Whether all this is proportional or not, given the punishments we mete out nowadays for such things as armed robbery, is beside the point. What needs to be driven home here is the danger to guides and clients alike when local game laws are violated by clients, who later ship trophies across state or international boundaries. It is the shipment of an illegally-taken trophy across state and international boundaries that triggers provisions of the Lacy Act and allows the feds to get involved. The Lacy Act can be triggered by shipping an illegally-taken trophy home from Russia as surely as it can be triggered by shipping a trophy taken illegally in Alaska from Anchorage to Chicago. All that's required is for the feds to gain proof that a local violation occurred and that the resultant trophy crossed state or international boundaries. In sum - if you travel to hunt, keep the Lacy Act in mind. It can absolutely ruin you to be convicted of a felony. Felons, among other things, can't possess a firearm, or even be in the same household with one.
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