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.
The Baraboo council did not allow hunting in the city limits throughout the city; what they did unanimously support was implementing a system where citizens who live in rural portions of the city can apply to the police department for a permit to hunt inside the city limits. The history of the vote is that a large tract of “country” property was recently annexed into the city. The city has no current use for the land and proposes essentially no changes to that new portion of the city for some time. One citizen in particular was very upset that he might not be able to hunt on land that his family has hunted on and owned for many many years. The council’s vote did not support hunting throughout the city, but really only on a select few areas, specifically the newly annexed land. My guess is that in practice the city will issue permits to less than a dozen properties. And many people from other areas of the city may be turned away.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 0938 hrs
Floyd is correct, although the ordinance would allow hunting anywhere within city limits that meets certain criteria - being a “rural” area being the main one. Obviously, one wouldn’t be able to hunt within the city itself (dammit!) because you’d run afoul of the law about hunting near a road and/or house no matter where you were.
Once again, Baraboo takes the lead.
Posted by Lance on November 18, 2008 at 0959 hrs
I believe that the Baraboo ordinance left the final say in approval for hunting up to the Police Chief/department. Is that right, Lance?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1002 hrs
Yes, it’s only allowed in areas zoned agricultural and the police can evaluate the location to see if it’s appropriate before issuing a permit. Still, it’s better than nothing. West Bend doesn’t have to do it exactly the same way. I think something like allowing bow hunting on lots larger than an acre with giving the police the power to refuse a permit if there’s something about the property that makes it inappropriate.
Posted by Owen on November 18, 2008 at 1003 hrs
A safely, armed citizenry
Somehow, I don’t think they’ll be well armed for long. They’re proposing bringing back the scary looking guns ban.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1010 hrs
Do people use handguns to hunt?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1100 hrs
Yes.
Posted by Owen on November 18, 2008 at 1106 hrs
Do people ever use spears, rocks and nets to hunt?
When is “cro-magnon style” hunting season?
Any doofus can kill a deer with a high powered rifle from a tree stand. I will be impressed when I see someone bag a big ol’ buck using only the skills and tools our ancestors employed 20,000 yrs ago.
Are there any laws against trapping a deer with a net within the city limits?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1113 hrs
Do people use handguns to hunt?
I have.
Posted by scott on November 18, 2008 at 1123 hrs
Is there a reason? Like, are there situations when a handgun is better for hunting? Or is it more difficult/sporting? I’m just curious.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1126 hrs
The one I used was a single shot weapon. I had a long barrel on it and it was shooting rifle cartridges. But still.
I don’t know, it’s easier to carry, it reminds you not to even bother taking a shot until you’re sure you have an excellent one.
Posted by scott on November 18, 2008 at 1131 hrs
I will be impressed when I see someone bag a big ol’ buck using only the skills and tools our ancestors employed 20,000 yrs ago.
Do YOU feed, clothe, house, medicate, and entertain yourself using only the skills and tools our ancestors employed 20,000 years ago?
Then we’re not impressed by you, either.
Posted by HeatherRadish on November 18, 2008 at 1225 hrs
Those who can do….those who can’t get their food killed and cleaned for them and served up with plastic wrap and a side order of health risk. Never heard of a venison recall.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1240 hrs
I wasn’t knocking hunters Heather, just cracking a joke. IMHO harvesting your meat yourself in the woods is morally superior to buying it in the grocery store.
I just think it is sort of funny how there are these different seasons for different types of hunting which all seem to be based on to simpler times and simpler technologies.
Do we really need a muzzleloader season? If they are going to have a specific season for weapon technology that is 100 years old why stop there? Why not have a season for each technological advancement? A rifle season then, a muzzleloader season followed by a non-compound bow season then a spear season and finally a rock season. The skill required of the hunter goes up each time you take a technological step backward.
I wasn’t kidding when I said I would be impressed with the sporting skill of someone that can successfully hunt dear using only a spear. I don’t see anything wrong with hunting deer from a tree stand with a highpowered rifle, but I also don’t see it as particularly “sporting”.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1257 hrs
3rd Way,
Obviously the normal gun season by far is the most popular of the various deer seasons. The reason for separate seasons is a safety thing. During gun deer season all hunters in the field (I think there may be a waterfowl hunter exception on this but am not certain) have to wear blaze orange (I urge all in the field whether hunting or not to wear blaze orange). Obviously, many bow hunters would view that as a hindrance to their activity and muzzle loaders need to be a touch closer too. Also, remember, despite all the advantages high powered weaponry and the like confer on us the harvest rate is not all that high.
