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Firearm Industry Granted Consultative Role to United Nations

NEWTOWN, Conn.�The firearm and ammunition industry now has a seat at the world table of the United Nations. The 191-country, international relations body has granted official consultative status to the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute (SAAMI).

SAAMI, founded in 1926, publishes voluntary industry quality and safety standards, coordinates technical manufacturing data, and promotes safe and responsible firearms use. With its new U.N. designation, SAAMI is now a global resource for scientific facts on guns and ammunition.

In securing the official designation, SAAMI Managing Director Rick Patterson delivered a presentation to the U.N. Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, then for nearly an hour answered questions and responded to concerns regarding firearm industry involvement in U.N. issues. Final approval was handed down last month.

SAAMI becomes only the fourth firearms-related, non-

government organization to be officially recognized by the United Nations.

�The U.N. creates treaties and model regulations. It's important for our industry to have a voice in both of these arenas,� said Patterson. �First, international treaties are critical because a treaty actually supersedes the U.S. Constitution, so SAAMI can now speak up during deliberations over any treaties that could ultimately render America�s 2nd Amendment null and void.

�Second, the United Nations is very active in developing international regulations. There are thousands upon thousands of model regulations for countries to adopt, and SAAMI now has an official opportunity to provide input in the creation of these models. We can�t prevent politicians from deliberately making bad decisions, but we can make sure they don�t unintentionally make bad decisions from a lack of knowledge,� said Patterson.

For more information on SAAMI, visit www.saami.org  or call 203-426-4358. 

Grilled Salmon with a Cucumber Dill Sauce

Grill salmon to favorite temp, medium is preferred

Cucumber Dill Sauce

28 oz of heavy whipping cream

� of a large onion finely minced

� of a cucumber peeled, seeds removed and minced

2 tablespoons fresh dill finely chopped

Kosher salt to taste

Butter

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a saut� pan. Add the minced onion to the pan over low heat. (This entire recipe should be done over a low to low/medium heat) Cook the onion until the white is gone and it appears as you can see through it, called sweating the onion. Add the minced cucumber and sweat as

well. Add the cream and let reduce by � to � depending how thick you want the sauce, the more it reduces the thicker it becomes. Again make sure you are on a low heat or the sauce will scorch and taste burned. After it has reduced add the 2 tablespoons fresh dill and salt to taste. Turn off the heat and add a tablespoon of butter to finish the sauce. Serve over the grilled salmon.

** It is OK to use dehydrated dill. If you do add it to the sauce when you add the cream so it can rehydrate and permeate the sauce.

** If you like the sauce smooth place the sauce in a blender after it has cooled slightly and blend on low speed.

Serves 4 to 6

(By Chef Jim Bucko, Radisson Hotel, Merrillville, IN )

National Policy to Protect Hunting Introduced

Landmark congressional legislation introduced to protect hunting on federal lands

 Senate Bill 1522, the Hunting Heritage Protection Act, sponsored by Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-GA; Sen. Ted Stevens, R-AK; Sen. Richard Burr, R-NC; and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK will establish federal recognition of the intrinsic value of hunting as recreation and as a wildlife management tool.

The bill is similar to one developed and promoted by the U.S. Sportsmen�s Alliance (USSA) in 2000.  That legislation was supported by a coalition of nearly 70 state and national conservation organizations.   �Specifically, the Act establishes in law Congress� recognition of the significant role that hunters play in conservation,� said Bud Pidgeon, USSA president.  �This law will direct federal agencies to support, promote and enhance recreational hunting opportunities.�

Pidgeon said that a key element of the Hunting Heritage Protection Act is a stipulation for �no net loss of hunting� opportunities.  Under this provision, the government is directed to maintain, at the minimum, current levels of federal hunting lands to be open for sportsmen�s use.  If federal lands were to be closed to hunting, the no net loss directive requires the opening of compensatory huntable lands.

At the state level, Illinois, Georgia and Maryland have passed Hunting Heritage Protection Acts based on the USSA model.  PA and Oregon have seen the introduction of bills that also prevent the net loss of available state hunting lands.  A hearing on SB 1522 is expected in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources when Congress returns from summer recess in September.

Take Action!  Sportsmen should contact the members of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and ask them to support SB 1522.  Let them know the bill will help protect recreational hunting lands and ensure that no net loss of huntable public land occurs.

Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM)

202-224-6621

Daniel Akaka (D-HI)

202-224-6361

Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

202-224-4944

George Allen (R-VA)

202-224-4024

Jeff Bingham (D-NM)

202-224-5521

Jim Bunning (R-KY)

202-224-4343

Conrad Burns (R-MT)

202-224-2644

Richard Burr (R-NC)

202-224-3154

Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

202-224-3441

Jon Corzine (D-NJ)

202-224-4744

Larry Craig (R-ID)

202-224-2752

Byron Dorgan (D-ND)

202-224-2551

Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

202-224-3841

Tim Johnson (D-SD)

202-224-5842

Mary Landrieu (D-LA)

202-224-5824

Mel Martinez (R-FL)

202-224-3041

Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)  

202-224-6665

Ken Salazar (D-CO)

202-224-5852

Gordon Smith (R-OR)

202-224-3753

James Talent (R-MO)

202-224-6154

Craig Thomas (R-WY)

202-224-6441

Ron Wyden (D-OR)

202-224-5244

Great Lakes Water Levels for August 19, 2005

Lake Level Conditions:

Lake Superior is currently an inch lower than last year, while the remaining lakes are 4 to 9 inches below the levels of a year ago.  Dry conditions this spring and summer are the main reason that water levels on the lower Great Lakes are below last year�s levels.   Looking ahead, Lake Superior is expected to fall 1 inch over the next month.  Lakes Michigan-Huron should fall 2 inches while the remaining lakes are expected to fall 5 inches over the next month.  Levels on Lake Superior over the next few months will be slightly lower than 2004 and levels on the lower Great Lakes will continue to be lower than 2004.

Current Outflows/Channel Conditions:

The Lake Superior outflow through the St. Marys River into Lake Huron is projected to be above average during the month of August.  Flows in the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers are anticipated to be below average during August.  Flows in the Niagara River are expected to be near average while St. Lawrence River flow should be below average in August.

Alerts:

Users of the Great Lakes, connecting channels and St. Lawrence River should keep informed of current conditions before undertaking any activities that could be affected by changing water levels.  Mariners should utilize navigation

charts and refer to current water level readings.

Auto Clubs May Fall Short With Trailer Boaters

BoatU.S. Trailer Assist & Tow Ready to Help

What happens when a motorist towing a boat trailer has a breakdown on the side of the road or becomes disabled on a busy launch ramp?  The answer you'll likely get from your auto club is you are on your own, according to BoatU.S., the nation's largest organization for recreational boaters.  That's because most auto club towing plans only cover vehicles - not boat trailers.

BoatU.S. "Trailer Assist & Tow" is a service that will provide assistance when either the trailer or the towing vehicle suffers a breakdown while trailering a boat.  Labor charges for flat tire assistance, fuel delivery, lockout service, or jumpstarting of the towing vehicle are included. Most importantly, if your towing vehicle or boat trailer is disabled while trailering - or even stuck on the launch ramp - Trailer Assist & Tow will pay up to

$150 to have your tow vehicle and/or boat trailer towed to the nearest repair facility or safe location.  All you have to do is sign for service.

Trailer Assist & Tow costs only $24 a year and includes membership in BoatU.S. as well as the association's "Trailering Club," which also includes a subscription to BoatU.S. Trailering Magazine.  The club also provides up to $40 in launch ramp fee rebates redeemable at West Marine and BoatU.S. stores and other discounts.  BoatU.S. membership features over 20 additional benefits including on-the-water towing, Member Rewards at West Marine and BoatU.S. stores, and a subscription to the largest circulation boating magazine in the country, BoatU.S. Magazine.

If you sign up online at www.BoatUS.com/trailerclub  you'll also get a free trailer hitch ball cover.  Or call 800-245-6923.

Folate May Reduce Alzheimer's Risk

By Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter

Washington  (HealthDayNews) -- Preventing Alzheimer's disease may be as simple as increasing the amount of the B vitamin called Folate that you get from fruits, green vegetables and supplements, researchers suggest in a new study.

According to the study, older people whose Folate intake is above the recommended dietary allowance are at a significantly reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's.  However, the researchers cautioned that far more research is needed to establish a link between Folate and the possible prevention of the brain-wasting disease. In fact, one previous study found Folate encouraging the development of Alzheimer's disease.  This latest study appears in the August issue of the journal Alzheimer's and Dementia.

Experts hypothesize that Folate protects against Alzheimer's by reducing blood levels of homocysteine, an amino acid. Homocysteine has already been linked to an increased risk for heart disease. "There are also links between vascular disease and Alzheimer's disease," said lead author Maria M. Corrada, an assistant adjunct professor of neurology at the University of California, Irvine. "So maybe there is some mechanism so that lowering homocysteine may be beneficial."

Folates are B-vitamin nutrients found in foods such as bananas and oranges, leafy green vegetables, asparagus, broccoli, liver, and many types of beans and peas.  Folate supplements are also recommended for pregnant women to help prevent birth defects that affect the brain and spinal cord, called neural tube defects.

In their study, Corrada and her colleagues collected data on 579 men and women 60 and older who participated in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. The people in the study kept track of what they ate and what supplements they took for a week.

