Slugs & Plugs

A flintlock in NYC? Revolutionary!

Brooklyn, NY social worker Michael Littlejohn is an avowed history buff and a self-proclaimed student of the Revolutionary War who’s taken part in battle re-enactments in Virginia and Georgia as an adult.

Littlejohn, 50, recently followed his love of the American past and purchased a historically accurate and fully-functioning flintlock rifle, like the ones used by revolutionary soldiers and the frontiersman who later forged Westward—helping make the new territories safe for expansion and further colonization.

Indeed, among many collectors and gun enthusiasts, such a firearm is considered as much a work of art as it is an historic shooting, defensive and hunting implement.

Except in New York City in 2009, apparently.

Not long after Littlejohn received the firearm from the Tennessee artisan and blacksmith who created it, he was paid a visit by New York Police, who told him he must obtain a license if he wanted to keep the vintage front-loader.

The New York Daily News reported this week that a Staples copy center employee called authorities after she found a receipt for the gun left behind by Littlejohn, alerting police to the location and owner of the historic black powder firearm.

When confronted by police and told he was in violation of city law, the amateur historian was defiant—almost revolutionary, you might say.

“This is the last legal gun that you can have without registration in New York,” Littlejohn said. “And yet Mayor Bloomberg is driven crazy by my flintlock gun—the one that won the American Revolution.”

A quick perusal of The New York City Administrative Code (Title 10—Public Safety) appears to support Littlejohn’s assertion.

§ 10–305 Exemptions. The sections requiring rifle and shotgun permits and certificates and prohibiting the possession or disposition of assault weapons shall not apply as follows:  b. Antiques and ornaments. The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to antique rifles and shotguns which are incapable of being fired or discharged or which do not fire fixed ammunition, or those weapons manufactured prior to eighteen hundred ninety-four and those weapons whose design was patented and whose commercial manufacture commenced prior to eighteen hundred ninety-four and whose manufacture continued after eighteen hundred ninety-four without any substantial alteration in design or function, and for which cartridge ammunition is not commercially available and are possessed as curiosities or ornaments or for their historical significance and value...

In the meantime, sources with NYPD say the escalating conflict could end quickly and peaceably if Littlejohn would simply apply for a permit with the department’s handgun license division.

But that’s not going to happen, according to the historic arms lover, who says he’s prepared to go to court to keep his gun without obtaining a city license.

Our advice? The Bloomberg administration should avoid engaging in a battle with someone who has extensive skirmish experience.

Hunting & shooting arcade games too violent?

In a 3-3 vote last week, the Amherst (NY) Town Board denied the renewal of a arcade game license for a Chuck E. Cheese pizza and game parlor because some board members felt its shooting and hunting video games were inappropriate for young children.

Does someone smell a rat?

The Buffalo News reported that Council Member Shelly Schratz said she was disturbed by several “action-packed shoot-and-kill games” that were accessible to children at the pizza franchise and popular venue for birthday parties and other youthful gatherings.

Like other municipalities, Amherst receives revenue from licensing game arcades inside the town limits. An application fees costs $100, with an additional annual license fee of $200 for up to five games, and $40 more for each additional game.

Last week’s vote marked the first time a license has been denied in Amherst.

Council member Mark Manna, who voted in favor of renewing the license, said he thought those opposing the permit were overreacting.

“There is more violence in a Bugs Bunny cartoon,” he asserted.

One Chuck E. Cheese patron told the Buffalo paper she didn’t think the town should be making decisions for parents who enjoy taking their children there for birthday parties. 

“It should be up to the parents,” said Jenny Boggil. “If they don’t want their children to play those games, they don’t have to bring them.”

Washington implements 10% hunting, fishing surcharge

In Washington state, where budgetary shortfalls resulted in a 10.5 percent reduction of Department of Fish and Wildlife staff on July 1, a two-year, 10-percent surcharge on hunting and fishing licenses, permits, tags and stamps has been instituted by the Legislature.

Authorized by state lawmakers in the 2009 session, the surcharge will continue through June 30, 2011. It reflects the first across-the-board increase in fees in more than a decade.

Joe Stohr, deputy director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the surcharge is one of several increases approved by the Legislature and expected to raise $11 million for fish and wildlife management in the next two years.

Funds generated from the surcharge will help offset a $30 million cut in state funding for the agency for the 2009-2011 fiscal session.

A combination of statewide revenue shortfalls and general concerns with the economy forced a reduction of the WDFW's staff of 1,550 employees when the new fiscal year began July 1. The staff cuts include 76 layoffs and the elimination of dozens of vacant positions.

Washington sportsmen have also been told to expect many basic services, conservation programs, wildlife law enforcement, game population surveys and hatchery operations to be significantly reduced or totally curtailed for the next two years.

