Teaching children proper use of guns and gun safety makes them less likely to use one on another person not more. And being able to hunt is a good skill. There are lots of people in rural states that use the food they hunt to help with their food bill.

"When you really think about it, there’s little downside to hunting at all. "

It's a hard issue to deal with. I completely understand the side that says "Don't kill the animals". I don't like killing things, expecially things that can show emotions the way deer and most game can. They are clearly living things that feel pain, and we are dishing that pain out.

However, I also understand the point of view of the hunters. What they are doing is not very different to nature. People like PETA say that animals never waste and only hunt for if it is "necessary for survival". Anyone who says that however, is misinformed and ignorant of the way nature works. Have you ever watched a cat play with a mouse? Nature can be very sadistic... Have you ever seen the a Lion kill its own son, simply because it was growing too big and becoming a threat? Nature can be cruel and calculating. Maybe the remains will be eaten by scavengers, maybe they won't. Nature doesn't care, I promise you.

My point is, arguing that we shouldn't kill the animals because it's "pointless and cruel" is wrong. Hunting is not pointless, as people have fun doing it. Hunting is incredibly cruel, but that is the way of the world. To argue that we should not be cruel is arguing that we go AGAINST our nature... many activists really don't understand that.

/rant

Who here has taken a hunter safety course?

@Predatorian234 - In the class I took, the instructor made mention of proper shooting techniques so as to have a better shot, such as firing on the exhale and easing the trigger over squeezing it. The reason was because a better shot meant less chance of wounding the animal, and less chance of a stray shot entirely that could potentially be hazardous if others are in the area. It wasn’t an in-depth session, more of a quick glancing over, but it was in interest of safety towards other hunters and a humane kill. It does vary by instructor a little bit though, as I hunt with people who didn’t have that small bit added in. But you’re right about all classes making their primary focus on respect of the firearm and proper handling.

@Unruly

Well yes, my instructor did go over those points as well. In order to ensure a humane kill. Like you said. He also touched up on distances, and when you should shoot, all to make the kill as quick as possible.

What I was more referring to was hands-on training. People on here make it seem like it will train them to hunt, it will train them to fire better. Which is BS. You don't actually go out shooting afterwards and the teacher doesn't give you pointers on how to increase your aim while your at the range.

yeah, I'm with illspirit and Gray17. I think they're kinda grasping at straws here. After skimming past it the first time, I had to go back and check how video games were involved at all in the article...

Right...

We don't want them learning how to shoot up schools in them evil vidjagames so we will teach them how to shoot real guns to kill real living things!

Am I the only person seeing the irony here?

@Pominator

It MAY teach them a thing or two on how to use a gun responsibly.

That, and they'll probably take it on animals if they feel miserable instead of shooting schools.

If done correctly, it could teach younger people responsibility about guns, and at best could prevent accidents in future from mishandling of guns.

At worst though, it could provide the wrong people with access to and training in the use of guns. I sincerely hope that potential trainee hunters are screened before being accepted. People like the Vtech killer should never have been able to get their hands on guns because of their mental instability. I just hope that the authorities in charge of this can recognise who should or should not be able to go on this training.

I does seem a little funny though that all the alarmists and luddites who claim video games teach people to kill, "they train for sniping on Halo!", will not bat an eyelid at this, an activity that teaches younger people how to hold a gun, aim, adjust for conditions, control their breathing and pull the trigger.

Teaching gun saftey is all well and good but if a guy is messed up enough to take a gun into his school and start shooting the place up gun saftey is not likley to be at the front of his mind. Regardless is it fair to not teach kids how to hunt for fear that one or two will take what they learn and abuse their skills?

Hunting is a skill I happen to think is worth knowing because even though i value animal life its only natural to eat other animals so i have no objection to hunting as a means to an end and if you find yourself in need of food with no place to go buy it you're left with little choice.

but im dead against people using hunting as a means to blow off steam, if thats their attitude they should just buy a punching bag.

"Teaching children proper use of guns and gun safety makes them less likely to use one on another person not more."

