Kids and hunting - where to draw the line?

When a 14-year-old boy in Washington state recently mistook a hiker for a bear, took aim, and fatally shot her, there was surprisingly little bitterness toward the boy, despite his tragic error in judgment.

But eleven days have passed now, and the repercussions are becoming clear: Prosecutors have announced they'll file first-degree manslaughter charges against the boy, who appears to have violated one of the most important rules of hunting - identify what you're shooting at before you pull the trigger.

And some officials at Washington Fish & Wildlife have announced they want to reinstitute age requirements for hunters (click here for the full story).

This is one of those rare times that I'm honestly not sure what I think about an issue.

As a rule, I hate knee-jerk reactions to accidents. One person makes a mistake, and legislative or regulatory bodies figure some sort of ban will ameliorate the public's outrage or concern. But the problem is that no ban can ever fully eliminate risk, and bans predominantly restrict people who weren't doing anything wrong to begin with.

But ... children are more prone to making mistakes because they are young and learning, and a mistake in hunting can be - as it was in this case - irreversible. So doesn't it make sense to place more restrictions on children in hunting, just as we restrict children in driving?

But ... haven't adults made mistakes like this as well? Lord, you always hear about turkey hunters shooting at movement and sound that turns out to be another turkey hunter doing some really good calling.

So, was this a mistake of youth, which you can address with age requirements? Or was it a mistake of stupidity, which infects people of all ages?

Should we cut off more youth from hunting? Or is there anything we can do to improve hunter safety training, which has already tremendously reduced hunting accidents? Or do we accept that no matter how careful we are, people will make fatal mistakes - in hunting, just the same as in driving?

I don't know the answer. But regardless of the law, I think decisions about when a child is ready to hunt should be made by a (hopefully intelligent) parent who is evaluating whether the child is mature enough to handle the responsibility. Terry Scoville over at the Women's Hunting Journal is exploring the same question. Some kids are careless and obviously shouldn't have guns; others are so diligent that you know they're going to be the smartest and most careful hunters out there. But there's no way to legislate that decision-making process, is there?

All I know for sure is that this shooting and the ensuing debate come at a critical time.

All over the country, hunting groups are pushing states to make it easier for kids to hunt, and for good reason: If you don't catch the hunting bug with your family as a kid, you may never start as an adult, and that means the number of hunters will continue to decline.

That's a problem, because hunting is a heritage well worth preserving, and not just to justify our existence or ensure our political clout. Hunting is important because it connects us to our food and nature in ways that nothing else can. And, personally, I think this country needs to be a lot more in tune with our food supply, because removing ourself from the process of food production and entrusting it to industrial geniuses has done nothing but make us fat and sick.

So, dear readers, what do you think? What's the answer? As a new hunter who grew up in a non-hunting family, I don't have one, so I'm looking to the experienced hunters for your wisdom on this matter.

© Holly A. Heyser 2008