Back in December of 2012, while America was reeling in shock over the senseless shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School and mourning those lost in a volley of peacetime machine gun fire, I asked the question, “Who the Hell Hunts With a Machine Gun Anyway?” While the papers were rehashing the same questions they pose whenever a mass killing makes the news: “Why did this happen?” and “How can we prevent this kind of thing in the future?,” we did not hear any mention in the mainstream media of the leading role that sport hunting plays in promoting guns and perpetuating violence.
So, who the hell hunts with a machine gun? The shocking answer is, more people than ever before. Okay, for you hair splitters out there, assault rifles are not technically considered machine guns because you have to hit the hair-trigger with each shot—but they still send out bullets at a damn high rate. The .223 semi-automatic for example (the rifle used by school shooter, Adam Lanza, and the D.C. Beltway snipers, John Mohammad and John Malvo, can fire 6 rounds per second. But what makes it so deadly is the way the bullet reacts on impact: it’s designed to bounce around inside the body once it makes contact with bone.
Why is such a lethal attack rifle legal for non-military civilians to own? According to the manufacturer, they are intended to be used for hunting animals. As the NRA well knows, hunting has been used to justify the private ownership of some of the most destructive weapons ever invented.
Assault rifles are not big on accuracy—their sole purpose is to send out a rapid-fire hail of bullets in the general direction of whatever they’re pointed at. Those who mass murder coyotes seem to feel entitled to the deadliest of armaments they can
Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved
get their hands on. A recent “contest hunt” offered up a free shotgun or a pair of semi-automatic rifles to whoever murdered the most canines. The terms of the competition were simple: hunters in New Mexico had two days to shoot and kill as many coyotes as they could; the winner got their choice of a Browning Maxus 12-gauge shotgun or two AR-15 semi-automatic rifles. (The AR-15 is the civilian version of the military’s M16 that has been in production since Vietnam.) “Nothing’s gonna stop me,” said Mark Chavez, the hunt’s sponsor, and the owner of Gunhawk Firearms “This is my right to hunt and we’re not breaking any laws.”
Bushmaster describes their .223 as a “Varmint Rifle.” Oh really? That shines new light on what some of these politicians really mean when they say they only hunt “varmints.” I’ve never been an invited guest at George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford Texas; therefore I can only guess that this is the type of weapon the self-proclaimed “varmint” hunter uses when he goes up against a family of scary ground squirrels, marmots or a town of talkative prairie dogs.
Larger caliber Bushmaster models are categorized, ominously, as “Predator Rifles.”
Why are more and more people using military style weapons for hunting lately? I don’t know offhand, but I have a theory. If someone were to look into it, I’d bet they’d find a marked increase in assault rifles since Barack Obama was elected president. Not only are people trying to get themselves a semi-automatic or two before a feared government ban on assault weapons, but at the same time, they see wolves as a symbol of the government they fear and loath.
Now that the federal government has handed wolf “management” over to hostile states, we’re seeing a war on wolves, with AR 15s, .223 “Bushmasters” and the like being the new weapons of choice.
Exposing the Big Game 
Everyone knows that guns are just compensation for evil bastard hunters.
I think they want to use the same ammo as the government because in theory, they can win some crazy civil war by capturing the government’s ammo and using it? I don’t know? I do know we owe other countries too much money to start squabbling among ourselves. I feel horrible these jackasses are taking out their anger on innocent animals,
Maybe you should read the “About section of this blog. This is no place for you to spew your pro hunting agenda, there are many other places to do so.
Now if you were logically consistent in your statement of: “And you ought to be damn glad hunters kill deer every year. Because if they didn’t then they would overgrow their range and a lot of them would starve to death and/or die from disease.” you would be inclined to put the same regard to the human species that requires more resources than those evil deer. Whats even worse is your cultural elite views to native americans, like they are any better or more deserving. You view stavation as a wrong and unatural part of the animal world. Hunters always use the excuse that deer are going to starve to death during the winter as if starvation wasn’t a natural process and nature’s way of controlling populations and the ecosystem’s way of working. Starving deer provides food for scavenger animals and is nature’s way of weeding out sickly animals.
Thanks Dywane, speaking of “weeding out…” I need to do some here on this blog. A lot of hunting advocates have made their way here in response to the news of the dog shot by the wolf hunter. You can usually tell their attitude right off, but others start off by apologizing to the dog’s guardian, then, much later in their comment, their real agenda–defending hunting–comes to the surface. Once their first comment is approved, they think they can say anything they want and it will be approved. If they read the About page, they’d know that not to waste their time on a comment that ends up in the trash.
