Free In Idaho!

Well I’m driving to a meeting this morning, and the morning talk guys on the radio news channel  are more annoying than normal, so I decide that it is a perfect opportunity to practice my duck talking.   Just happen to have the lanyard with my call right there in the cupholder too, imagine that.

I should tell you that my bedside book right now is a collection of short duck hunting stories.  I fall asleep reading about guys who “raised the call to his lips and proceeded to call them in, sounding like a willing mallard hen reading from the menu at Le Maison”… wow!  Lines like that are really inspiring.  I want to be able to call like that.  Right now, I sound more like a 5th grader with a terrible head cold… I’m as likely to call in a school nurse as a flock of ducks.  I need to practice.  That’s why the call is in the cupholder of the truck, where I won’t bother anyone.  I’d never practice at home… I hate it when my sweetie laughs at me.

So I turn off the radio and reach down to grab the call.  Cup my hand around it, bring it to my lips and let ‘em have it.  Hey, this works pretty good.  Bring it to my lips again, and drive right by the local cop as he pulls up to the main road.  Oh hell, he’s seen me now.  I’ll bet he thinks it’s a bong.  Crap!  I never noticed how much these things look like bongs before!  I keep looking in the rear view, as the cop pulls out on the street behind me and starts moving up.  You know that heart pound you get when you know you’re not guilty but it might have “looked suspicious”?  I imagine I can just hear the cop asking himself, “should I pull this old grey-haired guy with the suit over for the bong, or should I wait for a big cloud of smoke first?”

But this is an Idaho cop.  He pulls up beside me, sees me quacking away on a duck call, gives me a smile and a wave, then goes around me.  I love it here.  And a few more practice sessions, I might start sounding like a willing mallard hen, with a horrible head cold.

Swinging by Ryan Horsley’s Red’s Trading Post Blog, he brought my attention to this article from the Magic Valley Times-News about Idaho trying to attract more firearms related manufacturers. 

..When it comes to guns, Idaho economic development officials are starting to see green.

The Gem State, eager to attract new jobs and industry, is positioning itself as the best possible home for the nation’s 200 small arms manufacturers - companies worth a collective $2 billion per year but unwelcome in many of the states that have long been their home.

It appears that the attraction is mutual.

“Like any smart business, gun manufacturers are looking for places that facilitate low operational costs, such as business taxes, utility costs and a good place for employees to live,” said Richard Schelowitz, an analyst for AFC, which monitors the firearms industry.

“But unlike some businesses, this industry is also growing weary of regulations and public perceptions that might make it more difficult - and therefore more costly - to do business.”

Almost by accident, Idaho has created a business environment that gives gun makers exactly the tax and regulatory climate they like.

Interesting article.  But I have to agree with one of the commenters over at Red’s… the state should also be just as eager to be friendly to retailers and dealers, even to the point of going to bat with them against BATF for what many consider harrassment, or worse.  I’m not talking Cabelas sized retailers, who got a generous tax advantage when they moved to Idaho. 

I’m talking about the small dealers, who don’t have the deep pockets, political friends, or huge customer bases (read that “constituencies”) that outfits like Cabelas or Wal-Mart can call on.

..”In the ’90s, gun control campaigns turned their focus from regulating the sale of firearms to regulating the manufacturing of firearms as a way to slow the trickle of guns into the civilian market,”said Schelowitz, the industry analyst.
“Right now, I don’t think you are seeing a mass exodus of large manufacturers from states that are imposing tighter regulations, but some of the smaller and more mobile ones are leaving. If the trend continues you should expect to see even the large ones make the move to states that are perceived as ‘gun friendly.”

Outright gun bans haven’t been an effective tool, but the hassling of dealers by the BATF and the legislatures of neighboring states has been effective at reducing the number of gun dealers.  Everyone thinks of Idaho as an outdoor oriented, gun friendly state, and in many ways it is.  But the political BS goes on even here.  Go see a couple of Ryan Horsley’s posts to get an idea of how serious the loss of dealers has actually been.  That, and we have a couple of neighboring states that favor politicians who might, if they could, pass the same kind of leftist gun laws and nonsense we’ve grown to expect from New York or Washington D.C.  Don’t believe me?  The attitude is there, as this article from the Seattle PI earlier this year suggests

..In Seattle, where aggravated assaults with guns rose 19 percent last year, Mayor Greg Nickels and police Chief Gil Kerlikowske are urging legislators to pass bills regulating the sale and storage of guns.

But Democrats in the House and the Senate say their priorities lie elsewhere — increasing funding for education and health care.

And Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said she’s uncertain a push for tougher gun regulations would do much good.

“There are a lot of things to consider,” Brown said. “We still have open borders. Absent federal legislation … people can still walk right across the border and buy guns in Idaho.”

Wild and wooley Idaho, just waiting to sell all you Seattle gangbangers a gun… right.  But in all seriousness, I’m happy to hear that Idaho is courting firearms related businesses.  It’s almost a patriotic duty I’d say.