TheLastManInAmerica

Following the accidental shooting by a 14 year-old hunter near Sedro Woolley, WA, which led to the death of a 57 year-old woman who was hiking in the area, I was tempted to write something about how people were going to jump all over this and attack not only guns and irresponsible hunters, but hunting itself. Instead, I waited, hoping someone would make the first move and actually give me something to argue. And wouldn’t you know it, this morning while cruising the blogs, I found one that gave me the inspiration I needed. It detailed the incident as any news story would but at the bottom the author added their two cents. Saying, “Why should a child be hunting?” and “Was he so excited by the thrill of the hunt?” The patronization was oozing off my monitor, as if hunting itself was to blame. But the fact is, irresponsibility, on the part of several, is at fault and hunting, that extremely crucial factor to development and survival since the dawn of time, and is no more at fault than driving is for car “accidents.”

            It is a terrible shame this woman had to die but the problem isn’t hunting, or guns for that matter. In one of my previous entries entitled, “This is my Rifle, This is my Gun,” I explained that accidents involving guns are due to either a lack of education and/or a lack of respect for the weapon. This easily falls into that category but the blame definitely rests upon the grandfather who let the boys go out alone. Even though you need to pass a Hunter Safety course, 14 and 16 year-old boys still aren’t prepared enough to go out on their own, especially since they aren’t even old enough to purchase firearms. And as such, the boys aren’t experienced (educated) enough to be out there alone. And apparently, their imbecile of a grandfather wasn’t wise enough to know this; I personally think that moron should be fed to a bear! And what’s more is why the hell is bear hunting permitted in a popular hiking location such as this? We’re talking about a place with scenic views of the Skagit River Valley as well as Mt. Rainier and  Mt. Baker, not just some backwards location in the Cascades. Did it just happen to slip by the powers-that-be that this might be a dangerous location for bear hunting and trail hiking to coexist? Surely whosoever is in charge of such zoning is as much at fault as anyone.      

      Now some may be confused by my statements at the top of the page regarding hunting and think that I am glorifying it because I’m some redneck who likes to kill little furry things and that I just want to pass the buck (heh heh) somewhere else. But in truth, what I wish to convey is that while many view it as a mindless, brutal pastime, it is essentially one of the key factors in human evoltion and qhy we are who we are today. I will do my best to paraphrase Ernst Mayr’s brilliant synopsis of the subject beginning with the selection pressure created by hunting for enhanced memory. As one would be a rather pathetic hunter who just picked up a weapon and charged off into the fields looking for a kill, nature would select those who better remembered tendencies of herds, such as watering holes and migratory patters. A premium would also be put forth by nature to choose those with heightened inventiveness, for a hunter would be more successful with better weapons to land prey and tools to cut up the kill and carry it back to camp easier. This goes hand in hand with a division of labor to assign roles in the field and designate who stays at camp to guard the women and children. And as this would be futile without communicating, the division of labor would lead to better ways of conveying ideas which, in turn, would help lead to speech and from there it all snowballs. Now you might say, “That’s all well and good for 50000 years ago but what purpose does hunting serve now?” Well, first off, if you are arrogant enough to assume we are done evolving, you’re sadly mistaken and second, I assume it serves as much purpose today, if not more, as painting pictures.

            My point is, people look at hunting as some barbaric ritual performed by inbred bumpkins and that it leads to such incidents as these but the fact is, hunting is a timeless exercise in skill and cunning and has every right to be practiced today as it did when Neanderthal roamed the earth. Accidents are as liable to happen in any facet of everyday life as they are in hunting. Just imagine the thousands of people every year who get up one morning to go to work and die along the way in a fiery car crash. The act of driving isn’t responsible for the deaths of all these people, it is the people that are careless and/or uneducated or people who just plain make mistakes who cost others their lives.         

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