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Georgia Lets Tweens Hunt Unsupervised
Filed under: Opinions
America is a country that likes its guns, and in many rural and suburban areas this is prime hunting season. Some are asking when -- and if -- it is permissible to take the kids with you when you don your camouflage and hang out in the duck blind.The state of Georgia doesn't require hunters under the age of 16 to be licensed, but it does require unlicensed minors to hunt with an adult. However, kids between the ages of 12 and 15 can legally hunt without supervision if they complete a hunter education course. And hey, if you're short on time, you can take the class online.
Huh? What? Let me get this straight -- you're going to give a 13-year-old a shotgun and let them go into the woods ALL BY THEMSELVES? After they take a class on the Internet?
Look at this objectively -- even if you are in favor of hunting, you have to question the wisdom of letting tweens and teens hunt alone. These are people who aren't allowed to vote or drink alcohol. Heck, they aren't even eligible for the draft. Which, by the way, would give them a gun. After they turn 18.
My dad went through a "mountain man" phase when I was about 9 years old, hunting pheasant with a buddy in the Allegheny mountains. He even tried to get us to eat it, after telling us it "tastes like chicken."
It did not taste like chicken.
My point is that I'm no stranger to shotguns in the house, and even though hunting isn't my cup of tea, I don't care if you want to sit outside all day and shoot at ducks. Good for you. But to let a kid who can't even drive a car use a gun? Without supervision? That seems like asking for trouble.
What do you think?
| Yes, they'll pry the gun from their cold, dead hands | |
|---|---|
| Are you crazy? That's a recipe for disaster! | |
| It depends on the kid |
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ReaderComments (Page 2 of 2)
11-19-2008 @ 5:53PM
michaelahood said...If you had ever seen how commercial livestock is killed for you to eat, you would be singing a different song lady. Talk about helpless!!
11-18-2008 @ 9:31PM
Sporkowitz448 said...Are you serious, you liberal hippie. You're delusional, seriously. Guns aren't violent, people are violent. Guns kill people the same way a spoon made Rosie O'donnel fat. Hunting is a hell of a lot more humane than the slaughter houses where McDonalds and the like get their meats. A hunter taught properly knows to only go for the kill if it's a clean shot that will kill the animal right away. All the hunters I know also go by the rule, "eat and use what you kill". So you tell me which is more humane, a quick bullet to the head where an animal dies on the spot, who has had an awesome life running around the woods or a cow who has been cramped in tiny living conditions with THOUSANDS of others, then is hit in the head with a mallet, then having it's throat slit (while still conscious often) and left to die? Also, if we don't hunt deer and similar animals their population would surge out of control as deer have no real natural predators in most states, any more.
11-18-2008 @ 9:12PM
Mark said...Great, we've made a hoplophobe sad and sick to her stomach.
Our work here is done...
11-18-2008 @ 9:25PM
mike hylton said...Betty your a idiot, you want to be up to your neck in deer geese or ducks, they dont practice birth control, or did you not know that they will overpopulate their territory till famon or diease kills them thats better in your world, me, let me kill them they are a stupid animal put here for human use
11-18-2008 @ 9:41PM
Eddie said...Guns can't take a life with out a humans input. If we were to get rid of all guns tommorrow...tommorrow night there will be a mutlitude of deaths by cars, knives, tossed off of buildings, and a beating with bare hands.PEOPLE KILL that is our nature we have been killing ourselves for hundreds of thousands of years and guns have only existed for a couple hundred or less. You rarely hear of violent gun deaths in rural areas that livewith and use weapons as part of their lifestyles. You mostly hear about it in large urban areas where the children grow up with little or no respect for ANY authority figures (and actually race has nothing to do with the respect levels) so how could they ever have respect for an object with no respect for fellow human beings? The ostrich head in the sand mentality is one of the worst causes in my mind. Oh my Johnny didn't know what he was doing, it wasn't hisfault he killed his friend, it was the person that gave him the gun...which leads to him beating his girlfriend half to death and someone will say well it'snot his fault he beat her she shouldn't have hit her face with his hands while he's drunk and all doped up on crack!
11-18-2008 @ 9:55PM
scott said...betty.
unfortunatly i feel very different than you, in ways. first off i hunt all season. i kill, butcher, freeze, and feed 4 houses of family with this kill. 2 of the four families, can hunt
11-18-2008 @ 8:47PM
MANNY said...So what we are saying here is that giving a 12-year-old a gun and letting them shoot it off is safer than giving said 12-year-old Grand Theft Auto? Wow. I was playing GTA since I was 11, and am now 17. I have yet to hit a woman, bust a cop, kill a person for unpaid drug money, purchased a prostitute, or car jack. I have no intentions of doing so either. I believe that violent video games don't make kids killers, I believe that parents who give their kids Pozac and don't spend time with them makes kids killers.
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11-18-2008 @ 8:59PM
Grady J. Deaton, Ph.D. said...My parents owned about 850 acres in east Texas, mostly heavily forested and bordering the Davy Crockett National Forest. There was some danger from wildlife (snakes and such) and greater danger from humans (poachers, pot growers, and such). As tweens and early teens we were not allowed to go exploring in the woods without a shotgun, although we had to wait until the age of 16 to use a rifle without an adult around. Gun control was the watchword of our family: i.e., use both hands and hit what you aim at.
