A safely, armed citizenry

My column for the West Bend Daily News is online.  It’s called, “A safely, armed citizenry.”

You can tell what’s on my mind.

This past presidential election cycle was a heated one. Since the election, there has been a run on firearm purchases. Handgun sales, for example, soared 82 percent in Wisconsin after the election.

   All of this collective firepower is about to be put to use. It will only be a few days before hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites load up with high-power rifles, shotguns, and pistols and walk out their doors. Their greatest concern will be how, where and if they will have the opportunity to spill blood.

   Of course, I’m talking about opening day of the gun deer season. On Saturday, thousands of Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens, Socialists, Communists and Anarchists will head to the woods in the hopes of harvesting some good meat and possibly a nice trophy buck. OK, perhaps the Greens won’t be out hunting, but the other parties will be well represented.

   During the nine-day gun deer hunt millions of rounds will be fired, and about 350,000 deer will be harvested. While there will inevitably be some tragic accidents, it is worth noting how incredibly safe the gun deer season is. Fewer hunters will be killed during a decade of gun deer seasons than people will be gunned down in Milwaukee during an average summer.

Also, I throw this out there again.

One more slightly related thought: I will once again use this space to advocate for limited hunting within the city limits. It can be done safely and there are some giant deer in the city. I noticed that the Baraboo City Council recently unanimously approved deer hunting within its city limits. There’s no reason why West Bend can’t follow their lead. For example, how about limited bow hunting on private land within the city limits? If we can’t hunt them, remember that it’s always car season.