We have a new puppy.

If you are a dog owner, I almost don’t even need to say anything more, because you know how crazy life just got at my house.

I can tell already; he’s going to be a good dog. He’s smart, and because of this, he brings a unique set of challenges and opportunities. But for now, he’s just a puppy so of course he needs a lot of love, training, and constant attention.

He’s a French pointing breed called Braque D’Auvergne. I’d never heard of it. My wife discovered the breed through a gun dog magazine we get delivered to the house. It’s supposed to be a good hunting breed, so hopefully he’ll learn how to hunt for pheasants. He did already rip the wing off a stuffed duck toy, so maybe that’s a good sign? My wife is excited about his potential. She’s been working very hard with him already and if she can tame his inner beast, this guy is going to be amazing.

As the weeks go on, it seems like COVID is becoming a thing of the past. True, there are still some places and circumstances where restrictions still exist, but most things are opening up and we’re slowly getting back to what we think is normal. That is a tremendous development which we have all been waiting for—impatiently, I might add. This leaves me wondering, exactly what IS normal in the post-pandemic era?

Culture is everything. It surrounds you in your office setting, at home, and in your social aura. Much of our past year has been spent in a “non-cultured” environment with minimal socialization and little opportunity to do anything about it. The removal of masks (for those vaccinated) was certainly the biggest obstacle that was overcome to begin socializing again. We missed the casual conversations, the smiles, the facial expressions and the laughs.

I played a lot of baseball when I was a kid. When we weren’t on the actual ball diamond, you could often find me and my brothers in the backyard playing whiffle ball. We had the diamond laid out so that if you were able to hit the ball over the house to right or center field, you were pretty much guaranteed a homerun and an easy trip around the bases.

That is unless you got extra “cocky” and took your time strutting and showing off your baseball prowess, bragging about your power swing. Meanwhile, one of my very determined brothers would hustle to get the ball, then sneak back around the corner of the house and make a beeline for home plate. If you were too busy showing off, they’d get to home just ahead of you and tag you out.

It happens all the time in sports. A team gets a #1 ranking pre-season and then what? There’s only one way to go from there and that’s down. I can’t imagine any sports team being excited about that ranking before the season even starts. The expectations are too high and it’s only a disappointment from there. You see it in the stock market as well. Stocks climb up to a point where you realize that it must be on its way down. What goes up must come down, and we all know, at some point, things will shift in our own industry. Demand will decline, and we will again be pivoting our businesses in the other direction. The only difference here is that we CAN go higher than before; we often do. Look at 2013. A record year for many of us, but then came along 2016. Another stellar year. There was no way we could climb higher. But we did. 2020 recorded numbers that none of us could dream of.

In Washington, D.C., all firearm industry eyes are on Wednesday morning’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with President Joe Biden’s nominee, David Chipman, to be Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). NSSF® adamantly opposes Chipman’s nomination as someone who is entirely unqualified to hold a position of public trust. During the committee hearing, Chipman will be forced to answer questions about his paid-for gun control agenda, including having called for banning AR-15 style rifles, implementing “universal background checks” and instituting national gun registries, as well as his denigration of gun buyers. Chipman is still employed by Giffords gun control group for whom he lobbied. He was also a lobbyist for Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown gun control group and still serves as an advisor. Industry members and supporters of the Second Amendment should click here and make sure their U.S. Senators know they disapprove of Chipman’s nomination. There is additional information on federal legislation outlined below.

I’m not a workout fanatic. Not even close. But around 2-years ago I made it a point to spend a little more time on a stationary bike. And believe it or not, I’ve been faithful to the pledge, and the results over time have been decent. Not great, decent.

I’ve had a number of people in the past few months tell me they thought I looked healthier. Well, it’s true. And I feel healthier, so it’s a good thing. Plus, the thing isn’t just a giant dust receptacle in the corner of the bedroom anymore. Nor is it a place where I hang clothes (Pro tip… it’s exceptional for hanging clothes.)

In a report released today titled, “Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful,” the Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, and the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality laid out the Biden Administration’s (Administration) long-awaited plan for the Thirty-by-Thirty Initiative (30 by 30). This report, which contained many of the priorities previously outlined by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF), sets the stage for future efforts to determine what lands will count toward the 30% goal of the Initiative, and what opportunities exist to build upon existing conservation programs.

Spring is upon us, so you know what that means. Spring cleaning. While many people loathe the task of cleaning out closets or the garage, I clean out my pantry and my freezer. No more open snack food; no more uneaten cereal. If it doesn’t rhyme with protein bar, it gets thrown out. As for my freezer, I use this time to evaluate the number of frozen ducks and I try to organize them in reverse date order. I must make way for a new crop of frozen birds this Fall to entire the tundra of my freezer. Occasionally I’ll find a pack that has been there since before my children were born. That’s an easy throw-away. But the oldest ducks must get thawed, cooked, and eaten first.

In Washington, D.C., gun control has all but stalled out in the U.S. Senate, forcing President Joe Biden to announce several executive orders to take action around the edges. The political calculus in the nation’s capital has changed as the blistering pace of firearm sales in 2020 hasn’t slowed down through the first quarter of 2021, including millions more first-time buyers in addition to last year’s more than 8.4 million.