Guns

Guns aren't my favorite subject.  I'm glad I live in Canada rather than the United States, where too many people see guns as the embodiment of their freedom.  It goes back to the Second Amendment, yet its language speaks of the need for "a well-regulated militia." Not just regulated, but well regulated!  Government in the U.S. clearly haven't been regulating their "militias" well.

I've never got into hunting.  It's different with Inuit, say, who have always hunted for their food and clothes. (I'll admit that eating game you've killed is no worse than eating meat from a factory farm.) But I don't like the idea of taking even an animal's life just so you can call yourself a rugged outdoors man.  Besides, my ears are too sensitive for gunfire.

On the animated TV show South Park, there's a character called Uncle Jimbo, who's a hunting enthusiast.  When he sees an animal, he yells "He's coming right for us!" so they can say that they shot it in self-defense.

There's a really funny movie, A Christmas Story, about a kid who wants a Red Ryder B.B. gun for Christmas.  The grownups keep warning him, "You'll shoot your eye out!"

I saw an editorial-page cartoon once where someone said "I'm sick and tired of hunters being depicted as pigs and morons!" and someone else said "The pigs and morons don't like it either."