As a lifetime gun owner, who grew up around hunting and guns, I was appalled when Heston did his "pry out of my cold deads hands" speech. It was counterproductive, and fed right into the "gun nut" stereotyping. That, and the NRA's stance on armor piercing ammunition caused me to cease my membership. There is absolutely no reason for me to possess ammunition that will pierce a policeman's vest. If the day ever arises that I need to protect myself, or go on the offensive against, my own government, than I am going to need a whole hell of a lot more than an M-16 and a box of Teflon coated ammo.

Heston mighta been a decent thespian, but he did little to advance the image of the typical American gun owner or hunter.

Good actor. Bad politics. The same characteristics that make an actor a good and convincing leader/tough guy can also in private life prevent thoughts that induce empathy. As a gun owner, I would never join NRA, partly because of Heston's overstatements, partly because the organization has been usurped by fanatics who seem to value the second amendment but not many of the others.

I never understood how the story of the Jews being freed from bondage by Moses became a regular Easter story on television. This is the story of Passover, not Easter. It is the story of Moses, not Christ. It is a Jewish story and yet Christians all across America watch it at Easter and claim it as their own. I just never got it. If anything, it shows how the law of God is Jewish law.
In any event, Charlton Heston will always be Moses to me and not the NRA fanatic he became.

To be honest, there are no good reasons to own guns in this day
and age...except to protect oneself against other people with guns.
It's a circular argument. Those who hunt and pass this custom on
to their young are dying out and their numbers are dwindling. The
second amendment needs to be respected because it is part of the
Constitution, but like other parts of the document, it should be
amended out of it or dramatically revised to avoid ridiculous
arguments, such as what is "well-regulated militia"?

"Those who hunt and pass this custom on
to their young are dying out and their numbers are dwindling"

You base this assertion on some sort of personal effort you've made in research, or just on the fact you have never witnessed opening day of elk season in North Idaho?

Personally, I think you made that "fact" up out of thin air. But hey, I've been wrong before.

When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns.

You can buy an Uzi in the South Central L.A. black market for about $500.

Beyond that, many people in rural areas live far from immediate police support, so would need their own protection in the event of a crime.

And the Second Amendment is there to ensure that the government should fear the people, and not vice versa.

Heston did a lot for civil rights.

I too was a member of the NRA as a young adult, precisely because I used to hunt, and because hunter organizations are the only reason that deer did not become extinct in Florida. But when the NRA began its journey to the nutcase fringe, I ended my membership (in the early 70s, if I remember correctly).

The second amendment exists to ensure that a well-organized militia can stand ready to protect the citizenry. It is a corollary to the right of the citizens to choose their government, and their government officials. It is not worded as an individual right, although that connotation has been embraced by the majority of Americans, so it stands as a legitimate interpretation. But it is worded as a collective right directly linked to public responsibility. I fail to see how it can be stretched to cover the notion, for instance, that private citizens have an individual right to keep guns in a city whose citizenry collectively see guns as a threat, especially handguns, or worse, that individuals have a right to take guns anywhere they please. Does the NRA imagine including the right for me to carry a 9 mm aboard a commercial airliner?

10/15/2006 5:56:00 AM

Jason Middleton, of Hermiston, poses with the four-point buck
he shot recently near Hermiston. Staff photo by Tammy
Malgesini.
Hunting numbers dwindle
Oregonians choosing other recreational activities

By Tammy Malgesini
The East Oregonian

With rifle deer season recently ending and elk season less than
two weeks away, Oregon is finding dwindling numbers of those
applying for hunting tags.

Deer tag applications have been within 2,000 the past three
years, however this year, they're the lowest since 1998.
Applications for elk drawings in 2006 are the lowest since 1997.

"The baby boom generation is aging and they hunt in greater
numbers than the following age groups," said Harry Upton, an
economist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

He said the average age of hunters over the past 10 years has
increased from 37 to 40.

Upton said that may not sound like much, but statistics show
fewer young people are hunting.