BTW, Peter Hathaway Capstick wrote a story about using a spear to hunt cape buffalo. He stuck the buffalo, tripped and fell on the way to his refuge tree, but his second dispatched the buffalo with one shot. Or at least that is the story Peter writes.Posted by Marcus Aurelius on November 18, 2008 at 1544 hrs
The gun season: that most wonderful time of the year.
You’d need to go larger than one acre lots. Keep in mind that bow-killed deer rarely drop where they’re shot. Practically speaking, you’d need the cooperation and permission of a couple dozen neighbors in one-acre-lot subdivisions to recover a bow-killed deer.
The better approach is to open larger tracts of urban parkland that hold deer to hunters. This is where the urban deer are anyway. Give the public a heads-up that hunting will be permitted on said properties over a certain length of time so the runners and park users steer clear for a week or so. Grant hunters persmission via a lottery system that controls their numbers and increases their chances of success.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1555 hrs
3rd Way - have hunted deer before? I’m limited to shotgun in my area and the slug drops after about 40-50 yards.
You still have to actually hit the deer and do it such a way that you kill them and not just wound them.
I could kill all kinds of deer with a spear if I didn’t have the DNR rules to work with. (Not that the rules are bad, but they are set up for gun hunting.)
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1607 hrs
All those gun sales and the gun lobby didn’t have to give a dime to Obama. That’s a coup.
If federal gun laws are basically unchanged in a couple of years will it finally be time to maybe, possibly explore the sliver of a chance that the NRA is just exploiting fear tactics to sell firearms?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1637 hrs
That’s the most sensible question asked here yet. Only, I’m not sure their exploitation is to sell guns. I just figured it was to elect conservatives, that it was an ideological organization, not one concerned primarily with the bread and butter issues of gun owning America.
Posted by scott on November 18, 2008 at 1639 hrs
Fyi, the NRA endorsed Steve Kagen in the 8th Congressional Ditrict race over John Gard, Republican and Conservative who has an excellent sportsman’s rights record.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1657 hrs
Off topic, but still related to the post: why the comma after safely? It’s not in a series, or related to an an appositive, and “A safely” isn’t a seperate clause (that I can discern, anyway). Your punctuation and grammar is almost always excellent, so I’m thinking I’m just not reading this correctly to myself in my head.
Your grammar nerd friend in Texas,
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1720 hrs
I don’t know. I don’t write the headline for the column - my editor does. I don’t see a reason for the comma either.
Posted by Owen on November 18, 2008 at 1722 hrs
I don’t write the headline for the column - my editor does.
When I first read this, I though you were talking about the blog post. Had me going like this…
Posted by Jed on November 18, 2008 at 1745 hrs
3rd Way - have hunted deer before?
Nope.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1753 hrs
My guess is that Owen copied and pasted the headline from the paper.
It’s nice to see that you’re alive Jed. I was worried that you were off on some top secret mission and your ride home left without you.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1810 hrs
In Mequon, you could bag dear with a spear easily. Heck, when they are eating my flowers, I could take a few out with a baseball bat. When I did hunt, I’d leave my home, where I could have just walked out the back door and clubbed a nice Buck, and drive north 4 hours to places where deer actualy have a fear of man, and I’d have to lie in a snow bank for days to get a shot a deer peaking his head into a clearing from 100 yards. We need a baseball bat season. And it needs to be held in my back yard.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 1840 hrs
I don’t see anything wrong with hunting deer from a tree stand with a highpowered rifle, but I also don’t see it as particularly “sporting”.
It might be a little different if you actually did it (and I don’t say that in a snotty way)
When your heart is pounding out of your chest cause you are so excited to have a big buck in your scope, it does take a great deal of effort and control to place a lethal shot.
But “sporting” is a subjective term.
There is a great deal of preparation that goes along with the simple placing of a deer in the crosshairs. Guns don’t come from the store with scopes sighted. Hunters need to spend time at the range to get their scopes sighted in. It can be a tedious process. Then they need to practice at various ranges (lenghts) to learn how to compensate for drop at different length shots.
When it comes down to it, it really isn’t as simple as it sounds (looking through a scope and putting the cross on the animal) I can give you a gun and you can put the crosshairs on a deer pull the trigger and miss by a foot if you aren’t estimating range, wind, etc. Its just not as easy as it sounds. (and again, you have to remember all of this and do all of this with your heart pounding, quietly, and without making movement to scare the deer away.) The deer doesn’t just stand there for 10 mintues either. You have to wait for the moment he stops, THEN place him in the crosshairs compensate for the distance, wind, and pull calmly pull the trigger (with your heart pounding) Oh yeah, and if you don’t pull the trigger properly, you’ll move your shot. Too much pull, anticipate the recoil. All will throw off your shot.
