistence Law is Broken “The Federal Subsistence Law is Broken.” So declared U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in a video shown at the annual Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) convention on October 23, 2009. The Secretary announced “The system (implementation of the federal subsistence law) frankly, today is broken” like that was new news. Actually the law was broken the day it was signed into law almost 30 years ago. A review by the Department of Interior is planned. See www.doi.gov/subsistencereview/. Read More...
Senator Kookesh and the Subsistence debate Since troopers caught him red handed with twice his legal limit of salmon, Senator Albert Kookesh of Angoon, has 1) abused his position as an elected state official by unfairly denouncing the State of Alaska, 2) openly disparaged the very laws we trust him to make binding upon us, and 3) unnecessarily and selfishly widened the racial divide between natives and non-natives over hunting and fishing rights. Read More...
Thank you to all the volunteers, donors, and dinner guests who made both our Mat-Su and Fairbanks AOC Banquet & Fundraiser a success again this fall. Generous donations given to AOC by individuals, retailers, outfitters, and corporations fueled guest to bid high and purchase a record number of raffle tickets. Funds raised at these banquets will help assure representation for AOC members a numerous regulatory and policy making meetings in the upcoming year. Continued access to public lands in Alaska for hunting, trapping, fishing, and other forms of recreational use depends on AOC’s participation in the public process. Often times AOC is the only non-government organization advocating for our interests before regulation making bodies. AOC participation does make a difference and your financial contributions makes it possible. We hope to see you again at next years AOC banquets and fundraisers.
Your equal hunting and fishing rights are on trial. The AOC and its sister corporation, the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fund (FUND), State of Alaska attorneys are defending bad decisions by the Boards of Fisheries & Game that compromise your rights under Alaska’s state subsistence law – which does not provide a rural priority. Board of Fisheries (BOF): The BOF decided that Chitina SubDistrict dipnetting is “personal use” and does not qualify as “customary and traditional” (C&T) – even though it’s been going on for over a century. So it could not have a state subsistence priority over commercial, personal use, and sport use. Their decision was a thinly disguised approval of a rural priority, which is prohibited by State law, as confirmed by several Alaska Supreme Court decisions. The Chitina Dipnetters Association, Inc. and the FUND have challenged the BOF decision in court at considerable cost. Ahtna Tene Nene’ is supporting the state’s position; Ahtna villagers would rather forfeit their customary and traditional rights to dipnet in the Chitina dipnet fishery than share that right with non-rural Alaskans. (Lawsuit Press Release . Donate to the Chitina Dipnet Lawsuit Fund.) Board of Game: The BOG decided under the state subsistence law to allocate nearly half (300) of the harvestable surplus (800) of Nelchina Herd caribou to Community Harvest Programs (CHP) in 8 communities in and around the Nelchina Basin. Ken Manning challenged the regulation. The FUND joined him by intervention. The Superior Court ruled, in the Preliminary Injunction, the regulation unconstitutional because it did not give all Alaskans equal opportunity to apply for the hunt permit. Thirty permits were then set aside for general public applicants, on the condition they give part of the meat to Ahtna Tene Nene’ for sharing among the communities - and beyond if any meat was left. "Up for Grabs"- Hunting, trapping, fishing, and motorized access to public lands in Alaska are all up for grabs in the current political arena. “Up for grabs” means whoever expends the greatest energy, money, or ingenuity and sticks with it wins. Regulations propagated by Alaska’s administrative staff,
department heads, and appointed Boards have a great influence on whether you
are going to have any fish or game to harvest and where, plus how you will
be allowed to go about harvesting your wildfood source. Federal rules which
apply to 60% of the land in the state have been limiting hunting, trapping,
and fishing opportunities on federal lands through their regulatory
processes for the last two decades. Motorized access on federal lands, plus
lands yet to be transferred to the State or Native Corporations, have seen
major restrictive revisions to open motorized access during that same time
span.
Read the AOC Newsletters (PDF) |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Home ::
About AOC ::
Member Clubs ::
Join AOC ::
Newsletters ::
Outdoor Resources
Copyright
© 2002 - 2007, Alaska
Outdoor Council, all rights reserved.
|
