As an avid hunter, a fishing guide who has carried a firearm for bear protection, a father of two boys who enjoy shooting sports, and owner of several guns, I'm strongly opposed to Senator Pete Kelley's (R-Fairbanks) ill-advised efforts to lift the firearm ban on University of Alaska campuses (Senate Bill 174, "An Act relating to the regulation of firearms and knives by the University of Alaska.").
Like many Alaskans, I find as many opportunities to get outside as I can; more often than not I find an excuse to pack my hunting license and a firearm appropriate to taking the game in season. From ptarmigan to caribou and geese to moose, I love to hunt, and I take pride in feeding my family with wild protein.
As part of the family tradition, my eight year old earned his first rifle this winter, a gift from his grandfather of a beautiful CZ single-shot youth-model .22lr. I don't think you'll be surprised to learn that he earned it by demonstrating that he had fully assimilated safe firearm handling rules. To be sure, he already has a deep respect for his hunting tools. As he will earnestly explain to you, when we are not afield or at the range, all guns are kept unloaded, under lock and key, hidden from view. Safe firearm handling is a first principle of the hunter safety curriculum, and a first principle in our house. When we heard that the Alaska Senate was considering a bill that would encourage students to carry firearms, my son was deeply confused. Why, he asked, would you need a gun at school?
It's an important question.
As so often happens when we listen to the news on the radio, I patiently explained as best as I could. I began by suggesting that sometimes people feel the need to carry guns for protection, sort of like when we are fishing remote salmon streams in the summer, and worry that brown bears might be interested in pushing us out of our fishing spots. He quickly noted that we don't really do that anymore, as we've transitioned from 12-gauges to pepper spray when we fish in brown bear country. Indeed, convinced by the peer review literature on the efficacy of pepper spray, I've increasingly been carrying canisters of bear spray instead of my trusty Mossberg 500. In fact, this past summer while guiding daily fly-out fly fishing trips on remote streams in Southeast Alaska, I can count on one hand the times I packed a firearm.
It is my firm conviction that guns are tools for hunting. In my family, hunting is an important tradition, and I've already laid the groundwork to pass this heritage down to my two children. Passing unnecessary legislation that will mobilize the anti-gun lobby—especially when we should be addressing the very significant economic crisis in our state—will only serve to hinder my efforts to pass on this tradition. Furthermore, according to the Legislative fiscal note, the bill will require a minimum of $1.3 million in expenditures in 2017 (likely much, much more going forward), most of it earmarked for outside consultants. In the current fiscal environment, this is money that would be much better spent educating future Alaskan game managers and biologists.
My hope is that the Senate does the right thing and kills this bill. Irrespective of the concessions and amendments negotiated with the University's legal team, almost nobody who actually spends time on a UA campus thinks it is a good idea to allow guns, as the public testimony from faculty and students has clearly shown. My hunch is that the majority of the hunters in the state will similarly find the bill's ideological posturing as confounding as my eight-year old son finds it. In short, from my perspective as hunter, gun owner, father, and, most importantly, voter, the Ssenate should drop this bill and do the job we elected them to do: insuring a bright future for our state.
Kevin Maier is a fishing guide in Juneau.
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