Good news, toddlers! It’s hunting season! Wisconsin’s Republican State Assembly approved a bill that would do away with those pesky attacks on the Second Amendment—letting babies go hunting. WMTJ 4 reports:
Right now someone must be at least 12 years old to purchase a license or hunt with a gun unless they're participating in a mentored hunt. Children as young as 10 can hunt under that program.
The Republican bill would allow anyone of any age to participate in a mentored hunt, effectively letting anyone of any age hunt. The measure also would do away with the requirement that a hunter and mentor have only one weapon between them.
Proponents of dropping the age will say things like “I shot my first gun when I was four. I had my first beer when I was six on a hunting trip with my brothers and dad. I’m John, I’m an alcoholic.” You know, good healthy things like that. The argument that your parents allowed you to do such things is not a real argument.
The bill's author, Rep. Rob Stafsholt of New Richmond, told reporters before the Assembly took the floor that not every hunter uses high-powered rifles and he believed he was capable of handling a .22-caliber rifle when he was eight years old.
He said during the Assembly floor debate that his daughter killed a bear at age 11 but held her back from bear hunting when she was 10 because she wasn't ready.
It’s other famous rhetorical use is to explain hitting your kids. Republicans and the NRA have had a lot of success with abusing children by making parents believe it’s a right that’s being taken away. If you live in a nomadic tribe whose only way of feeding itself is to hunt in the forests of Wisconsin, I could understand wanting a pass on your hunting license. But this is about the NRA getting children into the culture of guns. This is Joe Camel and cigarettes.