Hunting Sense

Hunters tend to be very vocal in their opposition against gun control. More often than not, this paints them in a bad light to the general public. While there are plenty of radicals out there, many hunters have sound and logical reasoning for their views on the issue.

While I’m not able to speak for all hunters, I do feel my views on it are fairly common ones throughout the hunting community. No matter, though, they may give people a little insight into what I feel is a reasonable stance on gun control. At the very least, it could provide some food for thought.

Gun control itself isn’t a bad thing. It’s when it’s carried to an extreme that it becomes an issue with me. There are plenty of good laws already on the books that would do a good job of gun control if they were enforced, or if they were even enforceable for the people they need to target. Many of the new proposals and laws currently target law-abiding gun owners, not the criminal elements they should be.

The old saying that “when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns�? is truer than what most people want to admit. A large percentage of weapons used in crimes that fuel the fire for gun control aren’t obtained legally. Laws will have no affect on the existence and availability of such weapons.

This is something I, as a hunter, am very well aware of. It’s something I believe many hunters are very well aware of. Further gun control will only result in hunters and other law-abiding gun owners not being able to own their firearms. It will do nothing to reduce the criminal activity.

And yes, I know that it is hard to rationalize the outcry against automatic weapons and other such gun control proposals. For me, it is the radicals that feel that such weapons need to be in the hands of the everyday person that give the rest of us a bad name. But there is the very real truth that once one step is taken, it is much easier to target even more areas, which might then slip in a measure that affects hunters and their weapons later on.

This is a very controversial subject, one that could result in plenty of flaming from both sides. I’d like to see a discussion on it though, where both restrain from such comments and actually discuss the issue reasonably and logically. If you can do that, I would love to hear you thoughts on it.

hunting, legislation, guns, gun control, politics, issues, debate