I’m admittedly stepping out of my lane a little bit with this one, but here it goes. It seems that from the beginning of this year, now that the COVID scare has dwindle, the left is targeting us, as sportsmen, and our hunting culture. Maybe it’s out of sheer boredom, maybe it’s because it can be viewed as a form of gun control, or maybe because stalking and killing a wild animal, in its own habitat, is viewed as a form of “toxic masculinity” (yes, I know, women hunt too, and most are more successful than me). Whatever the reason may be, “cancel culture” has made it’s way into the outdoors.
It seems that while hunters took to the woods in epic numbers amidst the COVID plandemic, politicians want to maintain “control” by limiting types of hunting, and species that can be hunted. This is evident in the bills that were introduced in California to ban bear hunting (Bill 252), New Mexico to ban trapping (Bill 32), and many other states trying to ban trapping, hound hunting, and other various forms of LEGAL and ETHICAL ways to take game.
Per usual, these bills are all politically motivated out of irrational and emotional bias, rather than science. Even when top biologists and wild life conservationists, as well as studies and data sheets taken from previous years harvests, show that the animals are striving, the politicians try to make “feel good” legislature that would harm our hunting traditions for years to come.
So why does it matter that we make our voices heard? Why does it matter that we sign petitions? Why should you join and support conservation groups? Because alone, our voices don’t stand out, but as has been proven in the past month alone, together, we can stand as one, and our voices echo and resonate.
I’ve seen it happen in various other parts of this industry, where we beat each other down, instead of supporting each other, and it never ends well. Maybe you don’t care about bear hunting because you’re a duck hunter. Or maybe you don’t care about duck hunting because you’re a deer hunter. Maybe you don’t care about hunting with a muzzle loader because you use a bow, so on, and so forth. At the end of the day, we have a common goal, and that’s to protect our heritage and traditions, for years to come. We must be vocal, and we have to be unwavering. More importantly, we must stand together on a unified front, regardless of the methods or species we hunt. Whether it be fins, fur, or feathers, they will do their best to isolate us, and destroy what we love. We are hunters, and we should never have to apologize for that.
Black Dirt Diaries 