Etc...

And this from the other end of the country as reported by Seven
Days: Vermont's Independent Voice, late last year:

"Gun Shy
Why is Vermont’s hunter population dwindling?

by Ken Picard (11/07/07).

Vermont’s young bucks gathered Sunday at the Neshobe
Sportsman Club in Brandon for a barbecue celebrating the
annual Youth Deer Hunting Weekend. Scores of young hunters
toting rifles and gear bags emerged from parent-driven SUVs
and pickups bearing bumper stickers like “Gut deer?” and
“Hooked on quack.”

Each fall, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department opens rifle
season one weekend early for deer hunters 16 and under. The
goal is to give the young guns some time in the woods — and,
presumably, away from their computers and video games —
where they can stalk their prey without the pressure of
competing against older, more seasoned sportsmen.

This year, an estimated 8000 youth participated in the hunt; at
gun shops and mom-and-pop stores throughout Vermont, the
kids could be seen sporting their hunter-orange and camo-
green garb. It beats gray and white. To put it bluntly, Vermont’s
sportsmen are getting older, and due to a variety of societal
factors, fewer young people are taking up the sport.

Youth Deer Hunting Weekend is just one way the state is trying
to reverse the slow but steady decline in so-called
“consumptive” wildlife sports — that is, hunting, angling and
trapping. This national trend, first noticed about two decades
ago, has been confirmed by surveys done every five years by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The most recent results, just
released this summer, found that the number of hunters 16 and
older dropped by 10 percent between 1996 and 2006 — from 14
million to about 12.5 million. The decline was most dramatic in
New England, the Rockies and Pacific states, where the total
number of hunters was down by about 400,000 people.

Etc...

Tintin.......

Thanks for that. Obviously, it comes as a suprise to me.

A pity I am not younger, for if this decline continues, the back country might once again, in a coupla decades, entertain something other than an army of road sign murderers and armed campfire drunks.

Oh, but how I miss a good elk steak.

GV--

The movie "The Ten Commandments" is based on the story of
Passover but really it is meant to be the story of America and
how it views itself during the 1950s. The Pharaoh is an atheist
with a Russian accent who runs a command economy; the
Israelites are being promised freedom under a rule of law (not
being emphasized here is the notion of becoming a nation of
priests with the law being a code of holiness)--essentially the
notion that Moses anticipates the Constitution. And what he
started, implied at the concluding scene, is being brought to
fulfillment today.

And, in contrast to what the Bible says, that there was a clear
distinction in appearance and language between Hebrews and
Egyptians ("a people of strange language" as the Psalmist
writes)--they are all basically interchangeable. Of course, there
is a proto-civil rights message in that the "Nubians" get to leave
Egypt with the Hebrews--but note that they can come into
Aaron's house but not to sit at the table with everyone else.

Also keep in mind that the movie "has something" for each of
the major Abrahamic faiths. Moses "anticipates" the opening of
the Gospel of John after meeting God; Ramses recites the first
half of the Shahada after being defeated at the Red Sea.

So yes the overall story is that of Passover but reworked and
reimagined according to the dictates of the American civil
religion.

Pissed--

Not a problem. Don't get me wrong: I'm not "against" hunting per
se and have hunted, once or twice, myself. My father tried to teach
me, but I never took to it. Probably because he wasn't really a
hunter himself--just thought it was something a father "should"
teach a son.

There have been several similar articles in western states papers about the numbers of hunters and fisherman dwindling. Most of them cite figures from various Fish and Game departments based on license sales. It's seems to be becoming a real concern for some areas that rely heavily on business from sports hunters/fisherman.

I suspect that numbers of hunters will begin to drop at an accelerating pace. Hunting is an outdoor sport that requires great patience, and it is something that normally requires an adult figure to pass it on (at least as best I can tell). Actual hunting will be replaced with video game hunting. That would be ok, I guess, but damned, that fresh air and those hours in the woods were great, and deer herds have to be culled by hunters because the natural predators are pretty much gone.

