Shooting Sports Fair has gun rights presentations each day

By JIM MATTHEWS www.OutdoorNewsService.com The 2014 Raahauge’s Shooting Sports Fair will feature gun rights presentations each day of this year’s event. Attorneys from the preeminent gun rights law firm of Michel & Associates in Orange County will give seminars each day of the three-day event to be held May 30-June 1 at Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises in Corona. The Shooting Sports Fair is the nation’s largest hands-on gun show where those who attend can not only see but shoot all of the major firearms on the marketplace today. Chuck Michel thought it would be an ideal place to get the word out about firearms legislation and gun rights and asked last year if he and his attorneys, who are battling for gun right on the front lines, could give daily seminars to explain the issues to gun owners. Michel was right. The Michel & Associates seminars were the most heavily attended events at the Sports Fair, and they are back this year with more time allotted to allow for a longer question-and-answer periods at the end of the seminars. Chuck Michel’s law firm is perhaps best-known for major legal victories on California gun rights cases. Most recent, his law firm was behind the monumental Peruda vs. San Diego County that went to the federal 9th Circuit Court. The court ruled that San Diego County did NOT have the right to set unrealistic restrictions on who could own a concealed carry weapons permit. It has led to an avalanche of applications for these permits in San Diego County. In Parker vs. State of California, the court agreed that AB 962, which banned mail order sale of ammunition and required registration and thumbprints for purchase of ammunition, was unconstitutional. While still in appeals, there is very good legal precedent this victory will be upheld. An older and landmark case (Fiscal vs. San Francisco) was when Michel’s staff beat back San Francisco’s citywide ban on the possession of handguns. For hunters, Michel & Associates also intervened on behalf of the Bureau of Land Management in Arizona when the Center for Biological Diversity sued to mandate lead ammunition on all BLM lands in the Arizona strip, ostensibly to protect an experimental, non-essential population of California condors. The court dismissed that lawsuit. Michel intervened again when the CDB tried the same tactic on the Kaibab National Forest and that case was also quickly dismissed. The May 30 seminar at the Shooting Sports Fair will be from 1:30 to 3 p.m. and will feature Joseph Silvoso on general firearms laws. Chuck Michel and Clinton Monfort will give the noon to 1:30 p.m. May 31 presentation on Second Amendment legislation. On June 1, Sean Brady will speak from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Second Amendment litigation and firearms laws. The attorneys will leave time at the end of each session to answer questions from the audience. The Shooting Sports Fair will be open from noon to 6 p.m. Friday, May 30, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 31, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 1. Admission is $15 for adults and parking is $5. For more information or directions, call Mike Raahauge Shooting Sports Enterprises at 951-735-7981 or go to www.raahauges.com. There is also information on the event’s major sponsor, Turner’s Outdoorsman, web site at www.turners.com. SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY CATFISH SEASON KICKS OFF: The first weekly catfish plants in all of the San Bernardino County regional park lakes start this week on Thursday. All five regional parks with fishing lakes will receive blue catfish this Thursday and May 22, and then channel catfish each week thereafter. Mojave Narrows Park in Victorville, Glen Helen Park in Devore, Cucamonga-Guasti Park in Ontario, Prado Park in Chino, and Yucaipa Park in -- yes – Yucaipa will be planted each week on Thursday through Sept. 4. During the catfish season, anglers pay a vehicle fee and a daily fishing fee, and some of the parks are closed to fishing the day of the catfish plant. For more information, call 909-38-PARKS or go to www.county-parks.com. MEANWHILE, ON THE COLORADO RIVER: A near-Colorado River record flathead catfish was caught last week when Garry Blue of Boron landed a 70-pound flathead. The big fish was just one of eight catfish weighed in at Blythe's B&B Bait this past week that topped 30 pounds. The bite has been slow in developing this year because of very high flows in the river for an environmental restoration project in the Colorado River delta in Mexico, probably keeping the water temperatures cooler than normal. But it is obviously going now. What is the Colorado River record for flathead catfish you ask? Well, according to California, it’s 72-pounds, 14-ounces. A verified 73-pounder was caught by the late Rafael Terrones of San Bernardino, but that fish was cut up and eaten before it could be certified by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Arizona’s Game and Fish Department says the record for the river is 74 pounds. You’d think the two records would be the same. There is a short story and photo of this big flathead on the Palo Verde Valley Times website. There is also a photo of a 55-pounder caught the same week by Denise Anguiano of Riverside on my Outdoor News Service Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Outdoor-News-Service/120077024698602). END