LWK – Personally, I have no issue with hunters who do so for sustenance. However, most of what the post is addressing are sports hunters, a totally different proposition.
Not really, there’s a lot of grey area there. Most sport hunters claim they do it for subsistence.
Sadly, you are spot on in your theory. I knew someone who worked in the gun department of Dick’s Sporting Goods. The first time Obama was elected there was a major surge in gun sales–in fact, that department where my acquaintance worked actually sold out. There was another major surge in gun sales when Obama was re-elected. I despair at the society we live in.
Ego trip is all. It is really just a semi-automatic look alike. Semi’s are allowed in hunting, only fire as often as one can pull the trigger. Self-image, self-esteem building Elmer Fudd Nimrod, like so many out there in the blood sport of wildlife killing. I talked to one in the gym yesterday, typical misinformed canis lupophobe saying that all wolves should be killed.
Amazing how many ignorant caniphobes are out there. One things for sure about the hunting weapons being used these days, they can pull the trigger a lot faster than they can aim. When I hear elk and deer hunters firing off 3 or 4 rounds in a second or two it’s clear they’re just blindly shooting, hoping something falls that they can take home; otherwise, oh well–they don’t seem to care about who they injure.
Since you bring up the subject of canid killing competitions like that sponsored by Gunhawk Firearms in New Mexico, let me share an outline of the chapter I’ve been working on for my strictly fictional novel about a group of animal rights activists not content to let evil activities go unpunished. The chapter is called “Operation Kropotkin” and it involves a chain of “sporting goods” stores that have been sponsoring just such killing contests. The activists decide an appropriate response would be to burn one of the stores to the ground and they manage to do it with some crude incendiary devices. But even though they publicly take credit for the act and issue a demand that all such killing contests be stopped, the parent company, GanderDick, refuses to take the warning seriously and continues to sponsor the contests. So, our brave band of warriors targets another one of their stores. This time, however, the store manager races into the burning building to try and save the cash box only to be badly burned. This, of course, gets the immediate attention of the national media which roundly condemns such “terroristic acts” and solemnly avers that “nothing is gained by violence.” Even Rachel Madow stops talking about gay marriage long enough to condemn such acts that “have no place in a democratic society.” But, at least, everybody is now talking about the morality of such killing contests. And GanderDick’s insurance underwriter informs the company that it will have to raise its insurance premiums to cover present and possible future losses due to arson. So, GanderDick’s Board of Directors decides that it is just not profitable to continue sponsoring the killing contests and discontinues any further participation. And Operation Kropotkin thus succeeds where years of handwringing and impassioned letters-to-the-editor have failed, proving the eternal wisdom of the operation’s namesake: “One audacious act gains more followers than a thousand books which if not translated into action become nothing more than collectors of dust.”
What do ya think?
Sounds like the next Monkey Wrench Gang in the making. “GanderDick” could be an insult to geese though.
You nailed it Jim. My father, a former Korean War Veteran said the same thing, “How come no one is talking about the fact that these weapons are so easily obtainable?”
And I hate that expression: “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” Well, in the words of Eddie Izzard, “I think the gun helped!”
http://vimeo.com/74018224
Good quote!
Many many wildlife killing contests! Here in NM we have had at least 17 killing contests in the last year. In my own town, Los Lunas, four contests have been sponsored including three by the gun shop owner you reference. One of these contests targeted prairie dogs and yes, they do use AR-15 type weapons to kill prairie dogs too. The contests can happen anytime, anywhere, and with no regulation (in some cases, not even a hunting license). No state agency is monitoring these recklessly dangerous events and public safety risks. We keep asking our public land offices to ban these events or at the very least enforce their own recreational permit rules. We have sought relief from our Game and Fish Dept. and from our legislators. The killing continues unabated. These contests and commercial events are taking a real toll on our wildlife and their relationship to our eco-system. In fact in the USA, over 60 killing contests will be held over the next few months. In addition to coyotes, many animals are at risk including bobcats, mountain lions, foxes, wolves, and domestic animals which are either intentionally killed or killed because they were in the line of fire. These contests are not “fair chase” and they harm the reputations of all ethical hunters. Thank you for helping to get the word out. Sincerely, “Stop Coyote Killing Contests New Mexico” FB page.
Thank you for acting locally to try to stop contest hunts.
But Obama and many democratic lawmakers sold out the wolves, burying their de-listing in a budget bill. If wolves were protected, and if it weren’t open season on predators all year, no kinds of guns would be used as much. So if Ar-15’s are anti-government, so is the government anti-wolf. Where’s the pro-wildlife side? There isn’t one, just as there is no anti-corporatist side.
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