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My dad wanted me to share this editorial by the Ogden based newspaper, The Standard Examiner.
Here's the article, along with the image (below) that personally offends me as a sportsman. They might think the image is funny, but the suggestion that sportsmen are as irresponsible as those shown in their cartoon is highly offensive.
It takes "Guts" for a newspaper who most likely has a large readership base who hunt, to publish a cartoon that portrays us as a bunch of idiots driving around in cars with hand guns on the dash and our kids shooting from the back seat.
They attached this image to an editorial that suggests that "they" know better than we do, when "OUR" kids are responsible enough to shoot a rifle at a big game animal. They have failed to mention in their editorial that 12 year olds have been hunting with shotguns for MANY years and that under the suggested rule change a 12 to 13 year old would still be accompanied by an adult. The editorial is clearly an attempt to worry and scare those who are not complelely up-to-speed on the issue.
http://www.standard.net/live/opinion/editorials
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Hunting with children
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
"Guns aren't toys -- they're for family protection, hunting dangerous and delicious animals and keeping the king of England out of your face."
-- "The Simpsons"
That quote, delivered by the character Krusty the Clown, was played for laughs, sure, but it's also a statement of fact: Guns aren't to be taken lightly. Indeed, they are not toys.
That's why we continue to believe that House Bill 67 -- which has passed the Legislature's House of Representatives -- is a bad idea. It would lower big-game hunting's permissible age from 14 to 12. We're talking high-powered rifles, here, not BB guns.
There are a couple of reasons this measure has popped up again for the second year in a row. Foremost, Utah's Wildlife Board is concerned that the numbers of big-game hunters in the state are declining. Board members say it's because fewer younger people are taking up the family traditions of the hunt. Ten other Western states have lowered their big-game hunting ages in an attempt to encourage young people to pursue the pastime, and so Utah wildlife managers would like to do the same.
We have nothing against hunting. It's an honorable, enjoyable and family-bonding experience when done safely and responsibly. We know -- we hunted a lot in our younger days.
But we're concerned about the difference in maturity between 12-year-olds and 14-year-olds handling high-powered rifles. There is no room for error with weapons like that.
The Wildlife Board points to the other Western states' experience, and says they have not experienced higher accident rates since lowering the hunting age.
We'll take them at their word.
But we would hope they would likewise accept as true that an extra two years of maturity at age 14 makes a big difference in a child. Our society places all sorts of age restrictions on youth -- we make them wait to drive, to vote and to consume alcohol or tobacco, all because we feel society is best served by a more mature person in those circumstances.
We had to laugh, in fact, when the bill's sponsor, Rep. Curtis Oda, R-Clearfield, was quoted in a Salt Lake City newspaper arguing in favor of his proposal: He said he got his first BB gun at age 4 and killed 3,000 birds over the course of a summer. Someone should break the news to him that the story is an argument against letting younger children have guns.
As we said in this space last year, there are doubtless lots of kids out there who could handle a big-game weapon responsibly. But there are others who could not. We think there is value in having 12- and 13-year-olds hunting with their parents and observing them until age 14.
The decline of the hunting culture is upsetting. But the remedy is not to begin handing rifles to younger and younger children.
http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/User_files/45c13de30c65ccb1.jpg
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Brian Latturner
MonsterMuleys.com
Here's the article, along with the image (below) that personally offends me as a sportsman. They might think the image is funny, but the suggestion that sportsmen are as irresponsible as those shown in their cartoon is highly offensive.
It takes "Guts" for a newspaper who most likely has a large readership base who hunt, to publish a cartoon that portrays us as a bunch of idiots driving around in cars with hand guns on the dash and our kids shooting from the back seat.
They attached this image to an editorial that suggests that "they" know better than we do, when "OUR" kids are responsible enough to shoot a rifle at a big game animal. They have failed to mention in their editorial that 12 year olds have been hunting with shotguns for MANY years and that under the suggested rule change a 12 to 13 year old would still be accompanied by an adult. The editorial is clearly an attempt to worry and scare those who are not complelely up-to-speed on the issue.
http://www.standard.net/live/opinion/editorials
-------------------------------------------------------------
Hunting with children
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
"Guns aren't toys -- they're for family protection, hunting dangerous and delicious animals and keeping the king of England out of your face."
-- "The Simpsons"
That quote, delivered by the character Krusty the Clown, was played for laughs, sure, but it's also a statement of fact: Guns aren't to be taken lightly. Indeed, they are not toys.
That's why we continue to believe that House Bill 67 -- which has passed the Legislature's House of Representatives -- is a bad idea. It would lower big-game hunting's permissible age from 14 to 12. We're talking high-powered rifles, here, not BB guns.
There are a couple of reasons this measure has popped up again for the second year in a row. Foremost, Utah's Wildlife Board is concerned that the numbers of big-game hunters in the state are declining. Board members say it's because fewer younger people are taking up the family traditions of the hunt. Ten other Western states have lowered their big-game hunting ages in an attempt to encourage young people to pursue the pastime, and so Utah wildlife managers would like to do the same.
We have nothing against hunting. It's an honorable, enjoyable and family-bonding experience when done safely and responsibly. We know -- we hunted a lot in our younger days.
But we're concerned about the difference in maturity between 12-year-olds and 14-year-olds handling high-powered rifles. There is no room for error with weapons like that.
The Wildlife Board points to the other Western states' experience, and says they have not experienced higher accident rates since lowering the hunting age.
We'll take them at their word.
But we would hope they would likewise accept as true that an extra two years of maturity at age 14 makes a big difference in a child. Our society places all sorts of age restrictions on youth -- we make them wait to drive, to vote and to consume alcohol or tobacco, all because we feel society is best served by a more mature person in those circumstances.
We had to laugh, in fact, when the bill's sponsor, Rep. Curtis Oda, R-Clearfield, was quoted in a Salt Lake City newspaper arguing in favor of his proposal: He said he got his first BB gun at age 4 and killed 3,000 birds over the course of a summer. Someone should break the news to him that the story is an argument against letting younger children have guns.
As we said in this space last year, there are doubtless lots of kids out there who could handle a big-game weapon responsibly. But there are others who could not. We think there is value in having 12- and 13-year-olds hunting with their parents and observing them until age 14.
The decline of the hunting culture is upsetting. But the remedy is not to begin handing rifles to younger and younger children.
http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/User_files/45c13de30c65ccb1.jpg
-------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Latturner
MonsterMuleys.com
Somebody didn't like bouncing betty 
