California Craziness Continues

[SirRoyal]

Bill, If we make it that long you are exactly right on the future of hunting!

[CouesWhitetail]

Nosajpo:

 

Wish I were as optimistic as you, but there are only 23 million to 44 million hunters, depending upon who does the counting, and close to 313 million people in this country. And our numbers are not keeping pace with population growth.

 

With 269 million to 290 million Americans now who have not hunted and never will, we represent only about 7% to 14% of the population and are vastly outnumbered. When those percentages shrink to 3% to 7%, which is inevitable given the human propensity to procreate, hunting will be in seriously deep doo doo.

 

And, yes, law-abiding citizens will have no choice but to take it when hunting is banned by popular vote or by politicians such as those in California.

 

At first, there may be some like you who will ignore laws and continue hunting. Eventually, though, public opinion will equate killing a wild animal to the murder of a human and demand penalties to reflect that thinking. A twenty years to life sentence for killing a deer would make even the most avid hunter think twice before poaching.

 

We will not lose hunting in what little is left of my lifetime, or perhaps even yours, but it is doomed as we know it.

 

Fortunately for us, it will happen gradually, starting as it did in California, with banning the hunting of a single species, such as mountain lions, without any scientific reason to do so. Next might come bans on hunting bighorns, mountain goats, bears, pronghorn antelope or the rarer species of waterfowl.

 

Species that are widespread and numerous, such as deer and elk, will be among the last to be totally protected.

 

Trappers and houndsmen at one time thought what they do would never be seriously threatened, but just look at the laws that various western states (including Arizona) have passed in the last twenty years. More restrictions will surely come in the next twenty years.

 

As for controlling wildlife numbers, that can be done more efficiently by professional cullers (as is already being done in some places in southern Africa) but the public will demand that culling be used only when absolutely necessary and only after all efforts to transplant and sterilize animals -- or introduce predators -- have been tried and failed.

 

There will be delays caused by trying and failing, of course, and wildlife control ultimately will be done as it was done before Europeans reached this continent -- by starvation and disease or a similar crisis.

 

Bill Quimby

 

 

Very well said Bill. I think all of us that enjoy hunting need to listen and think about what he just said. This is why it drives me crazy when we divide ourselves up over issues like whether it's appropriate to use salt, trail cameras, long range shooting, archery, etc. We all need to be focused on the big picture if you want to preserve the hunting heritage we all enjoy.

[billrquimby]

"I still think hunting (in america) will not be gone, ever. I think the human race will be gone before hunting is gone. And i will hold to that. I also am becoming more involved in hunting to do my part in ensuring it is still around hundreds of years from now."

 

 

I can only hope you are right and I am wrong but, as California hunters know too well, our ability to hunt depends upon on a majority of voters and politicians continuing to allow it. Voters can be moved away from us by well-funded and well-executed public relations campaigns, and politicians go where public opinion takes them.

 

You are to be commended for introducing people to hunting.

 

Bill Quimby

[CouesBuckhunter]

first of all, on the mountain lion issue, they do not even have a clue how many cats are out there. It would have to take a mtn lion killing Arnold Schwarzenegger for them to even open their eyes on why mtn lions should be hunted.

[DesertBull]

What they won't tell you is how many lions the govt has to kill at tax payer expense.

[Snapshot]

Even if hunters only represent 7-14% of the population, I bet we own a majority percentage of the firearms. I am sure the anti gun and hunting groups got that figured out. Get rid of hunting and they can start working on the guns.

[billrquimby]

Even if hunters only represent 7-14% of the population, I bet we own a majority percentage of the firearms. I am sure the anti gun and hunting groups got that figured out. Get rid of hunting and they can start working on the guns.

 

In my experience, we have two different types of enemies. Those who want to ban guns and those who want to eliminate hunting are seldom the same people. There may be some crossover, but I would think it is minimal.

 

I worry more about losing our hunting privileges than I do about my right to possess a firearm. There is no Second Amendment for hunting.

 

Bill Quimby

[rvrrat]

The CA DFG actually posts the depredation permits stats for mountain lions. The last update was back in 2009 they issued 93 permits and killed 42 lions.Easy to find by googling it. Unfortunately it would take another vote by the State to change the regs. regardless of what the biologists say. Crazy.