spectr17
12-11-2002, 09:17 PM
12/10/2002
CO Division of Wildlife
SAFARI CLUB DONATES YOUTH-SIZED FIREARMS FOR HUNTER EDUCATION
To help young people better learn about firearms and firearms safety, the Safari Club International has donated five youth-model .22s to the Colorado Division of Wildlife's hunter education program.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) announced today that the Upper Colorado River Chapter of Safari Club International (SCI) generously donated five youth-model .22s to the DOW’s hunter education program last month.
“Helping people become safer, better hunters is one of the chapter’s priorities,” said Jerry Bachmann of the Safari Club chapter.
In Colorado, hunter education is required for every hunter born on or after Jan. 1, 1949. About 17,000 students graduate annually from Colorado hunter education courses. Over half of the students are young people. The DOW administers the statewide program, relying on 400 volunteer instructors like Dennis Bader, who made the initial contact with SCI.
“Colorado requires students to live fire a firearm as part of the course,” said Patt Dorsey, the Division of Wildlife’s hunter education administrator. “Having firearms that fit the student is important to their success and safety.”
Dorsey also pointed out that hunter education is a grassroots effort, adding that Wal-Mart arranged for the purchase and transfer of the firearms and supplemented the donation by adding an assortment of safety and cleaning supplies.
To learn more about firearm safety, outdoor skills, wildlife identification and more, hunters and nonhunters are encouraged to attend a hunter education course. Bader suggested that anyone giving a firearm for the holidays should give it with registration in a hunter education course. Finding a course is easy: Call a DOW office or visit the Division’s Web site http://www.wildlife.state.co.us and click on the “Wildlife Calendar.”
Hunter education is credited with making hunting is one of the safest sports. According to National Safety Council statistics, a person is less likely to suffer a firearms injury while hunting than to get struck by lightning. Injuries to nonhunters caused by hunters are almost nonexistent.
The Colorado DOW sells about 550,000 hunting licenses annually, which means more than a half-million armed people roam the backcountry in pursuit of big and small game. So far this hunting season, there have been no hunter deaths in Colorado. During the 1960s, before hunter education and other safety measures were required, Colorado averaged 10 hunting fatalities and 24 nonfatal wounds by firearms every year. By the 1990s, Colorado averaged one fatality and 11 nonfatal incidents per year.
CO Division of Wildlife
SAFARI CLUB DONATES YOUTH-SIZED FIREARMS FOR HUNTER EDUCATION
To help young people better learn about firearms and firearms safety, the Safari Club International has donated five youth-model .22s to the Colorado Division of Wildlife's hunter education program.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) announced today that the Upper Colorado River Chapter of Safari Club International (SCI) generously donated five youth-model .22s to the DOW’s hunter education program last month.
“Helping people become safer, better hunters is one of the chapter’s priorities,” said Jerry Bachmann of the Safari Club chapter.
In Colorado, hunter education is required for every hunter born on or after Jan. 1, 1949. About 17,000 students graduate annually from Colorado hunter education courses. Over half of the students are young people. The DOW administers the statewide program, relying on 400 volunteer instructors like Dennis Bader, who made the initial contact with SCI.
“Colorado requires students to live fire a firearm as part of the course,” said Patt Dorsey, the Division of Wildlife’s hunter education administrator. “Having firearms that fit the student is important to their success and safety.”
Dorsey also pointed out that hunter education is a grassroots effort, adding that Wal-Mart arranged for the purchase and transfer of the firearms and supplemented the donation by adding an assortment of safety and cleaning supplies.
To learn more about firearm safety, outdoor skills, wildlife identification and more, hunters and nonhunters are encouraged to attend a hunter education course. Bader suggested that anyone giving a firearm for the holidays should give it with registration in a hunter education course. Finding a course is easy: Call a DOW office or visit the Division’s Web site http://www.wildlife.state.co.us and click on the “Wildlife Calendar.”
Hunter education is credited with making hunting is one of the safest sports. According to National Safety Council statistics, a person is less likely to suffer a firearms injury while hunting than to get struck by lightning. Injuries to nonhunters caused by hunters are almost nonexistent.
The Colorado DOW sells about 550,000 hunting licenses annually, which means more than a half-million armed people roam the backcountry in pursuit of big and small game. So far this hunting season, there have been no hunter deaths in Colorado. During the 1960s, before hunter education and other safety measures were required, Colorado averaged 10 hunting fatalities and 24 nonfatal wounds by firearms every year. By the 1990s, Colorado averaged one fatality and 11 nonfatal incidents per year.