Not true. It just makes them more likely to kill the person they intended to, instead of killing someone accidentally. However, I don't think that learning how to use a gun is a bad thing. I just think that, much like video games, it is completely irrelevant to the whole psycho-killings issue...

This bill will receive its fair share of controversy. PETA will be all over it. The anti-gun lobbyists will be all over it. This most likely will not pass due to pressure from those two groups.

That said, I think it is a great idea to teach kids proper gun safety and handling. The world would be a much safer place if all kids were taught those important skills.

That is one of the great things about Boy Scouts. Gun usage and safety are important parts of Scouting and one of my favorite activities.

@Shoehorn

Exactly! I mean where are you more likely to learn the correct way of loading, taking stance, taking aim, steadying your breathing, unload a few rounds into your classmate and then turn on yourself?

I know there is training for the responsible handling of weapons, but after spending long enough at college and some time at a Scottish range, I gotta tell you, not everyone actually pays heed to the information, least of all people who have a chip on their shoulder anyway.

I am also not a fan of the idea of hunting in replacement of games for another reason: you are actually killing something, in videogames you get to bust a cap into virtual people in a virtual world with virtual guns purchased with virtual money, in reality, you actually shoot the gun, take a life and move on, this is something that could have a tremendous effect on a child's psyche, much more than pixellated shooting, because you are actually ending the life of another living thing, call me a hippy if you want, but I just think that unless it is something that a child is extremely mentally prepared for then I don't think that kids shooting animals is a good idea.

There's no way this is hunting for anything but sport nya, so let's teach our kids to hunt and kill things for fun is a good idea? But Video games are bad? I'm in the goddamned Outer Limits. >.

I actually don't see anything wrong with this, except that I despise the concept of hunting for sport.

Teach them to hunt, fine.. but they should be required to kill, gut, skin, cook and eat everything they kill, or otherwise provide it to others who will eat it.. they should be taught to use every possible part of the animal for something, and preferably hunt with more traditional weapons than "easy mode" guns.

I fully support teaching the younger generation respect for the natural world, and about where their food comes from.. everyone should be taught that meat is an animal that has died so that they might live. Hunting for food is fine, hunting for hides and clothing is fine, hunting to /honestly/ protect farm livestock is fine.. hunting for sport and throwing away/stuffing the corpse is a despicable act.

@Pominator

Glad to see a fellow brit agreeing ;) (I assume from your name you are in Aus too?)


Incidently, the ironing thing from JB's post refers to an episode of the Simpson's where Bart mispronounces Irony as Ironing, I assume.. cant remember the exact episode but its familiar.

@ Pominator & Thomas
Grift of the Magi. Long story short: Springfield Elem. is taken over by Kid First Industries (toy manufacturers) and uses the students for research instead of actual teaching. Bart excels and Lisa doesn't.

Bart Simpson: [laughs] Lisa in trouble. The ironing is delicious.
Lisa Simpson: The word is irony.
Bart Simpson: Huh?

And back on topic.. I agree with Thomas. No other animal hunts for pure entertainment besides man and I don't agree with that.

@Tammej

We are predators.. omnivores yes, but we eat meat as part of our natural diet.. for meat, we must hunt and kill.. this is why we have such things as eyes in the front of our heads and canine teeth.

One of the worst tragedies of modern society is that many children grow up with no idea where their food comes from. I have heard all to many kids asked where, for example, a meat comes from.. answer... "the supermarket".

Not just little kids either, teenagers and sometimes even adults for some reason find it alien and sickening to accept that an animal died that they might eat.

While I disagree with using guns to hunt, because I feel there needs to be a far more honest and vicersal side to it, as I said in my previous post teaching them this fact of life is important and far too neglected these days.

@ Thomas

Which is EXACTLY why I walk through the forest pushblade in hand rather than a glock

Teaching children to take the lives of sentient creatures. Yeah, that's less harmful than video games.

Thomas, humans do not need to eat the flesh of other creatures to survive. As humans we have a choice, unlike true carnivores who need to eat flesh. Take a look at those incisors of yours. They are nothing like the incisors of a true carnivore. Do you really think you could bite into and kill a live animal with those things?