During a follow-up period that spanned more than nine years, Corrada's team looked at the number of people who developed Alzheimer's and what differences they had in their diets from those who didn't develop the disease.  Over that period, 57 people developed Alzheimer's. Compared with those who developed the disease, study participants with the

highest Folate intake reduced their risk of developing Alzheimer's by 55 percent, the researchers found.

This reduced risk was not seen for the other vitamins the researchers looked at, including vitamin C, carotenoids and vitamin B12.

"This may give us some clues about what can be done eventually to prevent Alzheimer's disease," Corrada said. "There may be the possibility that Folate may have a causal relationship to Alzheimer's disease."  Despite this finding, Corrada doesn't recommend increasing the amount of Folate you take in the hope of reducing your risk of Alzheimer's. "At this point the only recommendation should be: Take what's in a multivitamin," she said. "It's premature to recommend anything higher than that."

One Alzheimer's expert noted that this finding is exactly opposite to the conclusion of another recent study. "A colleague of mine had the exact opposite finding," said Dr. David A. Bennett, director of the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago. Bennett was referring to a study published in the April issue of the Archives of Neurology.  In that study, researchers found that high Folate levels may actually cause cognitive decline, based on data for 3,718 people 65 and older.

"This is the problem with observational studies," Bennett said. "You can get really mixed results from observational studies. Observational trials are intended to lay the groundwork for clinical trials. They are not intended to lay the groundwork for any kind of recommendation."

Bennett added that there is observational evidence that homocysteine is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's. "It's a fine theory," he said. "But there's an old saying in this field, which is: for any epidemiologic association, we can come up with a biologically possible hypothesis."  Given the contradictory findings, Bennett believes that clinical trials are needed to settle the question of folate's effects on Alzheimer's.

"There's Folate supplements out there and people are being encouraged to take Folate for various reasons," he said. "I think we need to take a look at that."

Boating Under the Influence Kills

10-Year-Old Girl Dies in Fatal Boat Collision

Suffolk County, NY - Drinking and Driving is a very dangerous combination, but Boating and Drinking, especially at night, is fatal.

Last Wednesday, A 10-year-old girl died and her parents were injured following a collision between her family's Trophy recreational vessel and a Grady White recreational vessel about one mile east of the Robert Moses Bridge in the Great South Bay near Bayshore Long Island around 9:10 p.m.   The Grady White's operator is currently in custody of the Suffolk County Police Department and is charged with Boating Under the Influence.

A rescue boats the Coast Guard units from West Islip and East Islip Fire Departments and Suffolk County Police Aviation Unit responded to the collision. Suffolk Police administered Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation on the girl until arriving at Bayshore Marina. She was taken to Southside Hospital where 

she was later pronounced dead. Her parents were reported

in critical condition.

No serious injuries were reported from the second pleasure boat. The Coast Guard and Suffolk County Police are continuing their investigations.

The Coast Guard Auxiliary wants to emphasize to the public that drinking alcoholic beverages and operating any type of vehicle, especially a boat, can be fatal. Not only are your senses dulled, but between the three dimensional movement of the boat, the lack of clearly identifiable outlines (especially at night) and the heat and sun of the day, drinking and boating becomes almost a guarantee for disaster.

To learn more about boating safety, the Coast Guard Auxiliary suggests that all boaters take a Safe Boating Course. Contact your local Coast Guard unit (www.uscg.mil ) or Flotilla (www.cgaux.org/cgauxweb/getzip.html ) for the next boating safety course.

Becoming an Outdoors-Woman - Sept 16-18

Just a few openings remain for the IDNR Becoming an Outdoors-Woman weekend outdoors workshop at Pere Marquette State Park in Jersey County, Sept. 16-18.  BOW is open to adult women ages 18 and older.  The weekend workshop fee is just $125, which includes instruction, program materials, use of demonstration equipment, seven meals and lodging. 

Some classes are already full, including rock climbing, medicinal plants, outdoor survival, shotgun 1, fly fishing and backpackers cooking, so be sure to select other classes when registering.  For more info call 217/782-7026.  Registration forms are available at http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/Landmgt/Bow/index.htm

DEC investigating death of Gulls on Lake Ontario Shore

Type E Botulism Found in Some Gulls; Take Care in Handling Fish and Game

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced that the agency is investigating the cause of the deaths of birds along the shores of Lake Ontario and Thousand Islands area of the St. Lawrence River and advised the public to take precautions in handling birds and wildlife from these areas until the investigation is completed.

During the first week of August, two dead birds were found on the St. Lawrence River shore in the Town of Cape Vincent, Jefferson County.  Both of the birds tested positive for Type E Botulism.  Additional birds - Caspian terns, Double-crested cormorants and a Herring gull collected from Little Galloo Island in the eastern basin of Lake Ontario on August 9 - were also confirmed stricken with the disease.

