Broadly, shooting is a lot of fun. Target shooting, competition shooting, trap and skeet, old west action shooting, it’s all a ton of fun when done safely and responsibly. It’s the same appeal as darts, horseshoes, cornhole, axe throwing, bowling, archery, any activity where the object is to accurately launch a projectile. It’s an ancient human pastime and a natural thing to like, shooting is just the modern version of it.
Hunting is also a lot of fun, but deserves to be addressed separately. For most hunters, it’s all about enjoying the outdoors with your friends. “Putting meat on the table” generally isn’t involved with it. Deer tags are given out on a lottery basis here, so it’s rare to even have the opportunity. If you do harvest one, unless you have a big freezer, you’ll probably end up giving most of it away before it spoils. Most other furbearers will be infected with some sort of disease, parasite, bot fly larvae, etc. so they generally aren’t eaten. But, that doesn’t mean there’s no value in the activity. One critical aspect of environmental conservation is controlling the population of invasive species, and hunters are an important part of that effort. More broadly, hunting and environmental conservation are closely tied to each other, both economically and in terms of desired outcomes. Here, rabbit season is an important part of protecting farmers’ crops, promoting ecological diversity, and preventing their predator populations from growing too large.
All of that to say, I like hunting because it’s fun to be outdoors with friends, but I also like it because it’s good for the environment and lets me feel like I’m contributing to something bigger than myself for others to enjoy.
I want to see a reduction in gun violence in the US, but I don’t believe gun bans lead to a reduction in gun violence. If access to guns were the only cause of gun violence, then we’d see a lot more gun violence in countries like Finland and Switzerland, where the rate of firearm ownership is higher than the US. In those countries, citizens don’t have double barrel shotguns and .22 rifles, they have military-grade hardware and they’re trained to use it. So it’s not access to deadly military-grade weapons that causes gun violence either.
The real causes of gun violence are poverty, unemployment, drug abuse, and mental health. If you fund programs that treat the underlying causes of gun violence, you’ll see a reduction in gun violence.
All any ban will do is make complying with the law more difficult for the responsible, law-abiding citizens who you shouldn’t really be worried about anyway.
I’ve always found this highly questionable on its own terms. You’re way more likely to get yourself or your family killed if you introduce a gun into the situation. Gun nut fantasies always involve them getting the drop on an intruder in the middle of the night, when the reality is that they’re way more likely to have the drop on you.
I don’t want rapey dudes to think they can move on me without the risk of winding up dead. Same goes for cops. That’s the one social contract that they can’t disregard.
Guns kill, yeah. And his guns didn’t protect him. So….
I’ll take people more seriously about this issue once they become honest about why they want guns.
In order:
Emergency self/home defense
Broadly, shooting is a lot of fun. Target shooting, competition shooting, trap and skeet, old west action shooting, it’s all a ton of fun when done safely and responsibly. It’s the same appeal as darts, horseshoes, cornhole, axe throwing, bowling, archery, any activity where the object is to accurately launch a projectile. It’s an ancient human pastime and a natural thing to like, shooting is just the modern version of it.
Hunting is also a lot of fun, but deserves to be addressed separately. For most hunters, it’s all about enjoying the outdoors with your friends. “Putting meat on the table” generally isn’t involved with it. Deer tags are given out on a lottery basis here, so it’s rare to even have the opportunity. If you do harvest one, unless you have a big freezer, you’ll probably end up giving most of it away before it spoils. Most other furbearers will be infected with some sort of disease, parasite, bot fly larvae, etc. so they generally aren’t eaten. But, that doesn’t mean there’s no value in the activity. One critical aspect of environmental conservation is controlling the population of invasive species, and hunters are an important part of that effort. More broadly, hunting and environmental conservation are closely tied to each other, both economically and in terms of desired outcomes. Here, rabbit season is an important part of protecting farmers’ crops, promoting ecological diversity, and preventing their predator populations from growing too large.
All of that to say, I like hunting because it’s fun to be outdoors with friends, but I also like it because it’s good for the environment and lets me feel like I’m contributing to something bigger than myself for others to enjoy.
I want to see a reduction in gun violence in the US, but I don’t believe gun bans lead to a reduction in gun violence. If access to guns were the only cause of gun violence, then we’d see a lot more gun violence in countries like Finland and Switzerland, where the rate of firearm ownership is higher than the US. In those countries, citizens don’t have double barrel shotguns and .22 rifles, they have military-grade hardware and they’re trained to use it. So it’s not access to deadly military-grade weapons that causes gun violence either.
The real causes of gun violence are poverty, unemployment, drug abuse, and mental health. If you fund programs that treat the underlying causes of gun violence, you’ll see a reduction in gun violence.
All any ban will do is make complying with the law more difficult for the responsible, law-abiding citizens who you shouldn’t really be worried about anyway.
I’ve always found this highly questionable on its own terms. You’re way more likely to get yourself or your family killed if you introduce a gun into the situation. Gun nut fantasies always involve them getting the drop on an intruder in the middle of the night, when the reality is that they’re way more likely to have the drop on you.
I don’t want rapey dudes to think they can move on me without the risk of winding up dead. Same goes for cops. That’s the one social contract that they can’t disregard.