Anyway, I realise this isn't a vegan blog, so I'll just leave it at that.

I was a little shocked at the proposal at first.

But now that I think about it, I only began learning about the fundamentals of responsible ownership and gun safety when my dad got me an air rifle, and started encouraging me to take up target shooting as a sport.

Here's to hoping teaching hunting will lead down a similar path.

@Tammej

I do understand your meaning, however I believe that it is important for young people to learn to hunt, kill, dismember, cook, eat and use the carcass of animals for a whole variety of different reasons.. the slaughter of purely domesticated animals in a controlled environment is surgical and unfeeling, there is no empathy for the animal, everything is done that is possible to remove emotion from the equation. Sure, it teaches the kids where it comes from.. but there is no respect there. Then of course there is the fact we have all but eliminated most natural predators, and certain species of large prey animals do in fact need hunting in order to keep their numbers down to healthy levels, I am a firm believer that if we cause a problem, by removing a creature.. it is our responsibility to fill that void at least in part.

The problem for me is that we have, for centuries, been trying to remove ourselves from nature.. our food production is automated, sanitised and "humane"... people seem to think that killing an animal with your hands is somehow a terrible thing, but line a hundred animals up and shoot bolts through their heads with a machine and its okay... while I accept that it is simply not possible for us to produce the amount of food we need by hunting alone, I believe that the emotional connection.. the knowledge that, as you watch an animal die in your hands, directly from your actions, smelling its blood and then dealing with it while it is still warm before cooking its flesh to eat, that it died in order for you to have this meal, that you were solely responsible for its death... is an important part of the respect we have lost for the natural world and indeed something we are loosing far to much in ourselves.

I do not believe people should be allowed to hunt living creatures purely for sport, as I mentioned previously... but hunting for food is different, especially if it is used to teach the lessons I mention above.

Hah, comedy has nothing on real life!

I guess the idea is something like "if kids want to learn how to kill, they might as well learn it from someone who does it professionally".

As a West Virginia resident for all of my relatively short 19 years, I don't really have any bad feelings about this.

@Conejo - You obviously have skewed views on how real backwoods hunting actually works. Its not like going to a game preserve and just waiting for something to cross your path. While that is usually how most people bowhunt, gun hunting is usually a mixture of trekking through the woods, finding a viable spot, and waiting as well as group hunting in which you have part of the group walk and flush out the deer while the other part waits. Hunting coyote, squirrel, rabbit, and other small game is all down to walking around and finding them most of the time. All of these are techniques that have been in use for millennia.

@Everyone who mentions proper handling of game after the kill - In West Virginia you're required to take a Hunter Safety Course before you can get a hunting license, and while trophy hunting is entirely legal they emphasize that its best to use the meat from edible game. On that note, considering I know people will say all game is edible, I'd also like to mention that I'd like to see someone eat a raccoon or coyote willingly, under normal circumstances around here. For those who don't know, both of those animals will eat almost anything they can chew and swallow. And yes, I do eat what I kill unless its either of the two animals mentioned there. The only trophies I'll keep is the top of the skull, or at the most a mounted head and neck, where there is little to no usable meat.

@Pominator - You've never been to WV, that much is obvious. Pretty much everyone in WV that hunts is prepared for the kill, and knows that they're taking the life of an animal. The key thing being that its an animal. Even my 7 year old cousin knew what he was doing when he downed his first deer with us. There's really a lot less trauma when killing something completely different than you as compared to something that could have been you.

@E. Zachary Knight - PETA and Anti-Gun lobbyists are a rare breed in WV, as we're a very conservative state and believe heavily in our right to bare arms, among other things.

@Catboy_J - Not everyone hunts for sport. I hunt both for the thrill of the hunt, because I love the taste of venison, and because it cuts down on food bills. In general whole family hunts for the meat first, trophy second. Hunting is a VERY big part of WV lifestyles, and has been since before the state separated from Virginia. Assuming that all hunting is for sport is just ignorant.

