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August 28, 2018
NSSF Q&A: Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)
Editor’s Note: We are pleased to post the latest of our occasional Q&A features with an elected official who supports hunting and the shooting sports. NSSF thanks U.S. Senator Mike Crapo for sharing his thoughts and priorities in this open letter to NSSF members that he sent in response to our questions.
From Senator Mike Crapo:
Preserving our legal rights to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment has been a cornerstone of my public service representing Idaho sportsmen and women. I was introduced to shooting sports and hunting at an early age by both my father and my older brothers. Hunting was a big part of my teenage years and continues to this day.
Idaho has excellent habitat for hunting, whether for elk, birds or other species. Knowing how to use firearms responsibly is a way of life for most of us. I hunt most often for waterfowl but also enjoy trap, skeet and sporting clays shooting to hone my skills when I cannot be in the forests and rangelands of Idaho.
While many of us understand the responsible use of firearms as a way of life and of providing meat for the freezer, we have to be vigilant against efforts to strip law-abiding Americans of their right to keep and bear arms.
As Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, I recently called out the leaders of several financial institutions on their efforts to thwart legal commerce regarding arms and ammunition. I fought the executive branch when the last Administration sought to take guns away from veterans and others who did nothing more than tell bureaucrats that they were turning their financial affairs over to their spouse or another family member.
I introduced legislation to stop federal policies aimed at choking guns and ammunition businesses off from the banking sector, which became known as “Operation Choke Point.” And, I successfully passed legislation allowing the unrestricted passage of legal firearms when traveling across federally-owned lands.
While most of us enjoy and appreciate the responsible, legal use of firearms for protection and sporting use, we must stand strong against efforts to weaken the legal rights put in place by our Founding Fathers under the Second Amendment. I will continue to make that a bedrock part of my public service to Idahoans and Americans.
You may also be interested in: NSSF Q&A: U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop
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