How'd I do, Mykie?
I recently subscribed to the RIMagick Yahoo!Group since... well... I'm headed that way soon and figured I'd meet some locals of a pagan-y bent. Anywho, somebody posted a link the other day to an Australian article with the headline "KIDS as young as three are going bush hunting with their parents in a trend that experts fear will teach them brutality." This brought on several comments to the effect of "These parents are irresponsible," "Kids with guns grow up to be criminals," and "Hunting is icky! That's what supermarkets are for." Now, I'm by no means a gun rights advocate, but this struck me, at the very least, as silly. The supermarket bit actually got my blood... well, simmering if not boiling. Finally one reasonable (IMHO) response came up and then I was able to settle a bit and type out my reply.

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Many thanks for this reply. I held a bb gun but once as a kid (Scout camp). That said, I think painting all who allow children around guns with the same broad brush stroke is a disservice to many responsible parents. Saying that kids who know how to use guns are likely to be future criminals is a bit unfounded in and of itself. Teaching children a respectful understanding of such dangerous tools seems to me far more respnsible than simply exposing them to media that shows the use of such weapons quite regularly, and often with little regard to consequences thereof.

In addition, I think those who actively hunt for food, even if they do not need to because of supermarketsas mentioned, can have a better understanding of and respect for the fact that, yes, an animal has died such that you might subsist and live. Not to say any and all share this feeling, but the potential is much greater than for one shopping at the supermarket with all those neat little cuts of meat, completely disassociated from the animal from whence they came, and served up in sanitary little shrink-wrapped styrofoam packages. I think this is a very important little truth lost of many in this day and age.

All that said, there certainly are plenty of irresponsible families who do not treat guns with due respect and care. And sport hunting, killing solely because one is able, I personally see a problem there (and perhaps this is the case with the kids in Australia). It's just that not all who own guns and hunt are like this, and I think it's worth giving those folks some credit.

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Is that passable, Mykie? :)