The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will hold its annual meeting Tuesday, Oct. 28, and Wednesday, Oct. 29, in Dewey Beach.
I realize that most of you have real jobs and will be working on those days, but if you are available and you fish for striped bass, you really should attend.
From 8:30 to 10 a.m., Oct. 28, the Horseshoe Crab Board will meet. Then beginning at 1:30 p.m., the Menhaden Board will begin its meeting. This could be an exciting discussion as the menhaden industry goes against the conservation industry. In the past, the menhaden industry has always won. Menhaden are an important food source for striped bass.
Meeting from 9:45 a.m. to 5 p.m., Oct. 28, is the Striped Bass Board. There will be time for public comment, and if you plan to comment, make it brief and to the point. Use facts, not tales of what you may have heard from this or that person. You will be speaking to people who, for the most part, do not fish. They look at data and computers, and make decisions based on what they see. They depend on other people in the field to gather that data, and they believe what they tell them. If you want to disprove that data, you had better have all your facts right.
Handguns
Well, the General Assembly has gone and done it again. First, they took away the right of young people to hunt alone, and now they have made it very expensive for anyone to purchase a handgun.
The new law has some good points. First, you have to take a course on gun safety. Everyone who purchases a gun should have to do this. Then you have to pass a background check. Now this will be more than a few questions asked by the dealer and a quick look for any bad marks on your record. I would hope it would include any record of mental illness. There will also be a waiting period before you can take the gun home.
All of this sounds good until you get to the price tag. According to estimates I have heard, the cost will run around $300. That’s before you can buy the handgun. I only paid about $150 for the all-day class that qualified me for my right to carry a concealed handgun.
There are two groups currently suing the State of Delaware over this law. I wish them well. I would hope the settlement would include a class to cover all the necessary requirements of the law with a price tag more reasonable than $300.
One way to avoid all this falderal is to educate people while they are still in school. Both of my sons had a class in firearms safety while in elementary school. We lived near Elkton, Md., for a while and the school district there had a class on firearms safety that both Ric and Roger took.
I can already hear the screaming and wailing from parents who don’t want little Johnny or Jane to touch, let alone learn about, any firearms. To them I can only say, it is far better to learn about firearms from a licensed instructor than from some creep on the street or from no one at all. We have all heard about one kid shooting his or her brother or sister with a gun they found around the house or somewhere else. They didn’t know anything about guns, and the shooting was an accident that could have been prevented with a little education.
Hunting is not the only reason to have guns. There are numerous competitions with everything from 12-gauge shotguns to small-caliber pistols. Several of these are part of the winter and summer Olympics. Some high schools have teams that compete in skeet or trap shooting.
I realize the object of all these new laws is to prevent mass shootings like the tragedies that happened in places like Sandy Hook and Uvalde. The fact that neither of those terrible events was carried out with a pistol or a hunting weapon seems lost on the people who consider all guns evil.
At this point in time, the law is the law, and I think you can count on the sale of handguns going downhill. Like I said, I hope the lawsuits being brought can make some changes, and I would love to see gun safety taught in schools the same as driving class. And above all, a background check that includes a mental health report.
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Eric Burnley is a Delaware native who has fished and hunted the state from an early age. Since 1978 he has written countless articles about hunting and fishing in Delaware and elsewhere along the Atlantic Coast. He has been the regional editor for several publications and was the founding editor of the Mid-Atlantic Fisherman magazine. Eric is the author of three books: Surf Fishing the Atlantic Coast, The Ultimate Guide to Striped Bass Fishing and Fishing Saltwater Baits. He and his wife Barbara live near Milton, Delaware. Eric can be reached at Eburnle@aol.com.
