Who are Hunters?

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Hunting in the the United States of America has always been a varied activity, bristling with tradition and rich in heritage, yet at the same time fraught with innovation. We know who our ancestors and our country's founders are, and that many of them hunted, whether for food or fellowship or both. We also know that hunters, though they are "consumptive" users of our wildlife, were and are instrumental in the unprecedented and largely unappreciated restoration of American wildlife populations during the 1900s and beyond. But in our ever-more-urbanized modern nation, many folks don't appreciate all that hunters have done (and continue to do) for our nation's wildlife, and just as importantly, who the hunters of today are.

Hunters, the original conservationists, seek always to preserve and protect the very wildlife which they pursue and kill in the course of hunting. For a hunter to explain to a non-hunter his deep love for the animals which he or she pursues is often very difficult, if not impossible at times. But this very love is exemplified in the lengths to which hunters go to preserve healthy habitat for, and populations of, both game and non-game species of wildlife.

The Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, better known as the Pittman-Robertson Act, was passed by Congress in 1937. Pittman-Robertson placed a Federal excise tax on hunting equipment of many kinds, including guns and ammo (11 percent tax on sporting arms, ammunition, and archery equipment, and a 10 percent tax on handguns).

With the overwhelming support of hunters across the USA, this Act directed that money produced by this additional tax on our gear be used to provide funding for the selection, restoration, rehabilitation and improvement of wildlife habitat, wildlife management research, and the distribution of information produced by the projects. It was later amended (1970) to include funding for hunter training programs and the development, operation and maintenance of public target ranges.

Both hunters and non-consumptive users (like hikers and wildlife watchers) benefit from this tax, while hunters willingly bear the brunt of its cost. This money provides benefits for both hunting and non-hunting folks, such as the public shooting range that I use for sighting my rifles and testing loads. Many non-hunters use that range and others like it every day, while hunters foot a large portion of the bill. Who are hunters? For one thing, they are the generous folks who pay for projects like these, that benefit everyone.

The hunters of our past included folks from every walk of life, from the original colonists and early explorers of North America to settlers of the American west, to a great number of our Presidents, including notable hunter and conservationist Theodore Roosevelt and our sitting President, George W. Bush, along with many others throughout the years. Many settlers and inhabitants of this nation supplemented their food supplies by shooting game to go along with the vegetables and other crops they grew for their own use.

As the need to use game as food declined, the desire to remain connected with our predecessors and our own inner "primal" urges remained. Still, hunters (then and now) take only what can be used, never killing just to see something die. Admittedly, there was and is a very small percentage of people who call themselves hunters, who will kill animals needlessly. These are not hunters and they never have been, they are outlaws and poachers, and hunters refuse to be counted along with these miscreants. Every activity has its good and bad participants, and to judge any group or activity based on the poor behavior of a few fools is both stupid and wrong.

Who are the American hunters of today? They come from all backgrounds and settings. Some of us were raised as hunters, and others discovered the joy of hunting from family and friends later in life. From Presidents to musicians, land surveyors, accountants, insurance adjusters, secretaries, machinists, students, executives, mechanics, everyday laborers and everything in between, hunters are men, women, and youngsters that still can and do come from every sector of the American populace. And they are very good people, as a rule.

Hunters like to be left alone, to do their own thing. They know the joy that they get from participating in this ancient and traditional activity, and if others don't "get it," then why can't they just leave us alone? The reason is that we are under attack by folks with deep pockets and misguided sentiments, who routinely misinform the non-hunting public about hunters and hunting. Folks who hear nothing of hunting other than these negative lies naturally start to think that hunting is bad, and should be stopped. So they either aggressively oppose hunters and hunting, or they become passive and support neither side of the issue, but deep down they doubt hunting's value to society.

This attack on our hunting heritage is very real, and I hate it and the lies behind it. It sickens me that these ridiculous and impractical so-called "progressive" views have been given credence by the mass media and have been accepted by a considerable number of the American people. What to do? Well, we hunters can't just sit back and hope it goes away. We've been doing that for years, and it's gotten us nowhere -- in fact, it has sometimes cost us dearly.

There is only one solution that I can see to this problem, and that is for hunters to unite and collectively fight for our heritage. We must also reach out to folks who don't know much about hunters and hunting, maybe some of the folks who are reading this right now in an effort to discover what and who hunters really are.

If that last description applies to you, I applaud you heartily for seeking information from which to draw your own conclusions, rather than simply accepting those that are handed to you by Hollywood and the American news media. And I ask you to help us preserve our heritage by learning more about hunters and hunting and our rich American hunting history. Doubt anything you hear or read from the mass media, especially TV news. I doubt everything they report anyhow, and their anti-gun, anti-hunting agenda is well established, so I doubt them all the more on those subjects.

Do you know someone who hunts? If so, ask them to explain why they do what they do. Seek out hunters, online or otherwise, and learn about us straight from the source. If you come to the conclusion that hunters aren't so bad and that hunting isn't the outrageously barbaric blood ritual that others would have you believe, then please tell your friends and family. Heck, you might even want to try hunting yourself -- it's really a lot of fun, and the great folks you meet along the way will help you gain a better understanding of who the American hunter really is.

Happy hunting,

Russ Chastain

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