I am both a hunter, and a gamer, and I think its important that anyone who goes hunting knows how to properly handle whatever weapon they're using be it bow, rifle, or muzzle loader. Depending on the grade that they offer the classes, I see no problem with it at all. Considering how the majority of school systems in WV are set up, you really have no choice in what classes you take until high school, which is really when you're most likely to go hunting by yourself as well. Its also the age range that seems to be more predominant in school shootings, so some could argue that it could contribute to that, but I see it working the other way. I see these classes as basically being a Boy Scouts lesson that teaches you proper handling of a firearm, how to field dress game, general hunter safety, and maybe common plant/animal identification.

Hunting is an outdoor activity that can work just like any sport can. If you get yourself a hunting group based in family, it becomes a great bonding experience and can lead to a great sense of accomplishment when you down the big one. When you really think about it, there's little downside to hunting at all.

Also, for those of you who don't like hunting - it's also a vital tool for wildlife management. Hunting keeps the deer population somewhat in check; without it we'd potentially see a lot more deer getting hit by cars and a lot more deer starving due to overpopulation and exhaustion of food sources. Yes, that can happen - in the early 1900's the US set up a wildlife reserve on the Kaibab Plateau and largely removed the natural predators of deer in order to preserve deer numbers. Several years after this, rangers had to allow hunting and re-introduce predators when they realized that deer were starving and sickly, and the ones that didn't die of starvation were very easy prey for any predators in the area.

@Unruly: Don't feel bad, the UP of Michigan is alot like WV. Small rural areas. I've been there ( I used to do cable tv construction all over the country before I became disabled) and besides the more mountainous terrain, WV and the UP are pretty much the same.

Listen, in alot of rural areas people need to hunt to cut down on food bills. If you don't like it, then don't do it. I can afford not to hunt, but I have friends who actually need to hunt because we live in a poor area. If they didn't hunt, expecially during the the fall, their families would go hungry or be on welfare.

It's just too bad some folks here have narrow little minds.

if they take this game seriously as being a tool to learn how to hunt, then how about having the students play games like myst, half life, god of war? myst is full of puzzles, and half life has all those freaking physics puzzles, and i hear god of war is full of riddles. those games would help with problem solving skills, not to mention hand-eye coordination.

I fucking love the US and A. Violent entertainment media is bad, but let's train students on how to use guns.

@Dracis - I wouldn't go so far as to say that some people have narrow minds about hunting. Everyone is entitled to their own view, which you and I may or may not agree with. I live in a rural area for sure, but I also live a relatively comfortable middle class life. I simply choose to hunt and have a garden in order to cut down on food bills a little bit. If I wanted to, I could easily drive about 10 miles down the road and get everything from a store in an urban area, but I choose not to.

@Tammej - There really are no "professional" hunters. The guys on TV are usually fake, or worse, purely trophy hunters. There are simply people who have hunted longer than others. Everyone has to start somewhere, and even with years of target practice you can still easily miss a perfect shot and wound rather than kill your target because cardboard is a lot different than an animal. Around here, we call it "buck fever" because you get caught up in the moment and make a fundamental mistake, such as squeezing the trigger instead of slowly applying pressure, or firing on the inhale instead of holding your breath/exhaling. It happens to everyone, and is easier to do than you'd think.

I agree with allowing the children to learn to operate guns in schools. I don't really see anything wrong with teaching children how to hunt. This entire anti-gun mentality is a dangerous one. Guns are important. Prohibiting guns will do nothing because criminals will find guns on the black market and frequently do even though guns are legally available (they aren't registered).

I really haven't seen any good argument why not to educate children about guns so they know how and why to use them. Education is always good.

That being said, I don't agree with their concern over video games. There is no evidence to support their concern so I'm not sure if they are buying into the anti-video game activist's claims or they are simply ignorant on the issue. I do agree that their ideas are a bit backwards or even hypocritical. Right now it seems as if they are treating the public as if they were extremely stupid. It is unfortunate that elected representatives look down upon people such as this. I'm too confident that these people are intelligent considering their job titles.

I mean I respect the individuals that simply think these individuals are stupid. I disagree though... I don't these individuals are stupid. I believe they know exactly what they are doing and how it will effect their region.