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11-18-2008 @ 9:07PM
Mark said...Amen Grady, Amen!
Gun control means hitting what you're aiming at!
11-18-2008 @ 9:04PM
Cindy lou who said...I wish I had a hunter in the family. The $52.00 a case (24 cans)
ZD Perscription Diet cat food is outrageously expensive. If we had a hunter in the family the cat would be eating venison and duck.
Reply
11-18-2008 @ 9:09PM
Dave said...I was brought up on a farm between 1951 and 1969. taught to shoot rifle and shotgun starting when I was 8 years old. Recieve my first rifle at 12 and started hunting alone about the same time. Most of my friends did the samething. I find it interesting that at a time when we were taught how to use and given guns of our own, I do not recall any shootings in the High Schools.
Something to think about.
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11-18-2008 @ 9:31PM
lloyd said...I am 45, male, southern, when I grew up every kid had a gun, shotgun, etc.
it was something you did on the weekends hunting squirrel, target shooting, etc
isnt it interesting that now days everybody is wanting to ban guns,hunting, and none of the kids have guns, and there are more shootings then ever ?
I say raise the kid up to be a man, and he will follow you into adulthood.
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12-03-2008 @ 4:39PM
linjaynes said...I live in the N.W. & just recently a kid ,16 shot & killed a woman in Wa/State ,as she bent over to fix her shoe. He thought she was a bear ,this shot was taken directly toward's a walking trail ,well traveled everyday by hiker's & bicylist's. Point is this ,an experienced hunter/older marksman , would have known never to fire his weapon any where near a public walking trail & mistaking a woman with a back pack on for a bear,tell's me the kid just reacted to fast,& without the caution & wisdom needed to be allowed use of a gun. Kid's been hunting for year's ,but i believe no one especially one under 18 should hunt alone,it's not safe for them & or the public.
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11-18-2008 @ 9:42PM
Roland said...Hunting is done for a reason. If you don't know why, check with your Dept. of fish and game, they will tell you. A firearm is just a tool. Young people should learn at an early age.
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11-18-2008 @ 9:59PM
Uncle said...The urbanites keep dumping down our kids. Shooting is a sport of personal discipline. These kids are taught a respect for force and ethical use of force. Just like kids taking karate class, but more so.
We are becoming a more feral nation, because we chose not to teach these disciplines to children. Firearms usage has been a traditional right of passage requiring maturity by *function* rather than age. If you could not show dad you could not handle a gun you sure were not going to get the car keys at 16 and handle an even bigger lethal item. The writer seems to have the relation ship backwords.
I think you will find the kids hunting are more mature for thier age than the writer of this article. When we taught firearms usage in schools we had less violence rather than more. We also had leaders who could make better choices because of the ethics they learned at the same time. The same age group that is now being questioned fought in the American Revolution and the American Civil War (Leading to the draft being resticted to age 16 and above). They were also reading and writing at a higher level (check out thier textbooks). Do not under estimate what kids can learn and take responceablity for based upon thier peers wasted efforts.
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11-18-2008 @ 10:09PM
huggybear said...After years of hunting with my father and uncles,and being taught safety afield my cousins and I were hunting alone by the time we were between 13 or 15 yrs.old .We were taught to respect fire arms ,nature and every one else around,Yes we eat our game we harvest and gladly so .
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11-19-2008 @ 12:49AM
Pixiemom99 said...Um....wait a second. In the not-so-distant past, kids were allowed to hunt by themselves...if not expected to hunt by themselves and contribute to the family with whatever they may have shot for dinner....Kids have been shooting shotguns and rifles for a long long time throughout history....and now you people are afraid to let your kids play with BB guns! You don't give your children enough credit.
If there are to be guns in the house, children need to be taught as early as possible about gun safety. They really need to see and understand how powerful a gun is....so they KNOW it's not a toy and don't end up having an accident. My father had me shooting a 9mm pistol almost as soon as I could hold one....I was probably 5 or 6.....and yes, I'm a girl. I was shooting shotguns and rifles at 10. By the time I was 12-15 I have no doubt I could have went hunting alone and would have been fully capable of understanding the safety measures that go into it. Hunting also teaches a person to respect life....and understand death....two things that kids are all to desensitized to through the media and video games.
Bottom line, the person who wrote this article has probably never even fired a gun and is obviously scared of them. Maybe she shouldn't share her opinions on a subject she truly doesn't understand.
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11-19-2008 @ 3:39PM
queenoqueens said...Just crossed Georgie off the list of places to live.
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11-22-2008 @ 10:20PM
jesse said...guess what queen we wont miss you one little bit we have enough of yall liberal bleeding heart hippies allready
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11-23-2008 @ 4:51PM
Robk said...As one of Georgia's Hunter Safety Education Instructors I can guarantee you that it's not that simple as to just take the course online. The online portion is just the pre-study material required by all students of the class. Those same 12 year olds have to pass a total of 40 hours class and pre-study time and a comprehensive exam. There is no open book nor is assistance allowed.
My daughters are 6 and 8 years of age and are probably safer around firearms than most adults. Not to mention the fact they understand more about wildlife than most adults.
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