Deer Hunting Blues

While Joel McNally’s views on deer hunting are as god awful as the rest of his lefty ranting and raving, he does make one point: The number of kids interested in hunting is declining (“The Dying Deer Hunt,” Nov. 29). My son is about to turn 15 and has “no interest” in taking his hunter-safety classes. He went with me into the woods this year on opening day, and fell asleep in the deer stand next to me by 7:15 a.m. By 9 a.m., he was out of his stand making enough noise to ensure that I would never see a deer. He is part of the video game generation, where a deer can be killed in a game every three seconds. Why wait for hours in the cold to even see one? Personally, I think that if hunting is to flourish in this state, hunters need to consider having their lawmakers revisit the hunter-safety-class issue. For example, while my son, at age 15, may not care to hunt, he may at age 25. But will he want to sit in class with 12- year-old kids to obtain his hunter-safety certificate? I don’t think so. At a certain age, maturity kind of kicks in and people become responsible adults. I would waive the hunter-safety classes for persons 25 and older. In fact, I didn’t know this until this year, but persons in law enforcement who do not have a hunter’s safety certificate and were born after 1972 are not eligible to gun hunt in this state. These people handle guns all the time and are trained to use deadly force, but cannot hunt absent the classes. The state Legislature needs to rethink some of these rules or, as sad as it sounds, McNally may be right that the number of hunters will continue to ebb. That being said, deer hunting is a great institution in this state. If McNally would care to venture out of his favorite pub or cafe, if nothing else he would enjoy the fresh air.