I used to love to hunt, although I finally came to dislike the sound of the gun shattering the incredibly beautiful silence of a winter morning in the Ocala Forest, and even moreso the behavior of way too many hunters loose with 30.06s and asshole attitudes, something I did not experience in my youth in the 50s but began to encounter ever more frequently starting in the early 70s.

Squirrel as my mother prepared it is still the top game dish, even if squirrels are just tree rats. Second is the wild hog I used to cook over a hole in the ground in which we'd built an oak fire and allowed it to burn down to coals. Whenever the fat would catch fire, we'd douse it with beer, which made the meat really good. Wild hogs in Florida, by the way, are pretty much just hogs with badass back hair and an inclination to perform an appendectomy on you, whether you need it or not. And any hog that wanders onto you land is your hog, regardless.

I've also had still hunt venison that was damned good. It was prepared by a woman who just plain knew what she was doing.

Oh, yeah, and add wild turkey smoked by Leesburg, Florida's master smoker. Merd but that was good.

I grew up lusting after Charlton Heston, as did my mom! She taught me to adore Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, El Cid,and the Agony and the Ecstacy. My earliest teen age girl fantasies were of Charlton panting in the shadows of the Admiral's state room on board the galley ship in nothing but his ragged loin clothe!! And some of his scenes in The Ten Commandments showed him to be quite the stud, too! I layed my hands on his hand print at the theatre display, and bought three post cards of it when I was in LA. I loved every movie he made as I became an adult - never missed a one - and have read every line he ever wrote, some more than once! I was SO proud when he was honored with the Kennedy Center Honors - almost like he was my own dad!! Sad, huh! :( However, when he became an NRA activist, I had to lay down my life long admiration and love for this talented actor. :( As a school teacher in an urban setting, I face the possibility of gun violence every day I go to work. This would not be the case in a country where guns were not easily available - even to our young people, and particularly their nutcase parents!! I mourn his death, but not his stand on this issue. pxs7du

I grew up lusting after Charlton Heston, as did my mom! She taught me to adore Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, El Cid,and the Agony and the Ecstacy. My earliest teen age girl fantasies were of Charlton panting in the shadows of the Admiral's state room on board the galley ship in nothing but his ragged loin clothe!! And some of his scenes in The Ten Commandments showed him to be quite the stud, too! I layed my hands on his hand print at the theatre display, and bought three post cards of it when I was in LA. I loved every movie he made as I became an adult - never missed a one - and have read every line he ever wrote, some more than once! I was SO proud when he was honored with the Kennedy Center Honors - almost like he was my own dad!! Sad, huh! :( However, when he became an NRA activist, I had to lay down my life long admiration and love for this talented actor. :( As a school teacher in an urban setting, I face the possibility of gun violence every day I go to work. This would not be the case in a country where guns were not easily available - even to our young people, and particularly their nutcase parents!! I mourn his death, but not his stand on this issue. pxs7du

I grew up lusting after Charlton Heston, as did my mom! She taught me to adore Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, El Cid,and the Agony and the Ecstacy. My earliest teen age girl fantasies were of Charlton panting in the shadows of the Admiral's state room on board the galley ship in nothing but his ragged loin clothe!! And some of his scenes in The Ten Commandments showed him to be quite the stud, too! I layed my hands on his hand print at the theatre display, and bought three post cards of it when I was in LA. I loved every movie he made as I became an adult - never missed a one - and have read every line he ever wrote, some more than once! I was SO proud when he was honored with the Kennedy Center Honors - almost like he was my own dad!! Sad, huh! :( However, when he became an NRA activist, I had to lay down my life long admiration and love for this talented actor. :( As a school teacher in an urban setting, I face the possibility of gun violence every day I go to work. This would not be the case in a country where guns were not easily available - even to our young people, and particularly their nutcase parents!! I mourn his death, but not his stand on this issue.