NY Enacts Anti-Internet Hunting Law
I’ve lost track of most state initiatives to outlaw Internet hunting, but this article from Michael Gormley at the Associated Press caught my attention because of all of the rhetorical posturing/intellectual dishonesty. Consider the following quotes:
NY Gov. George Pataki: “Hunters play an important role in environmental conservation, but these remote hunting games serve no useful purpose.”
[Eric’s comment: it would be great to unpack how hunters play an important role in environmental conservation. Note, of course, that offline hunters are allowed to hunt on game farms just like online hunters. Also, I wonder why providing physically-challenged individuals the opportunity to engage in hunting isn’t a “useful purpose.”]
Sen. Carl Marcellino: “The practice of making road kill out of living animals via the information superhighway should be stopped now.”
[Eric’s comment: there are many ways to riff on this quote, but I think it speaks for itself.]
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm: “Using computer technology to shoot at caged animals from a distance is a corruption of our proud hunting traditions.”
[Eric’s comment: who said anything about caged animals? Maybe she thinks of game farms with potentially thousands of acres as a “cage”…but offline hunting is legal there too. Also, what makes our hunting tradition “proud”?]
One final point: the “safety” concerns about Internet hunting are a joke. Which one gives you more concern?
* a controlled access game farm where a mounted gun is monitored by a real person who can override any commands from the hunter (as is the case with Live-shot.com), or
* arming thousands of people–who might have limited gun safety training and who may be drinking while hunting–and setting them loose to blast at anything that moves (even if it’s wearing an orange blaze vest).
Consider some empirical data.
FWIW, I simply will not go hiking in Wisconsin during deer hunting season. I don’t consider it safe regardless of any precautions I might take. As a result, if we’re really concerned about hunting safety, I think Internet hunting would not be our top priority.
I haven’t followed the internet hunting news except through your blog, and I have thoroughly enjoyed thinking about the distinction between normal hunting and internet hunting (the question you posed in the first post).
Often, when I hear people, many of which are hunters, talk about internet hunting, I ask them why internet hunting is different than normal hunting. I never get any good distinctions.
The most laughable argument I got was a “slippery slope.” This person kept saying stuff like, “What’s next? Internet sniping in third world countries?! Gov’t making money of unmanned sentries/snipers!?”
Now, on to the post….
Most of the above quotes crack me up! However, I have a few comments about the quotes and your comments.
Environmental conservation: I not sure what Gov. Pataki is alluding to either. But, I imagine he could be alluding to population control. Anyways, I am not sure if population control actually works or is merely a red herring. I imagine that studies go either way (it looks like some of the studies linked through “empirical data” link seem to argue against the efficacy of population control through hunting).
Proud hunting traditions: C’mon now Professor!! Many Wisconsinites are proud of their dairy cows. I live in Wisconsin, and I am certainly not proud of Wisconsin’s dairy cows, but I think it is all right that people are proud of them. My home state is proud of its hunting tradition. In fact, the state bird, the ring-necked pheasant is the most hunted animal in the state! Fun fact: Sioux Falls’ airport’s (the largest airport in the state) busiest time of the year is pheasant season. Much of the South Dakota economy is based on hunting, and I think it is “ok” that they are proud of that. (Now that I re-read your comment, I think I mis-read your comment to be asking “who could be proud of hunting” instead of what I think you meant of “what could people be proud of in hunting.” Therefore, I think my comment is somewhat misplaced but I left it in because I think it is fairly interesting.)
Safety: I couldn’t agree with you more. Too many hunting accidents take place. I, too, am more worried when outdoors during hunting season.
Lastly, even though you preceded it with wiggle language, I don’t like anything that says that hunters “might” have poor hunting safety training and “may be” drunk while hunting. Even though I don’t think any harm was intended, I think it just feeds into negative stereotypes.
Scott, I strongly agree that there’s some weird online-physical dichotomy towards hunting. However, I’m not sure I can say the same for gambling. Many types of offline gambling are in fact legal, but very few types of online gambling are legal (even if enforcement is difficult and rare). Eric.
Hunting and gambling are an interesting contrast: (1) we declare 95% of live gambling to be illegal, but then we allow a ton of online gambling; yet (2) we permit (though with some regulation) most live hunting, but we get all up in arms (pun intended) about online hunting.
I think this illustrates that, as a society, our thinking about the difference between online and live activities is so inconsistent that it reflects a deep lack of serious thinking about what live/online differences are relevant or not.