The Mouth Of Babes

In the wake of the media frenzy that took place in February after the hunting accident in Texas involving Vice President Cheney, CNN ran a televised segment on the "Paula Zahn Show" focusing on children and deer hunting. The footage apparently had been taped a month or two earlier, during the 2005 hunting season. It profiled several children hunting with their parents in Montana. Why CNN chose to run this particular segment in the aftermath of such a serious and high-profile hunting accident is anybody's guess, but the report accentuated two underlying themes: Should parents be teaching their children to use "dangerous" firearms? And, are eleven- and twelve-year-olds mature enough to use guns safely for hunting purposes?

The segment started out by quoting a well-intentioned young taxidermist who stated that "sport hunting" as we know it today is in dire jeopardy of disappearing in American in the very near future if drastic measures are not taken right away to recruit young people into its dwindling ranks.

The taxidermist went on to emphasize the well-known fact that as soon as many of our senior hunters begin to retire from hunting, a large hole will eventually be created in the overall ranks. However, his somewhat alarmist take on the situation made it sound like hunting is on its last leg and indoctrinating youngsters is the only salvation. By doing this, he unwittingly played right into the hands of the antihunting audience that the segment obviously was intended to target.

This naïve young man was correct in voicing a valid concern: Yes, we definitely need to recruit people of all ages into our ranks, and, yes, it's true that the hunters of the baby boom generation will be hanging up their guns and bows (or, better yet, passing them down to their grandchildren) within a decade or so. But the situation is anything but dire. In fact, in many ways, whitetail hunting in America today has never been healthier or more popular than it is right now.

After the interview with the taxidermist, the report turned to the family deer hunt in Montana. When the hunt was over, the youngsters involved were asked several loaded questions intended to produce a strong antihunting slant. This is where things really got interesting.

No matter how manipulative the questions were, the youngsters came back with some very thoughtful and appropriate answers.

Ask almost any politician about his or her stand on a certain issue, and more often than not, if you get an answer at all, you'll get a partisan answer reflecting his or her party's viewpoint. Ask a member of the mainstream media about an issue involving shooting, firearms or hunting and the odds are good that the answer is going to be heavily biased with an antigun, antihunting flavor. But ask a twelve-year-old who has just received his hunter safety certification and just experienced the thrill of going deer hunting for the first time with his dad, and chances are you'll get an honest, forthright answer that comes from the heart. No politics, no slant, just the heartfelt truth. That's exactly what CNN got.