Guns dont kill people, Gamers do.

Personally I dont think its a bad idea, in fact as a Brit I'd have loved the chance to go hunting, though I'd have to go over to america as about as dangerous an animal we have to hunt is the damn fox.
In a country of Guns its obvious to teach the young to respect it, rather than just watching gunplay on tv.
I just find the Irony of the mindless child worship of 'protect the kids' from the media but teach them how to shoot laughable.
How can politicians justify that a child can understand to kill an animal but not a human, but not to kill a pixilated charactor on the computer but not a human?
Sigh.

So hunting with real guns to kill real animals is good, Because they are getting the outdoors that the need and kill animals with real guns

But playing fantasy Videogames might make them want to kill their students and that is bad????

Will someone please make some sense....

Oh god.. I can't stop laughing..

Teaching kids to handle firearms and actually kill living creatures is sooooo great compared to violent gay porn rape simulators that Mass Effect or Bully obviously are.

@TBoneTony - Nothing in there mentions video games as being trainers to kill people. It says that video games keep kids from going outside, which they can and do in a lot of cases. All this is would be taking a regular hunter safety course, which is normally done somewhere like at a volunteer fire department, and make it a small, and optional, section of gym class. Gym classes here already have an archery section as it is, so its not that big of a difference. Its basically like driver's ed, but for hunting. As for making sense, your first sentence made little to none.

People, please, PLEASE, read the actual article. You keep jumping to the conclusion that they're blaming video games for something, when they really AREN'T. The worst that they are blaming them for is modern lack of outdoor activity in kids. They aren't using a video game to teach them hunting skills, they aren't saying video games are bad, they're just saying "we want to take this thing that people have to do in order to hunt, and make it more accessible to more people." What's so hard for people to understand about that?

The only reason I could see for this being put on GP is because it can be associated with guns in school. The only line in that article that even mentions video games at all is "When I grew up, you didn't have video games. We have an obligation to see that these kids have exposure to the outdoor world and if they like it."

I hate to say this, but if the title of this article at GP isn't trying to be sensationalist, I don't know what is. Either that, or a lot of people who read and comment at GP have no sense and can't be bothered to even skim through a source article. People are blowing this way out of proportion, especially considering that so far, I've seen nothing that condemns WV on the video game argument. We've stayed fairly neutral in it. If you can point me to definitive evidence of a WV politician blaming video games for violence and shootings, then I'll stand corrected, but this particular article is nothing of the sort. Stop contradicting yourselves by calling politicians ignorant, when you yourselves are doing the same thing and jumping to conclusions.

Hunting is one of the few viable methods of controlling the deer population which, due to the lack of natural predators, grows to quickly in the areas that deer are found in reducing the food supply which means deer willl starve to death.

So all the Twats like Tricky TPR need to get a grip.

God i hope they don't plan on using Cabela's game for this....

@Benji - Yea, my high school health teacher got a grant to buy a TV, PS2, DDR, and 2 arcade-style metal mats to encourage exercise. They were available for free after school, and at events like homecoming they charged around 25 cents a play to go along with the rest of the games set up on the school plaza. It was actually pretty awesome.

And yes, hunting is extremely common in WV. Everyone in my family has been hunting at least once in their life, and over half of them hunt regularly. I'd say at least half of the male population in WV hunts semi-regularly.

@Jabrwock - They're simply taking the normal 10-hour Hunter Safety Course and making it an optional part of gym class that would span 2-weeks. Or at least that's what I gathered from the article. Considering that they're taking 2 weeks on it though, it makes me think that they're going to expand on the normal safety course to include maybe some more in depth things like possible plant identification(poison ivy, poison oak, blackberries, etc) along with the normal animal stuff.

While agree that gun education is a good thing, I can't help but admit that the irony of this gave me a chuckle. It's bad to to play video games where you shoot virtual characters, but ok to go out and shoot real life animals?

Sigh, only in the South.

@Unruly...
Don't be stupid, I didn't mean all hunting is for sport, I mean there's no way a school is gonna have children skin their kill, gut it, and eat it, and the likely hood of anyone using the meat is low. It's only going to be hunting for sport which by my own morale thinking and many others is dispicable and disturbing especially when so many people blame things like video games and movies for the rise in killing, and gun violence lately nya.

