Knimrod
07-07-2006, 12:42 AM
Keep gun-safety course requirements for our youngest hunters
July 06, 2006
The Bay City Times
There's a notion that interest in the sport of hunting is on a decline in Michigan, especially among our young people.
Hunting license sales are dropping by about 1-2 percent every year, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.
And that's bad for Michigan because the state is losing revenue from those sales, money that typically funnels into wildlife management programs.
A problem, perhaps.
Some of our state lawmakers seem to think the solution is letting preteens carry shotguns without taking a hunter safety course first. Having to go through the training, they say, is a turnoff to potential young hunters.
Eh, let's shoot for a better solution.
House Bill 5192, already on the governor's desk, would lower the hunting age to let children hunt small game at 10 and big game at 12, after taking a gun-safety course.
Under Senate Bill 1105, the same minors could purchase a hunting ''apprentice'' license and go shoot with an adult without taking a gun-safety course first.
At first blush, this might sound like a good idea, but bypassing gun-safety courses, especially for those so young, is a bad idea.
A typical course might take three to five days.
If that's too much to ask, maybe the impatient hunter shouldn't have his itchy finger on a gun trigger.
Hunting has a long tradition in Michigan and it'll stay that way without canning gun-safety courses.
True, fewer young hunters today could mean fewer adult hunters in the future, and that could mean fewer dollars for the state.
But safety comes first.
The fact remains, the state currently experiences a small handful of reported hunting accidents each year, considering the thousands who are out hunting. That's a proud credit to the safety courses already in place.
Forgoing that training would be a mistake.
Maturity varies among preteens, but at least a course might teach them some safe hunting practices, and not, maybe, Uncle Joe's bad habit of not unloading his gun before climbing over a fence.
Put the class requirement in, then let responsible, supervised 10-year-olds hunt.
Link to article (http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-1/115219897647570.xml&coll=4)
July 06, 2006
The Bay City Times
There's a notion that interest in the sport of hunting is on a decline in Michigan, especially among our young people.
Hunting license sales are dropping by about 1-2 percent every year, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.
And that's bad for Michigan because the state is losing revenue from those sales, money that typically funnels into wildlife management programs.
A problem, perhaps.
Some of our state lawmakers seem to think the solution is letting preteens carry shotguns without taking a hunter safety course first. Having to go through the training, they say, is a turnoff to potential young hunters.
Eh, let's shoot for a better solution.
House Bill 5192, already on the governor's desk, would lower the hunting age to let children hunt small game at 10 and big game at 12, after taking a gun-safety course.
Under Senate Bill 1105, the same minors could purchase a hunting ''apprentice'' license and go shoot with an adult without taking a gun-safety course first.
At first blush, this might sound like a good idea, but bypassing gun-safety courses, especially for those so young, is a bad idea.
A typical course might take three to five days.
If that's too much to ask, maybe the impatient hunter shouldn't have his itchy finger on a gun trigger.
Hunting has a long tradition in Michigan and it'll stay that way without canning gun-safety courses.
True, fewer young hunters today could mean fewer adult hunters in the future, and that could mean fewer dollars for the state.
But safety comes first.
The fact remains, the state currently experiences a small handful of reported hunting accidents each year, considering the thousands who are out hunting. That's a proud credit to the safety courses already in place.
Forgoing that training would be a mistake.
Maturity varies among preteens, but at least a course might teach them some safe hunting practices, and not, maybe, Uncle Joe's bad habit of not unloading his gun before climbing over a fence.
Put the class requirement in, then let responsible, supervised 10-year-olds hunt.
Link to article (http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-1/115219897647570.xml&coll=4)