Honoring Missouri's Hunting Traditions

Statement

Honoring Missouri's Hunting Traditions

Governor's Column
by Governor Matt Blunt

Like many Missourians I take great joy in the outdoors, including hunting with family and friends. My father taught me to shoot with a well-used .22 rifle that has been in my family for four generations. I look forward to the day when it is my turn to share our hunting tradition with my son.

Missouri is home to some of the richest hunting and farming lands our nation has ever seen. As Lewis and Clark made their way up the Missouri, they were astounded by the abundance of wildlife. While traveling through our state, they reported that they did not have a single meal without meat or game.

Today, hunting remains an important part of Missouri families' traditions and heritage. Friends and family gather across generations to share the hunt, the stories and the game. I signed the Hunting Heritage Protection Areas Act to help ensure that future generations of Missourians will be able to continue the traditions that have been passed from generation to generation in our state.

The act acknowledged the immeasurable value of our state's floodplains and preserved Missourians' right to lawfully hunt and sport within heritage protection areas, including land that covers much of the trail Lewis and Clark blazed and that sustained Missouri's first families and communities.

Missourians cherish our constitutional freedoms, including the right of law-abiding citizens to own firearms. Second Amendment freedom, so often under assault from gun control proponents, deserves and requires strong and consistent support.

I am pleased to have affirmed the rights of law-abiding citizens, protected sportsmen and women, and successfully opposed liberal gun control proposals to undermine and weaken the Second Amendment.

I understand that our Constitution and Bill of Rights were created to limit the powers of government, not the rights of the people.

New laws I signed include legislation protecting Missourians' right to bear arms in an emergency, strengthening the right to carry for self-defense, securing the fair rights of shooting ranges as well as enacting the Castle Doctrine. These changes solidify Missourians' right to bear arms and work together to help protect our state's rich heritage and hunting traditions.

I am very pleased that changes in the last four years will help ensure the next generation of Missourians will have access to the same rights and freedoms we enjoy today.

But we must continue to be vigilant as our Second Amendment freedoms are under constant attack. We have made significant progress in protecting our Second Amendment freedom in Missouri, and we must continue to stand up for it. It is a freedom worth the fight.

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