The main reason why they are trying to get this bill passed is to increase the interest in hunting. Why? Because most, if not all, wild-life funds come from hunters and fisherman when they buy their license, tackle, guns, and ammunition.

I'll have to look up the bill but its some Robertson-Henderson (or something) that states that 5% of all sales done on guns, ammo, tackle, ect must go towards wild-life preservation. How do you think the Bald Eagle got re-introduced into Tennessee? Hunters and fisherman.

They are pulling the whole "trying to reduce school violence" move because they really want the bill passed.

Although I do agree, that gun safety SHOULD be taught to EVERYONE. I think there should be classes in school about how to properly handle a firearm.

Just because you have the knowledge, doesn't mean you'll shoot up a school or go on a murder spree. You'll do that regardless of what you know if your f-ed up.

But if a sane, normal person has the knowledge to use a firearm, it can only help.

We are not talking about training here people, they don't teach you how to shoot, they don't teach you how to "breathe" properly. All they do is tell you how to properly handle your gun, what to do before you shoot (look behind the target to make sure nothing is there), and what happens if you don't take care of your gun properly, like putting the wrong size ammunition into your gun.

You never even touch a gun, at least not in the class I took in IL. Its a written test, the guy has guns up on the table you can look at, but not handle. After the written test your done.

@Unruly
Hahaha... You're expecting the average forum commenter to actually read an article instead of jump to baseless conclusions? are you new to the intarwebs? ;P (btw, thanks for being one of the sane voices in a sea of insanity)

@Folks pointing out the "irony"
Maybe I missed something, but There is no irony here! The guy is simply saying that games are competition to kids spending less time outdoors (specifically hunting outdoors). And while I have yet to see ANY study that undeniably shows there is a direct causal relationship of videogames causing kids to stay indoors anymore than movies, TV, phone, internet, or tupperware-parties, it's rather hard to say that the man doesn't have a point about the decline of basic hunting practices as our culture becomes more technologically dependant.

Video games, nor hunting, have anything to do with kids shooting things.

They don't prevent, nor encourage.

Isnt it sort of ironic to teach them how to handle a rifle in order to keep them away from violent video games?

As someone who went to public school for all twelve years, this idea scares the living crap out of me. I would not want to be in the same county with some of those kids if they had a rifle, supervised and trained or not.

This is why I asked if anyone here has actually taken a hunting safety course. I'm going to assume xzero87 has not, considering that he has no clue what is actually taught at these classes.

These classes don't just hand you a gun and tell you how to use it. Its not the Army, its not the Military. Its called hunting SAFETY for a reason. It has NOTHING to do with actual shooting. It has to do with gun maintenance, cleaning your gun, making the right decisions. It teaches you to be wary of your surroundings. And one of the most important lessons is RESPECTING your firearm.

Take the class, you'll realize that your fears are unwarranted.

This story reminds me of a story that I heard about my middle school once. My middle school has a career day every year, they used this day to show different businesses in our community. One of these businesses was our town's Tae-Kwan-Do school. One year, about thirty teenagers got into a massive battle royal after school (on career day) in witch over 15 suspensions were handed. It turns out those guys signed up for the Tae-Kwan-Do self-defense seminar that same day. The Tae-Kwan-Do school was banned from holding self-defense courses in my school. But they were let back in to only do breaking demostrations on career day a few years later (this is demo I saw on career day, and thats how I heard about this story).

Maybe this courses give youngsters appreciation of weapons. However I doubt that this actually is a good thing.

Hunting is not, and should not be a "sport".

If your going to pack and eat the animal sure, for some people the meat is also a source of income, but don't kill for the sake of it.

GD>

Ok... I think there are people confusing what hunting is and isn't here. Partially because that term has become extremely weakly defined to cover a far too broad a subject. And therefore, people are able to make assumptions as to what they think it is, and are still correct under the weak definition of the word, while are arguing something completely different than anyone else.

