Not content with President Joe Biden’s ongoing efforts to erase the Second Amendment and make lawful gun ownership a rarity, fringe liberals within the administration are now implementing “bow control” policies by targeting and threatening schools that offer archery and hunting programs to students.
Using flawed logic that only a socialist committed to spreading their leftist agenda could argue with a straight face, liberal elements in the U.S. Department of Education are denying federal funding to schools that promote hunting and archery by claiming they violate the “Safer Communities Act” passed by Congress. The department’s wildly broad interpretation of the act seeks to pressure schools to stop offering firearm safety courses and other electives and extracurricular activities that promote outdoor sports and gun use.
Our own Alma Bryant High School in Irvington, located within my legislative district, offers a competitive archery team under the National Archery in the Schools Program, which serves roughly 1.3 million students in nearly 9,000 schools across 49 states. Bryant High students who compete and win in archery tournaments can secure college scholarships, and four members of the Hurricane Archery Team have been awarded scholarships in each of the past four years. The members of the archery team also volunteer in community service activities such as replanting grasses on sand dunes on Dauphin Island, teaching archery to children at youth camps, beautifying their school campus, and raising charitable contributions through the Walk for Diabetes, the Cancer Relay for Life, and other events.
But if the liberal education bureaucrats in D.C. are successful in their efforts, Bryant High will be forced to either end its archery program and the scholarships it offers or forfeit any federal dollars to which it is entitled.
The Catch-22 situation offers a prime example of a Deep State strong-arm tactic designed solely to achieve an extremist political and ideological end. Those promoting the broad and flawed interpretation of federal law hope to steer our children away from the rich traditions of hunting, safe firearm handling, and archery, preventing them from being passed down to future generations. Alabama is fortunate to have committed conservatives in our congressional delegation who are fighting back against the fringe radicals tucked deep within the federal government.
The Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act is a plainspoken measure that simply states federal dollars may not be denied to schools that offer safe and approved firearm and archery programs. It also prohibits the “Safer Communities Act” from being utilized as the reason for a denial of funds.
Far too often in recent years, liberals have achieved their goals by circumventing Congress through overreaching executive orders, suffocating regulations, and twisted interpretations of federal statutes. And if liberal Democrats are allowed to maintain control of the White House in the coming election, such abuses will only become more common as the already emboldened Deep State becomes even bolder.
The students on the Alma Bryant High School Hurricane Archery Team are currently receiving a firsthand civics lesson on how the federal government is NOT supposed to work, and they are seeing strong evidence that the vision of freedom that our founding fathers fought so hard to create is eroding before our eyes.
Those of us who believe in the U.S. Constitution and embrace the very foundation of moral law must continue the fight against the excesses of the left and shine a spotlight on abuses whenever we see them occur.
Rep. Chip Brown represents District 105 in the Alabama House of Representatives.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News.
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