I volunteered teaching at gun safety classes for many years, Larry. The classes were mostly full of kids going duck or deer hunting. I took the class myself (at my local elementary school, horror of horrors) in about 1972.
The thing it taught me was that my father had already done a hell of a job instructing me, and, most of the other kids folks, hadn't. The state wasn't going to do the job my father had done, but, for all those other kids, it was way better than nothing.
I've had my share of nervous mothers and fathers show up at the required shooting sessions, and the great majority have been won over. I couldn't take every kid hunting, but, plenty have stomped through my covers, using one of my loaners, and I have been enriched for the effort.
I had one, honest-to-goodness, psychopathic mother show up during a class when her ex-husband tried to get the kid through the course on the sly. Never saw the kid, or, thankfully, her, again. Hope he isn't in a jail cell somewhere.
A local radio personality describes what we are dealing with as "The Mystery", the all out effort to dismantle the America, and it's pastimes and recreation, we knew and enjoyed as kids.
With the possible exception of deer and turkey hunting, this effort has been frighteningly successful, I'm afraid.
I see fewer people hunting, a bad thing, that isn't all bad. The pooch and I have the woods to ourselves, mostly.
Best,
Ted