You need to scout your land and find a good spot for a stand. That requires knowledge and preparation. Without it, you might be sitting a long time waiting to see anything.
And then you need patience. The ability to sit in a cold stand for hours and hours keeping quiet and still without seeing anything just to be prepared for that one deer that saunters by.
Is it as sporting as jumping out of a tree rambo-style and slitting the deers neck? Perhaps not… But its a lot more sporting and skill based than non-hunters realize.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 18, 2008 at 2230 hrs
I understand everything that is involved with hunting XX. There are undoubtedly great differences in the amount of skill different hunters possess. I also understand the difficulty of hitting a target at 75 yards with a single shot. (I have some pretty good experience target shooting and am probably a better shot than 75% of the populace.)
There definitely is skill involved in hunting, but it is a sport any novice can be successfull at if they are lucky enough to have a deer wander within 20 yards of their stand.
Can a novice get par on a difficult par 5, hit 30% from beyond the 3 point line, hit a curve ball, land a kick flip, or ski down a steep slope? No, but any novice can kill a 16 point buck if they are lucky enough to have one saunter by close enough.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 19, 2008 at 1024 hrs
Can a novice get par on a difficult par 5, hit 30% from beyond the 3 point line, hit a curve ball, land a kick flip, or ski down a steep slope? No, but any novice can kill a 16 point buck if they are lucky enough to have one saunter by close enough.
Sure… And I’m not being argumentative, but just for the sake of discussion, you aren’t comparing apples to apples.
Someone can get lucky and get a big buck first time out. I also know novice golfers who have a hole in one. I also know novice basketball players that have made a full court shot in a H.S. game. (there are NBA players that haven’t done that)
As I said before “sporting” is very subjective. You are entitled to your opinion that shooting a deer with a rifle from a stand isn’t particularly sporting. I merely feel compelled for the sake of debate to juxtapose my opinion and a little more reflection on just what is involved in taking a deer with a rifle. Some non-hunting individuals probably read your comment and thought it sounded logical. I just think there’s more to it.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 19, 2008 at 1033 hrs
Me, I don’t really give a shit whether it’s “sporting” or not. It’s certainly more humane than letting the animals starve, which is certainly what they would do if we didn’t attempt to control their numbers. And hunters should have the legal right to harvest the game that is there to be had. Doesn’t matter to me if it’s as easy as picking up pork chops at the Pick N Save.
Posted by scott on November 19, 2008 at 1039 hrs
This fresh in the La Crosse Tribune today…right across the river in MN middle of the afternoon.
Published - Wednesday, November 19, 2008Caledonia woman dies in crash with deer
CALEDONIA, Minn. (AP) ? A car-deer collision has claimed the life of a 78-year-old Caledonia woman.
The Minnesota State Patrol says Catherine Helen Johnson was driving when her Buick Park Avenue hit a deer Tuesday afternoon on Hwy. 44/76 near Caledonia.
Johnson’s husband, Merle, was injured in the crash and taken to a hospital where he was treated and released.The Johnsons were wearing seat belts.
.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 19, 2008 at 1136 hrs
I am not trying to be argumentative either, just discussin’ thoughts.
If I were to bag myself a nice deer this year, (conventional, cro-magnon or Rambo style) and was able to get a nice amount of venison from it. Would having the meat processed and packaged professionally be more or less expensive than just buying the same amount of meat from the grocery store?
I am just curious.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 19, 2008 at 1138 hrs
I don’t know that many hunters have it done professionally. Sausage, maybe, but the rest is just slice and dice.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 19, 2008 at 2147 hrs
Sigh,
The NRA’s purpose is not to elect conservatives, the NRA’s purpose is to elect pro-second amendment candidates. It is a coincidence the NRA endorses more conservatives than Democrats. Simply put, it is because Democrats typically favor more restrictions on our second amendment rights.
Speaking of car deer crashes my mother hit one two nights ago on I-43 between Sheboygan and Manitowoc, thank God she is fine the car has at least $2,500 worth of damage.
Posted by Marcus Aurelius on November 19, 2008 at 2234 hrs
Wendy is right,
The only part that is a real process is sausage making. I have never done that, but I have butchered up deer, however, when I did it, it was a group effort and in the old butcher shop of my uncle’s brother-in-law. Had access to overhead cranes (made skinning a snap), band saws, etc.
Posted by Marcus Aurelius on November 19, 2008 at 2236 hrs
We do everything except grind the burger ourselves. I have about 60 pounds of meet in my freezer that cost less than $50.00.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 20, 2008 at 0957 hrs
You can’t get venison at the grocery store.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 20, 2008 at 1233 hrs
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