S&P random quote

"For a fish and a man are rather much alike: they both want whatever they can’t get, and they want whatever they’re chasing to run! They are alike in another respect too: there are only two kinds of fish and two kinds of men: the caught and the uncaught."

-Havilah Babcock, “The Earthworm Cometh,” Tales of Quails and Such, 1951

Beer-battered gardener discovers deer deterrent

Have you tried everything from soap shavings to coyote urine to keep hungry deer out of your vegetable garden and flowerbeds?

Oxon Hill, Md. gardener Chris Erwin, who says he came up with the concept after drinking “a couple of beers,” claims deer haven’t bothered his expansive vegetable plot since he surrounded it with the neon-colored tape used by cops to mark crime scenes.

Ervin says he had grown weary of his annual battle with an estimated 50 whitetail deer that commonly visited his property on a nightly basis, gobbling his flowers, ornamental shrubs and vegetables.

Then, one afternoon while mowing the lawn and admittedly inspired “by a couple of beers", Ervin says solution to his deer problem just came to him.

Ever since he first encircled his plot of corn, beans, melons, collard greens and squash with the bright tape two years ago, the deer have respected the marked boundary like gawkers at an urban crime scene.

“I wish I had patented it because you can see how pretty the garden is,” Ervin proudly told a Washington, DC-area television station recently. “They don’t touch it. They’ll eat everything else around here but they don’t touch it.”

The brewski-enabled gardener speculated that the motion of the iridescent tape in the breeze is enough to keep the wary deer from crossing the boundary.

To improve on Ervin’s idea, here at Slugs & Plugs we’ve decided a chalk whitetail buck outline on the ground behind the tape would be a nice added touch. The idea just kinda came to us after a couple of beers.

Own John Browning's house for only $375,000

You can forget about getting a Browning Buckmark tattoo or a 3-foot wide pickup widow decal of the famous deerhead logo.

Slugs & Plugs has discovered the ultimate abode for the unapologetic gun nut and devotee of all things Browning.

It’s John Moses Browning’s 6,912-square-foot, 8-bedroom mansion in Ogden, Utah. How’s that for a statement?

Built in 1900, most of the house is original, including a hardwood banister stretching from the entry all the way to the third-floor attic, beveled windows, hardwood floors and fireplaces throughout.

Widely considered a genius and inarguably the most famous gun maker in the history of the universe, perhaps Browning’s most enduring legacy is the short recoil design behind the 1911 handgun, which remains the pre-eminent operating system in today’s semi-auto handguns, nearly a century after it was first introduced.

Not a handgun fan? OK, then there’s his other creations, like the Winchester Model 1886  lever action rifle, Model 1887 lever action repeating shotgun, Model 1897 pump action shotgun and Models 1894 and 1895 lever action repeating rifles.

For good measure throw in the Colt Model 1895 “Peacemaker” machine gun and Model 1817 .30 cal. water-cooled machine gun.

The “ultimate gun-lover’s dream house” is located at 505 27^th St. in historic Ogden. While much of the interior is original, your wife will be pleased to know the kitchen has been updated since 1900.

Asking price is $374,900.

The one downside? Guns are not included. It’s strictly BYOB (Bring Your Own Browning)!

Confirmation hearing for Hamilton Wednesday

The confirmation hearing for Sam D. Hamilton, the Obama Administration’s nominee for Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is scheduled to take place Wednesday, July 22, beginning at 10:00 a.m. EST, before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Of those posts requiring nomination and Senate confirmation, the position of USFWS director is generally considered the one with the most direct influence on issues and policies affecting the nation's hunters and anglers. 

Hamilton, a career senior biologist and current Southeastern Regional Director, is a 30-year veteran of the FWS. As Regional Director since 1997, he has been responsible for the oversight and management of more than 350 federally listed threatened and endangered species and 128 national wildlife refuges.

S&P random quote

“He was the man who rode into our little valley out of the heart of the great glowing West and when his work was done rode back whence he had come and he was Shane.”

-Jack Schaefer

Final paragraph of the novel Shane, 1949

Sutton named new Future Fisherman Foundation ED

During last week's ICAST show in Orlando, Fla., outdoor writer, personality and well-known angler Keith Sutton of Alexander, Ark. was officially introduced as the new executive director of the Future Fisherman Foundation. 

A former executive with the Boy Scouts of America and past president of the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association, Sutton has worked 30 years as a free-lance writer, photographer, editor and lecturer, and served 19 years as editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's award-winning conservation magazine Arkansas Wildlife. He has written eleven books, including "The Crappie Book," "Fishing for Catfish," "Fishing Arkansas" and "Pro Tactics: Catfish."

Buy truck, get an AK

Used car dealer beats CNN reporter like a rented mule (with our humblest apologies to rented mules everywhere).