Manhattan's East Side is about as urban as it gets and my friends there are not innately anti-gun or anti-hunting, it's just that those activities are so alien that they cannot comprehend them. Gun-related activities are as strange to them as a steady diet of concerts, theatre, art galleries, openings, museums is to my rural neighbors. My rural neighbors are not oafs and my NY friends are not snobs - they are in two different worlds.
And these worlds are farther apart than ever. When I was young, my father's business friends hunted and fished the Maine Woods and the Adirondacks. That was quite common then - their counterparts today no longer do it.
I find that once their surprise is gotten over (often accompanied by nervous laughter) urbanites are receptive to rational discussion of the subject. It's worth the effort.
Hunting and shooting will survive for a very long time, it'll just keep getting more expensive and more difficult to do.
Gnomon, as someone who has spent 30 years of my adult life living in central Toronto and central Winnipeg, I couldn't agree more with your description of the divide of experience. Like you, I have many friends who, while not being opposed to our activities, are stunned to find out they know someone who engages in them. And for the most part they are curious and interested in a rational discussion.
I don't share King's negative long term view. I am more in line with your outlook.
The problem I have is with the group who, on this subject and many others, are determined to impose their values on the rest of us, by force if necessary. In Canada, despite King's suggestion that the media is simply reflecting the attitudes of the 99%, with intimate social knowledge ( they are long time friends) of some of the people who run our state owned national TV and radio network, the CBC, I know there is a definite sense by the people who produce the news that the larger population needs to be guided in the way they view certain subjects. And the guidence is in the direction of the liberal left.
Opposing viewpoints are considered and regularly decried as "American influenced" or indicative of being a "Western redneck". These terms are commonplace in discussions among the elites and in written commentary. We must respect for example gays and transgendered who choose to live an alternative lifestyle but it is completely okay to slam rural, western or those with "American" sensibilities.
The choice of what to report, the commentary that follows and general stance of the media does influence the attitudes and beliefs of those watching. We have seen it happen in North America over the last 40 or 50 years and I would suggest that believing otherwise is somewhat naive.
