I'm sitting through a 2-day hunter safety course with my 13-year old this weekend in Denver. We could have done this mostly on line, but I wanted my boy to get the full input of others on the subject, and I also wanted to gauge his response. The whole experience has really been quite positive, considering the remarkably broad mix of folks in the class. The one interesting piece of data to come out of the class was demographic information on hunting as compared to the current population in these United States. Assuming the data is accurate, hunters comprise only 5% of the current population, with rabid anti-hunters making up another 5%. A bit chilling, I thought, considering that the rest of the population is largely ambivalent and uninformed.
Actually, the percentage of the U.S population that hunts is 6% according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. That number is down from 10% in 1955. I'd have guessed the difference between then and now would be much greater considering the urbanization of America. 73% of Americans still have a positive view of hunting even though Liberal Democrats have been hard at work to demonize anything to do with guns.
The number of paid hunting license holders has been steadily increasing slightly since 2004 after an earlier slow decline. That's another pleasant surprise to me. We'll certainly be around for some time to come, but it won't last without effort on our part to ensure that lies, propaganda, and things like unnecessary lead ammunition bans don't get traction.
The most important piece of information I took away from my Hunters Ed. course, which was taken in 1985 near The Bronx, NY, was how many wackos would be out in the woods with me come opening day.
Keith,
Bravo. You are the man.
Rob,
1985? Pretty sure I took mine in 1973, and I'm 5 or 6 years younger than you.
I can show you places in central and northern MN where you wouldn't see a soul on opening day.
It ain't NY.
Lloyd,
What gun will the fruit of your loin be toting for the trip? Make it something decent, my friend.
Best,
Ted
As part of the hunter ed class that I help teach, we point out the difference between hunters and anti-hunters, encourage our kids to do the right thing, for instance not displaying animal heads prominently out of the back of a pickup truck. Sure wouldn't want to offend a snowflake.
I took my hunter safety course around 1959, and back then nobody looked sideways at a bunch of 12-year olds toting rifles into the police station. Course included live fire at the underground range, below the station. Boy, how things have changed.
Ted: My family's time there is brief. They get there Wednesday night and fly out Sunday. He has grown rather substantially these past few months and I'm not sure what will fit at the moment. He got his hunter's ed certificate today and we'll go from there.
I've had to take the course/test three times in three different states due to an itinerant life (Our wonderful "recessions"....). All were very interesting and reminded me of a lot of safety issues that need to be kept "front and center." Different kinds of people gathered to learn something useful in common. I like that.
In Wisconsin I learned about "sound shots"!
You can still spend a whole day hunting in NYS and see nobody else. Just avoid "opening days." Same in CA.