On the way up to the mountains to ski some of the seven plus feet of snow which fell during the past week, I passed a car with a bumper sticker that read: “The Animals Support Gun Control.” That brings up an issue you almost never hear about, ironically enough, after someone brings a hunting rifle to school and tries to peck off every kid or teacher they can get a bead on.
Oh, you hear about gun control, that’s a given, but almost never in the context of how they’re used against non-human animals—for sport or savagery—in contest kills, often geared especially for young people, as if to tempt the next mass-murderer out of hiding and onto the playground for some real fun and games.
You can’t expect grade-schoolers to understand the subtle difference between a sacred human life and those of other animals they’ve been trained to kill—before they could even develop a conscience—by their proud parents, who use their kids’ eagerness to please and to play follow the leader against them, in hopes of recruiting a life-time hunting partner.
The disturbing trend among states to lower the legal hunting age, practically to infancy, suggests the word “Columbine” evokes only the image of a pretty flower to them. Meanwhile, hunters in states like Idaho are actively luring young children to try their luck in coyote or wolf killing derbies to further degrade the value of life that movies and video games have already taught them to disregard a thousand times over. The town of Holley, New York, just held another appalling example of state-sanctioned sadism in the form of an animal-kill contest they dubbed the “squirrel slam.” “Sporting” events like the so-called “squirrel slam” are an embarrassment that only adds to the global perception that this is an inherently violent country.
Not to be outdone, the Oklahoma “game” department just announced that the senior class of Sasakwa High is sponsoring a crow-killing contest, set for the end of this month—complete with prize money for whoever murders the most crows. It’s a spectacle sure to inspire the next killer-in-waiting to turn their semi-automatic on their fellow classmates.
These kinds of hunting events beg the obvious question: how can kids be expected to know the difference between officially sanctioned animal cruelty and acts of cruelty they come up with on their own?
So if you feel your Second Amendment rights are withering away at the mere mention of gun control, relax that death-grip on your rifle for a moment and consider what the animals would have to say about the issue, if only we allowed them a voice.
Exposing the Big Game 
great post!
Thanks
Just the words they use are so bad and disrespectful to life – “slam” and “bash”. Yeah, we’re highly evolved, aren’t we, and damn proud of it. Why would anybody encourage high schoolers to kill crows?
To kill for the sake of killing is a totally wrong message to send to little children. How can they have empathy for others if killing is encouraged and rewarded. All species have feelings of pain and fear and children should be taught this as I taught my children to have empathy for others.
As societies tend to get the criminals they deserve, why should anyone living in America be surprised by the latest trend toward more and bloodier school shootings? Simply a matter of the chickens coming home to roost as far as I can see.
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As a gun owner, I understand the responsibilities required to own it. I am not a hunter, but I’m not opposed to hunting if you are doing it for food and not trophies.
These events are appalling. Yes, it glorifies shooting innocent animals for no reason and desensitizes a younger generation to violence that’s hidden within a game. Horrible.
I too am a responsible gun owner, but I hate the fact that guns are so often used against wildlife. Most “food” hunters kill mostly for sport, but just happen to eat their kills too. And they don’t throw out the antlers; If they kill a buck, ram or bull, they definitely keep their “trophies.” In a world of 7 billion, killing wildlife for “food” becomes less and less of a sustainable motive for murder.
I’m sorry but I disagree, not all hunters are sport hunters, please don’t stereotype. And what is the difference between a deer being hunted in the wild for food and a cow being slaughtered in captivity for food?
We also cull deer in this part of the nation to help prevent the public from having car accidents and also to help the deer from starving from overpopulation. HUMANS will always win for space.
I agree that the silliness of children shooting squirrels for a contest is ridiculous and needs to be stopped. However, hunting for food procurement should not.
I’m sorry, but if the shoe fits, they can wear it. A fact is not the same as a stereotype. As Beth stated: “we don’t need to eat animals or their secretions to live happy and healthy lives. so when we choose to do so, we are saying that our taste preferences are more important than their lives. (http://www.eatright.org/About/Content.aspx?id=8357) – whether we are hunting them and slaughtering them. this is why I am vegan.”
Since we don’t need to eat meat to survive, it’s ALL sport hunting. Beth also covered (including links) the issues of “population control” (which humans rarely think to use on themselves) and auto collisions: “also, killing deer to control population doesn’t work. deer will regulate their population based on food and water supply. when deer are “managed” by killing them, they increase in numbers to make up for their loss. there are nonlethal means to preventing car collisions.(http://www.wolfepackpress.org/PDF/Responding2Pro-HuntArgs.pdf). There are other nonlethal ways of preventing car collisions (http://ideas.time.com/2013/11/27/hunting-isnt-the-answer-to-animal-pests/).”
I would add that humans don’t need to drive so damn fast everywhere. What other animal claims not only the land they want for a dwelling but also much of the land in between so they can travel like bats out of Hell to get wherever they think they need to go. Driving 70mph isn’t safe for anyone, and a lot of collisions happen just because people are always in such a hurry. It may seem, in this short life span, that our “way of life” is here to stay, but sorry to say, this world we’ve created is headed for a crash of it’s own doing. We’re on an out of control high speed locomotive heading straight for a brick wall.
If you don’t see this, maybe you’re following the wrong blog. Please see the “About” page before you defend hunting any further. To quote a good friend, I don’t have time in my life for people who still don’t get it.
Exactly, you don’t get it.
Nope.
we don’t need to eat animals or their secretions to live happy and healthy lives. so when we choose to do so, we are saying that our taste preferences are more important than their lives. (http://www.eatright.org/About/Content.aspx?id=8357) – whether we are hunting them and slaughtering them. this is why I am vegan.
also, killing deer to control population doesn’t work. deer will regulate their population based on food and water supply. when deer are “managed” by killing them, they increase in numbers to make up for their loss. there are nonlethal means to preventing car collisions.(http://www.wolfepackpress.org/PDF/Responding2Pro-HuntArgs.pdf). There are other nonlethal ways of preventing car collisions (http://ideas.time.com/2013/11/27/hunting-isnt-the-answer-to-animal-pests/).
Thank you for these right-on statements, starting with the first 2 sentences. And thanks for the important links.