In recent years, Type E Botulism (Clostridium botulinum) has affected fish and birds in Lake Huron and Lake Erie, and was first documented in birds near Lake Ontario in 2002.  Type E Botulism is a specific strain of botulism most commonly affecting fish-eating birds.  It causes paralysis in the affected birds and often is fatal.  The disease results from the ingestion of a toxin produced by the botulism bacterium and can be harmful to humans who eat birds or fish that have been poisoned by this toxin.   There is no risk of exposure to humans from swimming in Lake Ontario or St Lawrence River waters.

An outbreak of Type E Botulism first appeared in southern Lake Huron in 1998 and spread to Lake Erie in 1999.  In the fall of 2000, the botulism had spread to the eastern part of Lake Erie and thousands of water birds were found washed up on the shoreline.  DEC subsequently confirmed Type E Botulism in several species of fish and waterfowl from Lake Erie.  In July of 2002 several gulls were tested around the eastern basin of Lake Ontario and many of those tested positive. There have been no reports of any human illnesses associated with these outbreaks.

Type E Botulism has not been found in any fish from Lake Ontario or the St. Lawrence River.  DEC is continuing to gather sick and dead birds and fish to check for botulism or other diseases. As part of annual monitoring for the disease,  sweeps of specific stretches of the great lakes shorelines occur each fall, and any dead birds collected are tested for the disease.

Hunters and anglers are advised not to harvest waterfowl or fish that are sick or acting abnormally.  Cooking may not destroy the botulism toxin. DEC reminds hunters and anglers to take the following precautions for preparing all fish and waterfowl:

 ► harvest only fish and waterfowl that act and look healthy;

 ► wear rubber or plastic protective gloves while filleting, field dressing, skinning or butchering birds, fish or wildlife.  Remove and discard intestines soon after harvest and avoid direct contact with intestinal contents;

 ► wash hands, utensils and work surfaces before and after handling any raw food, including fish and game meat;    

keep fish and game cool (either with ice or refrigerated below 45 degrees Fahrenheit/7 degrees Celsius) until filleted or butchered, and then refrigerate or freeze; and

 ► cook fish and other seafood to an internal temperature (in the thickest part) of 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius).  Cook game birds to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 degrees Celsius).   

If you must handle dead or dying fish or birds, use rubber or plastic protective gloves or a plastic bag.  Any discovery of dead or distressed fish or wildlife, such as water birds showing a condition known as "limberneck" that results from paralysis of the neck muscles, should be reported to Fish and Wildlife office in Buffalo at (716) 851-7010, Allegany at (716) 372-0645, Avon at (585) 226-2466, Syracuse at (315) 426-7400, Cortland at (607) 753-3095, Watertown at (315) 785-2261 or Cape Vincent at (315) 654-2147.

Store guns in central depot says Mayor

No reason to have a firearm at home, Miller says

TORONTO, (National Post) � Gun owners in Toronto may soon be prohibited from keeping their firearms at home even if they are properly licensed and registered, Mayor David Miller said last week.

"There's no reason to own a gun in Toronto -- collector or not. If you are a collector and you have a permit, the guns need to be stored in a way that they can't be stolen. And perhaps a centralized facility of some kind could accomplish that goal," Mr. Miller told the National Post. "The law requires gun owners to have proper storage, but obviously not everyone adheres to that."

Following a spate of shootings in Toronto, the Mayor has asked city lawyers and the police to determine whether the municipality has the "legal ability" to require individuals to store their weapons at a secure facility such as a gun club.   "It's a very serious issue and I don't have all the answers to it, but I've spoken to the [Police] Chief as well as our own legal department to see what we can do," Miller said.

The Mayor has repeatedly blamed lax gun laws in the United

States for some of Toronto's violence, saying half of the firearms in the city originated in the United States.  While pressing the federal government to stem the smuggling of guns across the border, Miller said steps must also be taken steps to address domestic gun problems.

Miller noted several U.S. cities such as Chicago have passed ordinances restricting handgun ownership. But legal gun owners argue the new rules would only make life simpler for criminals. "It would just put all the firearms in one place so they could all be stolen at one time," said Eric Greer of the Ontario Arms Collectors Association. "That would be a wonderful thing."

Greer added the Mayor's proposal would not prevent criminals from acquiring weapons, noting Canada enacted its first handgun registry in 1934.   "It hasn't made one iota of difference. And the reason is the people that registered their handguns don't commit the crimes. The people who commit crimes don't register their guns. It's as simple as that," he said.    Other gun owners said they are tired of being conflated with murderers and thieves.