General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Ryan outfits 10 yr old daughter with deer-hunting gear (gave her rifle as gift at age 9) [View all]kwolf68
(7,365 posts)I grew up hunting and around guns. I actually enjoyed the guns, but I hated killing shit. The real thing is I believe you become desensitized to it as a young kid, but I believe the first kill isn't good. What is good is after you kill your first deer (or whatever), a proud pappa comes running up boasting about manhood and all that shit.
Well, I killed my first animals by myself. I was alone hunting in our woods. I killed a couple birds and a squirrel on various days. Just me, myself, my gun and a dead animal. I hated it. I didn't get it. On subsequent hunts with my dad I painfully took down several animals of different ilk before my aim got less and less.
Eventually I'd quit. I hate to hunt and can't stand to bring death to a being, but that's my personal feelings.
Someone who does hunt is still just as good as me. I have a friend who hunts. His family is not well off. He's basically a handyman and helps feed his family by hunting. How can I argue with that? If he doesn't take a few deer every year, the hood of someone's car will. Basically, for me hunting is a personal choice. For me, I don't want to do it, but for someone else they may want (or need) to and I respect that.
That said, I wish hunting seasons were created with population control in mind as opposed to hunting opportunities. Hunting policies are almost always grounded in bad science so as to kowtow to the number of trophy opportunities and the sports hunting industry. I also hate unfair advantage and canned hunting is a barbaric practice. Yes, the way we manage populations via hunting is a pathetic joke at times, but that's not the hunter's fault.