Honestly, I have no problem with hunting. For me, the difference between hunting and poaching is that hunting, you use what you kill. When you poach, you just kill it. You *might* use some part for profit, but that is not a requirement.

I tend to be of the belief that teaching hunting in a school could be a good thing. Learning proper gun use and responsibility would probably help a lot of people. Unfortunately, I don't think it would do a damn to affect the people who actually are doing the school shootings whatsoever. But responsibility around firearms would help prevent some of the dumber gun accidents where people end up shooting themselves because they didn't know what they were doing.

do they expect the kids to shoot like expert marksmen because of all their experience shooting guns in video games?

That should make things a bit more challenging.

Yea, why is it that people seem to think that hunting is as easy as they make it seem on TV and movies? If you come to that assumption, you're using similar logic to the "killing people in real life is as easy as it is in a videogame" logic. It just doesn't make sense. The only time you'll have easy hunting like that is if you are unskilled and either use feeders year round to constantly have game where you want them to be, or you go to a game preserve whose sole purpose is to be somewhere that you can pay to go in, shoot an animal, and get out.

I've already explained that hunting involves a lot of physical exercise, even treestand hunting, because you usually hike to where you want to be while carrying gear that ranges between 10-30lbs depending on what you're doing, and while that isn't exactly a lot of weight it gets really cumbersome over time. When you hike through underbrush for half a mile or more, and then set up a spot, you're gambling on whether or not an animal will pass in front of you. And to those who say hunters use ATVs and the like now, sure, we do, but we don't drive them right up to where we're gonna hunt at because the smell will scare away the game. I usually park at least a quarter mile away and hike the rest of my way there. And then dragging out a carcass that can easily weigh over 100lbs, along with any pack weight.

I could go on about the complexities of hunting, but I'll make it short. Hunting isn't just shooting. Its planning, scouting, hiking, waiting, weathering the elements, and upper body exercise. Shooting is a very small part of the overall experience.

Umm, why are so many people here trying to claim this is somehow hypocritical? As far as I can tell, no legislators in WV have ever introduced bills to restrict video games. The only politician from there I've even heard try to blame video games for anything is Senator Jay Rockefeller (D), but he's about as anti-gun/anti-hunting as you can get (F grade from both the NRA and GOA)..

Camping + PSP + survival tools + .22 rifle + box full of ammo + deers = a good feast.

I didn't bring any food.

@ GregoriusH :
"I love how ‘exposure to the outdoor world’ necessarily involves shooting things."

There are other things that count as 'exposure to the outdoor world'. Like parkour. Or urban exploration. Or logging.

If they must teach them to hunt, might as well go the whole 9 yards and go with the essential survival skills. It would be important to know what to do in case of a catastrophe, when food is to be had or the local commerce is in a near shutdown.

@Unruly

With professional hunters I do mean people who'se education and training has fully prepared them, and hunting animals (to take care of nature balancing acts) is their actual, paid job. That really is a job with job description, pay, and so on, just like any other regular job, that's why I say professional.

" love how people make firearms themselves the enemy. When its the person who wields them.

A gun is nothing more then an efficient tool. Shouldn’t a youngster appreciate a hammer? Or a screw driver? Or a car?

All of these things can be used in manners which are wrong. You can bash a persons head in with a hammer, you can stab them with a screw driver, or you can hit them with your car. Because there are people out there that do this, should we then keep others who would use them wisely away from the knowledge of these items? "

Right. Weapons are made for killing things (and people). I don't see how a firearm can NOT be used in a manner that is wrong. Well, unless you put no ammo in it and use the handle to hammer a nail into a wall.

A gun was invented for killing, but can now be used as a challenging target competition. As in shooting paper targets.

Also, the whole reason why we have the right to bare arms, is for our protection from the Government, not the wild-life.

They put it in the constitution after the Minute Men in the Revolutionary war banded together to protect themselves form England. Our Fore fathers wanted that ability to stay alive. So they added it in our constitution.

If we had solid, 100% proof that the government was behind 9/11, that they really shot Kennedy, and that they were posed to make us our slaves. We have the ability to fight back.

