New Member of the Club Team

Hello Everyone! My name is Pöndzsi. I am a new member of the Central Texas Wildlife Legacy team. I am from Budapest, Hungary, and moved to Austin in 2018 to study and pursue the American Dream! I just finished up my degree in business administration when David offered me the position to be a marketing intern for the Club, which I am very excited about! I started going to The Range to practice my shooting and aim, which I really enjoy and I look forward to becoming more involved with the Club.

I love to live an active lifestyle, socializing and outdoor activities. My family's heritage is agricultural life in Transylvania. We always knew the importance that hunting played in controlling predators and protecting our livestock.

Looking forward to getting to know all of our Club Members on our fun events, hunting trips and parties.

Donald Trump, Jr. To Be Secretary of Interior

     Our Founder and Editor-in-Chief met with Donald Trump, Jr. for breakfast in Dallas at the Park City Club.  Don discussed specific challenges to the hunting community.  He is extremely articulate, knowledgeable, and even to a degree, charismatic.  Unknown in the popular press, he is a nationally ranked competitive shooter.  Donald Jr.  has taught all five of his kids about shooting, the outdoors and hunting.  He refuses to spend a weekend in the city with his kids and they hit the outdoors immediately at the end of the work week.  He pointed out whenever his face appears on news channels they always run a script below it: “KILLED ELEPHANTS IN AFRICA”, even though these particular elephants were raiding crops and he had legal CITES permits for the hunt. (Editorial Note:  Sure enough that night I saw Donald Jr. speaking on TV and the “Elephant Killer” banner ran.)

     As good a shot as Donald is he concedes Hillary can out shoot him because Hillary claims she shot ducks with a rifle as a kid, and he couldn’t hit a duck with a RIFLE if his life depended on it.

    More seriously he pointed to the issue of the New York Wildlife Regulation Department where 85% of the revenue comes from selling big game tags, specifically bear and deer. Yet, next year the only hunter in the entire department will retire. This disconnect between the regulators and sportsmen is institutional and endemic in state and federal governments.  One important goal of his father’s administration will be to see a future for conservationist hunters making the Regs within Fish & Wildlife to even out this crippling imbalance.

     More importantly, Donald Jr. said his father was considering him for the post of Secretary of the Interior. He is an outsider with feet on the ground experience in sustainable conservation. He has lived in the outdoors since he was a very young child spending every summer with his grandparents in the forest of Czechoslovakia where he learned woodcraft and hunting skills.  Donald Jr. has hands on entrepreneurial experience running big building projects in his own right, and a deep love and respect for wildlife, the outdoors and our legacy of hunting.  He invokes memories of another wealthy Republican New York scion that had a profound effect on conservation worldwide – Theodore Roosevelt.  As a presidential aspirant, Donald Trump relies heavily on advice from his children. Unlike many of the wealthy elite, they are all accomplished and educated. More importantly, they’re perceptive about the system and its flaws. 

     In one context Donald Jr. possibly could have been joking, in the context of the statement, I felt he was serious.  Regardless, of whether he is nominated or not; he will have input in this critical decision.  He will also, at a minimum, have direct policy input on sustainable conservation.  As Donald Trump Jr. pointed out, the very future of hunting is at stake in this election.

 - David Sefton

How the Military made a young Houstonian a Gun Enthusiast

OAEN: What is your name and rank/can you tell us a bit about your military service? Enrique Guzman, Sergeant (E-5). Traveled to various parts of the country for training, stationed at Ft. Campbell, Ky. Completed Air Assault training there (where you learn to repeal from helicopters). Deployed to Afghanistan from 2012-13. Currently retired from active duty and serving in the Army Reserves one weekend a month/ 2 weeks a summer. 

OAEN: Were you a gun owner before joining the military? No. Never knew too much about them prior to military and only shot a shotgun once and the impact made me drop it lol. It's embarrassing now thinking about considering I'm like a surgeon with a gun now lol. 

OAEN: Have your feelings about the second amendment changed since joining the military or did you already feel positive connotations towards it? Yes. Wasn't very educated on any amendments back then. I knew second amendment was about guns and that's it. Since I've researched it and learned more in my law and government classes about amendments, I'm very supportive on the right to bear arms. 

OAEN: Are you still a member of the military? Part time in the U.S. Army Reserves. Aka weekend warrior. 

OAEN: What made you decide to join the Reserves instead of re-enlisting for another tour? I was ready to come back home, but wanted to continue to serve. So the Reserves provided that option for me and is the best option for my health coverage. 

OAEN: What are your weapons and ammunition of choice? Currently own a Smith & Wesson 9mm hand gun, and an AR-15 rifle. Looking right now on getting a Glock 27 as my conceal carry because it's smaller than my 9mm, but just as impactive. 

OAEN: Do you hunt at all? I do not, but want to in the future. I would hunt to keep the meat. I believe if you're going to hunt, then it should be for a useful purpose. 

OAEN: Have you considered what you would like to hunt? When I do eventually hunt, I wanna hunt for deer and hogs first. 

OAEN: What do you feel is one of the biggest current misconceptions regarding gun ownership? That gun owners are unintelligent rednecks who have something to prove. 

OAEN: What kind of overlap is there with military servicemen and gun ownership?  If you're a service member, you don't have to have an extensive background to purchase a gun. Your current military status and background that comes with it exempts you from it and are allowed to purchase a gun on the spot. Also when you get your CHL, military personnel don't have to do the shooting qualification that comes with taking the class as long as you provide a current record of your score from the range when you go to qualify with the military annually.