I read Eric Burnley’s well written column about Delaware curtailing young hunters’ rights to hunt. It is outrageous and unconstitutional, and I hope the good fight continues to restore these rights. Many youth, including myself, for generations started hunting by themselves as soon as they had the ability, usually when they are able to drive, unless they are lucky enough to grow up on a farm. They have much more time to do this as a youth.
Young hunters go through extensive safety training in order to have the right to buy a hunting license. Many people do not know that hunters pay for a vast amount of conservation in our country. This is through license sales and excise taxes on all hunting equipment, guns and ammunition, which provides billions of dollars a year – yes, billions with a B – to conservation efforts such as land purchases for wildlife areas, hunter safety training and funding biologists to study and protect wildlife populations. For more details, look up the Pittman-Robertson Act passed in 1937. All the wildlife areas in Delaware are proof of its effectiveness, as all were purchased with hunter dollars.
By requiring a chaperone 21 or older, which will most likely not be available, the state is limiting our youth. Maybe we should require a similar chaperone for playing video games or using the internet. Sounds silly, doesn’t it? I’d rather these youth be out hunting, learning about how Mother Nature works any day of the week. We should trust our young hunters and allow them the opportunity to get outside and experience Mother Nature, and help with conservation, which hunters do in spades whether they realize it or not.
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