@Thomas D.

You are aware that the vast majority of weapons ever developed were not designed as weapons, correct? Look at most cutting blades (for the most part used originally to help with harvests), most blunt-type smashing weapons (used primarily for construction purposes, or to help grind grains or other things).

Now, firearms have a number of uses. Me, I personally like firing ranges, to keep skills up (since I was Army, and an expert with a wide variety of different countries' weapons). I've hunted as well, and there is a lot to hunting that actually does not involve shooting. Just like there is a lot to fishing that does not involve actually reeling a fish in.

Back to the original topic, I'm amazed by how people try to stand on their personal soap-box for both sides of the gun debate. Yet, the thing is... one of the biggest problems with firearms today is that people don't know what they are doing with them. This kind of a class can help with that.

Further, a hunting class involves a good amount of terrain navigation, being more aware of your surroundings, a good deal of physical endurance, and tracking skills (acute observation of data). There is a good amount of skills that can help develop an individual which are possible to be taught with hunting. All of those, without ever picking up a firearm and using it. Knowing your surroundings, being aware of basic navigational skills to not only completely avoid getting lost, but also to be able to get around in the wilderness without getting yourself killed is definitely a plus. Being able to follow the subtle trail left by an animal is useful for survival as well -- even if you aren't planning on killing the animal, it can lead you to places like where you can find water, or maybe even find your way out, if you know what you are looking for (or avoid trouble from more dangerous animals).

Yet again, these are skills that have nothing to do with shooting or a firearm, but everything to do with hunting.

@ everyone that thinks hunting with a rifle is easy

I have been hunting for about a decade now and have harvested a grand total of three animals. This includes whitetale hunting, turkey hunting, and mule dear hunting. Mind you I have seen a whole lot of animals in those ten years, but that vast majority were either out of my range, or I could not be assured a single shot kill. Hunting done properly and according to Fair Chase is far from easy.

So, Thomas D....I'm guessing that you think guns are no good, and should be outright banned...am I correct? Or jumping to false conclusions?

@ZippyDSMlee - What hypocrisy? They're wanting to give school PE classes the option of teaching kids hunting safety if the kid wants to take it. It would be integrated into the regular course, just like archery currently is except archery is mandatory, and it would be used to introduce kids to an outdoor, highly physical activity that they may not have considered otherwise. There is no anti-game speech in there other than saying they're helping keep kids indoors, there's no anti-gun speech, and they're teaching responsible and safe handling.

@Thomas D - My grandparents and one of my uncles raised chickens for years, and my mother has some right now, and you'd be stupid to think that a non-predatory bird like they are would be harmless, let alone a predatory bird. A hen will claw and peck the hell out of you for little to no reason if its brooding, and a rooster will just for coming within 10 feet of it. If you slip and fall around a rooster, you'd best cover your face as fast as possible. Now imagine accidentally overstepping your bounds with a predatory bird that can actually fly more than 3 feet. Its not a good situation. It won't happen a whole lot, but it does happen.

Coyotes are more vicious than wolves, and more likely to gather around people because they're scavengers and not hunters like wolves are, which means they pose a lot more of a threat. And mountain lions are very protective of their space, so doing so much as stumbling into an area where one beds down could be fatal if its nearby.

You're very sheltered about how nature really is if you think that small animals are harmless. One mountain lion is enough to wreak some serious havoc if it were so inclined. Nature isn't cute and cuddly, its ugly, fierce, and will just as much kill you as it will be cuddly and cute.

By your logic Thomas, any animal that doesn't hunt isn't capable of aggression. A rhino doesn't hunt at all being that its an herbivore, but I'd dare you to say that they aren't aggressive. The same can be said for bull elk and bull moose. If you come across one of them during their rut, you're in a heap of trouble. Or cattle, they're just as likely to be aggressive year round.

[...] The state of West Virginia agrees. Along with sheep fucking, a WV state senator is sponsoring a bill that would teach kids in public schools how to hunt. That’s right… we’re going to give kids a gun. I won’t even get into this, because I think it’s pretty obvious what a brilliant idea this is. [...]