FIRST AND ONLY ON NEWWEST.NET

If you've been following the Cooper Firearms story (202 comments so far), you might be wondering who was telling the truth. Did Cabela's and Sportsman's Warehouse cancel orders following the controversy, as I originally reported--or not, as the representatives of the mega-retailers claim.

Well, I finally tracked down Dan Cooper this morning, and we had a little chat--and the answer is: Everybody is telling the truth. 

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NO CANCELED ORDERS

My special Wild Bill column on Monday covered the statements and campaign contributions made Dan Cooper, president and co-founder of Cooper Firearms in support of President-elect Barack Obama. As his statements caused a firestorm of criticism from his customers on gun websites and blogs, Cooper resigned from the company and said he was worried about the future of his company because two of his biggest retail accounts, Cabela's and Sportsman's Warehouse, had canceled their orders.

Which turned out to not be true. 

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PERFECT PLACE FOR BLUE TIDE TO QUICKLY MAKE ITS MARK

On January 5, 2001, with George W. Bush's moving van parked at the back door of the White House, President Bill Clinton signed his now-infamous Roadless Rule. With a stroke of his pen and without the approval of Congress, Clinton protected almost one-third of our national forests, 58.5 million acres, from road building.

The incoming Bush administration immediately reversed the rule, but a judge rapidly reversed the reversal. Ever since, the Roadless Rule has been a tennis ball, back and forth, on and off, mired in a ridiculous succession of administrative rules and court cases, making it hard to decide who's ahead in the game. As I write this, to emphasize the folly, two judges have made opposing rulings, one spiking the Roadless Rule, one re-affirming its validity.

So I say, let's end the tennis match and make the Roadless Rule the law of the land. 

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FIRST AND ONLY ON NEWWEST.NET

Anybody who has been following the cyber-firestorm over pro-Obama statements and campaign contributions made by Dan Cooper, president and co-founder of Cooper Firearms of Stevensville, Montana, knows that as part of the collateral damage, life has gotten hectic at Sportsman's Warehouse.

After the story broke on October 28 in USA TODAY and became the subject of my column on NewWest.Net five days later, gun owners angry with Cooper besieged Sportsman's Warehouse's 66 superstores and corporate headquarters with threats of a boycott if the company didn't stop selling Cooper's products. Then, gun owners angry with gun rights activists calling for the boycott went into those same stores threatening their own boycott if America's Premier Outfitter didn't continue selling Cooper products.

You got to feel for Sportsman's Warehouse, obviously caught in the middle of a controversy they didn't create, so I called CEO Stuart Utgaard. He was anxious to clear it up for us. 

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Before I launch once more into the endless mountain biker vs. hiker controversy, I want to reaffirm that I'm still not a mountain biker. I commute around town on paved streets on my mountain bike, but it has never been on a trail.

Even though you could say I don't have a dog in the fight, I have to ask, why do we have so much heartburn over the proposed rule to allow mountain biking on more trails in our national parks? Is this really worth the stress it creates? 

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LEAGUE OF AMERICAN BICYCLISTS TAKES THE LEAD

What makes a state bicycle friendly? That's a question just taken up in earnest by a Beltway-based bicycle advocacy group called the League of American Bicyclists.

In August, the League issued its first annual "Ranking of Bicycle Friendly States." Out here in the New West, Washington won the sweepstakes, named the most bicycle friendly state of them all, followed closely by Oregon in fourth place. After that, it doesn't look nearly as friendly--Utah (11), Wyoming (18), Colorado (22), Idaho (37) and the worst of the region, my state, Montana (44). Ouch!

So, I had to ask why? 

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