Reno, NV – -(AmmoLand.com)- Anti-hunters fired blanks last month when they took verbal shots at Safari Club International and its Convention exhibitors in a media blitz, alleging that a new Nevada law had been violated.
“We are the good guys and through science-based conservation, we protect wildlife,” said SCI President Paul Babaz. “The antis only whine while hunters are out there in the wilds, protecting animals and fighting criminal poachers.”
In January 2019, representatives for anti-hunting groups gained entry into SCI's membership-restricted annual Convention in Reno, NV for the purpose of exposing what they characterized as potentially illegal conduct by Convention exhibitors.
The anti-hunters publicized their findings, targeting SCI and several individual exhibitors. The accusers claimed that the exhibitors were selling items in violation of Nevada state law.
Not surprisingly, the accusers appear to have failed to properly research the law—or intentionally mischaracterized it–before publicizing their accusations. Also not surprisingly, the accusations were rebroadcasted by hundreds of internet communicators who similarly chose to skip the investigation that would have demonstrated the weakness of the accusations.
Nevada did pass a law that went into effect in 2018. N.R.S. 597.905 controls the sale of or possession with intent to sell products from shark fin, lions, elephant, rhinoceros, tiger, leopard, cheetah, jaguar, pangolin, sea turtle, ray, mammoth, narwhal, walrus or hippopotamus. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-597.html#NRS597Sec905.
The law provides a number of exceptions, the most general of which exempts sales of items for which the owner or seller has obtained permission from the federal government or for which federal law permits the sale.
For example, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a bureau of the federal government, has adopted regulations
