Eight year old Wisconsinites need to hunt

[The Tower]

http://=http://www.postcrescent.com/...512290504/1036

"Posted December 29, 2005

Editorial: Hunting age lowered too far with state bill

Can an 8-year-old handle a gun? That's the question central to a bill in the Legislature that would allow kids as young as 8 to hunt in Wisconsin, under some restrictions.

The answer here is no.

The bill, which has passed the state Assembly and is likely to be taken up by the state Senate next month, would lower the hunting age from 12 to 8. But the 8- through 11-year-olds would have to share a gun or bow with an adult "mentor," who would have to be within arm's length of the child.

Proponents of the bill, who include state hunting and conservation organizations, say the lower age limits will help draw more hunters to the outdoors and help sustain a sport that's vital to the state's environment and its economy.

They have a point about the need to sustain hunting in Wisconsin, but this bill has problems.

While any hunters age 12 and older who were born in 1974 or later are required by state law to pass a hunter safety course, there's no requirement in the bill for these 8- through 11-year-olds to do the same. There's also no safety course planned specifically for hunter mentors.

Then there are the physical requirements involved in shooting a gun or bow. The average 8-year-old is about 4 feet, 3 inches tall and weighs about 60 pounds. Whether the mentor is an arm's length away or 10 yards away, it's still the child who's shooting a gun — and who must control it.

In that respect, there's a big difference between an 8-year-old and a 12-year-old, not only physically but emotionally.

Opponents of the bill also correctly counter that bigger challenges to maintaining the numbers of hunters are access to land and, as with many other pastimes, time to go hunting."

Even with a safety course required, the idea of an 8-year-old firing a shotgun makes us nervous — for the child and for those around him.

Without even that requirement, the idea sounds needlessly foolish."


Good work, Scott Gunderson! Here's a quote: "It's important to get kids involved in hunting at a younger age. If they are not engaged in hunting by 12 or 13, they probably won't be."

So, it's perfectly acceptable for eight year olds to blow away Bambi, but gawd forbid they be educated about STD's and how to avoid getting pregnant.

This country is ****ed up.