Big Horn Reintroduction & Tightening Gun Laws

Big Horn Reintroduction & Tightening Gun Laws

Big Horn Reintroduction & Tightening Gun Laws plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

After the November general election, Washington State's voter approved initiative, I-594, goes into effect this Thursday. The initiative requires a background check for all gun sales. No one is sure at this point what effect that may have on sales. Local police departments will have individual say on their local enforcement, deciding how stringent they want to be. Supporters of the initiative feel that it will help reduce violence and keep firearms out of the hands of criminals while other are fearful of the vague nature of the wording and how that might affect the ability to pass guns down. Time will tell.

Big Horn sheep are making a comeback in Oregon. The sheep died off back in the 40's due to disease and unregulated hunting but the sheep are back again thanks to the efforts of the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife. According to spokesperson, Michelle Dennehy, they just released 55 big horns in three separate areas.

DENNEHY: One of our missions as the Oregon Fish and Wildlife is to restore native species to their range. In the case of big horn sheep, after they died off in the 1950's we actually started our efforts to restore them to Oregon and now we have an estimated 3500 to 3700 big horn sheep in Oregon.

Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray.

Bigotry and prejudice are ugly things, and can rear their nasty little heads in many different situations. Bigotry is defined as an "intolerance towards those who hold different opinions from oneself". Prejudice is a "preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience". Often we hear of these two going hand in hand when it comes to race, religion, or sex, and the majority of us would like to think of ourselves as not being prejudiced or bigoted. But too often bigotry and prejudice are hidden just under the surface and we don't even realize it until something rubs us the "wrong way". For instance you like to eat meat and your neighbor is a vegetarian. Whether you like to admit it or not you feel slightly annoyed with that, even though there is no real basis for you to feel that way; you just don't understand it and it irritates you. The reverse is also true; many vegetarians have no tolerance for people who enjoy a good steak. We can't help it; we want others to like what we like, believe what we believe, and do as we do. But it just doesn't work that way, because as humans we are as different and as varied as snowflakes - no two will ever be exactly alike.

Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.

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