It’s Thursday, August 3, 2023, and here are the topics that have my attention:
- Bipartisan Safer Communities Act
- Deadliest Antisemitic Attack
- Hall of Fame Game
- One More Thing
BIPARTISAN SAFER COMMUNITIES ACT:
Sometimes a bill passes Congress and is signed into law by the President and months or years later the bureaucrats interpret the law or parts of the law a different way or it affects a program that it should not. That seems to be what happened with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (S. 2938) which is Public Law 117-159.
The bill was introduced by U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and passed the U.S. Senate in June 2022 with a vote of 65-33. U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) voted YEA and U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) voted NAY. (Source) In the U.S. House, U.S. Representative Matt Rosendale voted NAY, but the bill passed 234-193. (Source)
Apparently and according to Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen, the new law prohibits the use of many Federal education funds ‘for the provision to any person of a dangerous weapon, as defined in section 930(g)(2) of title 18, or training in the use of a dangerous weapon.’
Some officials, like Arntzen, are asking the Department of Education if schools can provide hunter’s safety classes and if archery and related indigenous skills can be taught. (Source) According to Arntzen, Montana received a $4,800,000 grant through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
Tester issued a press release telling constituents that he sent a letter pressing the Biden Administration to reverse course on their decision to prohibit the use of federal funds for school archery and hunting education classes. In his letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Tester expressed concern after learning the Department of Education has interpreted the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) in a way that would block federal funding from being used for these long-standing programs.
There should be hunting education classes as well as archery programs in schools. I’m sure this is an oversight from the Department of Education, just as I am sure the Republicans will use this to attack the Biden Administration and Tester.
DEADLIEST ANTISEMITIC ATTACK:
The Associated Press (AP) reported that the gunman who stormed a synagogue in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and killed 11 worshippers will be sentenced to death for perpetrating the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, a jury decided Wednesday.
The AP also reported:
Robert Bowers spewed hatred of Jews and espoused white supremacist beliefs online before methodically planning and carrying out the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue, where members of three congregations had gathered for Sabbath worship and study. Bowers, a truck driver from suburban Baldwin, also wounded two worshippers and five responding police officers.
I think this death sentence is appropriate.
HALL OF FAME GAME:
Just a reminder to my fellow football fans that tonight (Thursday) is the NFL Hall of Fame game between the Jets and the Browns.
The game is being televised on NBC. It starts at 6:00 pm Mountain time.
Like I said on Monday, with the Hall of Fame game this week that means football is back and there will be football until the cows come home!
Is this a great country or what?
You can see the NFL schedule by clicking HERE.
ONE MORE THING:
Never again should anyone have to be amazed at how Jim Jones got his followers to drink the poison. -Unknown
The Western Word 
Like many, my training/instruction came from my father – about 70 years ago. I still remember his opening words, “This is a gun. One of its purposes is to kill things. When you have this in your hands YOU DON’T GET TO BE STUPID!” He went on from there to explain the consequences of stupidity.
I walked my younger brother to the Paris Gibson course in the late 60’s, I remember the instructor had a rifle he passed around and taught the kids how to check it was unloaded and safely handle it. Years later I the Fish and Game taught classes up by Giant Springs. I remember them showing kids how to pass thru a fence with their weapons safely.
Hunter’s safety:
Must have changed considerably in the 50+ years since I took it. Back then there was no providing of any deadly weapon, nor any training of how to use one. It was all training on what NOT to do.
Bowers and synagogue massacre:
This is what the right would tell you is “the price of freedom”. Alleged 2nd Amendment right of anyone to easily acquire AR-15s and shoot up churches and schools trumps anyone else’s right to life. That’s America.
I can’t remember any “official” hunter safety courses as a kid – just from my dad. That was in the late 60s.
My mom told me not to shoot anyone and that helped a lot. 😂
We had a formal hunter’s safety course here down at what was then Paris Gibson Jr High. Also late 60’s. It wasn’t much but we did learn to wear orange and not point guns at others. Like you, most of what we learned about guns came from our dads.