Hunters COULD Save the Second Amendment
- November 25, 2024
- By Jared Daub
Hunters COULD Save the Second Amendment
Hunters COULD Save the Second Amendment. The question is: Will we? Are we the largest “standing army”, or are we asleep? That’s a question I have been wrestling with for a long time. In March of 2024, I laid out a basic idea for a video that would cover this topic. Honestly, it was more difficult than I’d realized to try to capture what I was thinking and feeling. I put the video idea on the shelf for the last 6-7 months, but as we got nearer and nearer to the hunting season and got through the election, I knew it was time to open it back up again.
And I started by going down memory lane.
“This situation exposed to me that hunters are their own worst enemies. And I wanted no part within it.”
I went into the woods
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…and not, when I came to die, discover I had not lived.” – Henry David Thoreau
Most hunters could likely resonate with Thoreau’s quotation. The draw to the wilderness is about so much more than just taking game. Sure, you may just love to hunt, but there is a primal attraction as well. We wander endlessly into the forest to find a piece of ourselves that we often lose in the rural world. I really can only speak for myself, but the experience of seeing no one and hearing no one for days on end is vital. I fear the wilderness as much as I respect it.
Some of my fondest memories occurred at the base of a tree, rifle in hand, miles away from civilization. I can still recount the moments I first descended into the standing timbers on my own as a young man. I remember being scared, but going anyway. The forest at darkness is a chasm of stillness and power. The trees standing tall, often silhouetted by the moon. I’m always at a disadvantage as creatures that can see in this darkness move around me effortlessly. There is no other feeling I have found like the moment you set foot into the wilderness in the darkness of an early morning.
Engrained from a young age
Hunting was a tradition in my family. The men would always take a week or two to go north into the mountains to our family hunting camp. It was a time of comradery, experience, and family bonding. I loved having people at camp to spend time with. In fact, I often just couldn’t wait for the sun to go down because I knew the evening would be full of good times, food, games, and conversation. It’s not that I wanted to rush through the hunt and come back empty handed. It’s that I valued being around other men and sharing stories of the events of the day.
The thing about hunting is it is a community event that you partake in often alone. What I mean by that is there is absolutely a community of hunters. But much of the action of hunting is done solo. Story telling is a large part of that experience, sharing with others what you saw and witnessed throughout the hours of daylight. Pulling back into camp at the end of a day of hunting was exciting. Would there be a deer hanging there? Did anyone shoot a big buck? It was especially exciting when one of the family members was later than the others. “He must have gotten one!” was often all I could think about.
I think these stories will resonate with so many of you. Hunting is such a profound tradition and it is often used as a rite of passage for young men. There is a power in experiencing the hunt and being successful within it.
Drawn to the wilderness
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…and not, when I came to die, discover I had not lived.” – Henry David Thoreau
My favorite book when I was young was “My Side of The Mountain” by Jean Craighead George. This book was a spark in my life that captured my imagination to explore the wilderness. I built forts, explored, camped, and embarked on my own hunting journeys.
What drew me the most was the freedom I experienced. I was able to set foot into the wilderness, embark on my own adventures, and experience what it meant to provide. What does hunting mean to you? Are you also drawn to the freedom of solitude in the wilderness?
Like many others before me, as I got older the draw to hunt got dimmer and dimmer. Eventually, I through in the towel and stopped for 6-7 years. I found myself wrestling with why I chose to stop. And I landed on a few points that shaped me as a man, a hunter, and a defender.
Changing circumstances and redirection
My wife and I married young, and it was around this time that I hung up my hunting clothes and ended my tenure in the sport. My reasoning was the following:
1.) I had more life responsibility and hunting seemed less important.
2.) Hunters seemed hypocritical to me. Many loved the freedom they experienced, but enabled and encouraged government overreach.
3.) The firearms I desired to hunt with most, were illegal to hunt with in my state.
4.) I began to focus more on firearm mastery for defense and less on hunting
While, to some of you, these three points may seem moot, to me they drove me to a new pathway. I found more passion surrounding the understanding of firearms for defense versus taking my rifles into the woods to take game. I started to view hunters and those training with firearms as two very different worlds. Frankly, in many ways they are two different realities. But I found myself asking the question: “Are we really that different?” Don’t we both share common enemies attempting to take our rights? The answer is Yes, and Yes. We are different, but it doesn’t need to be that way. And, Yes, we do have a common enemy. We often simply forget that. Hunters could save the second amendment.
Hunting With Semi-Auto Rifles
While it might seem strange to you depending on your state’s laws, it has always been illegal to hunt small and large game in PA with semi-auto rifles. That all came to a head in 2016 when the PA general assembly allowed the game commission to rule on semi-autos for hunting purposes. I was fortunate enough to have a very flexible schedule, so I attended the meetings. I expected to hear more acceptance, but what I hear was hunters BEGGING the government for more restrictions. What I saw and heard was frustrating, to say the least.
The hunters in attendance, who likely only shoot 10 rounds per year to “zero” their rifles, claimed the younger generation, like me, would simply “spray and pray” without regard with semi-automatic rifles. I’m not sure if you’ve been around Pennsylvania hunters, but there is a segment that loves to do big deer drives and they love the concept of “if it’s brown, it’s down.” It felt very hypocritical and based in lies.
What’s worse is the game commission could have taken a more logical stance: Further gun rights, further capture the eyes of the younger generation, and secure our rights. But I wasn’t shocked at their stances. Ultimately, semi-auto rifles were made “legal” to be in use for small game. As of the date of writing this blog, hunting big game with semi-auto rifles is still illegal. This situation exposed to me that hunters are their own worst enemies. And I wanted no part within it.
I witnessed hunters and game commission officials stating that they demanded 3 or 5 round mag capacity restrictions on these rifles. Keep in mind, you can descend into the woods with a 44 Magnum Lever Gun that could hold 10+ rounds. But your AR15? 3 or 5 to “keep you safe”.
The Strategy, or Lack Therof
“I think these stories will resonate with so many of you. Hunting is such a profound tradition and it is often used as a rite of passage for young men. There is a power in experiencing the hunt and being successful within it.”
You see, if hunters were in alignment and understood our rights as humans, they would see the simple benefits of solidifying all types of firearms into state law for hunting. Hunters could save the second amendment. While the second amendment is NOT about hunting, securing the rifles politicians like to regulate the most, further secures them from abuse. Hunting has been watered down, much like firearm rights in general, to this belief that it is a privilege. Our personal bias has watered down the meaning of freedom and liberty. In doing so, we have limited our ability to effect real change in the world of firearms. I’ll be honest: witnessing these people belittling anyone who believed that hunting with an AR15 should not only be accepted, it should be encouraged, was a last straw for me. I no longer desired to engage in hunting big game in the state. I hung up my hunting gear and I decided that I would focus on firearms mastery and training. I’d become more active in the world of defensive firearms.
Looking back I actually missed a huge opportunity. I know that now, so I am working to correct the course.
Bringing this full circle
I want to bring this topic full circle for you: Hunters COULD Save the Second Amendment, but in order to do so, we need to drop the historical hatred of change. We need to rid ourselves of the resistance to firearms that could help spread the tradition of hunting far and wide. Hunters must realize that they have the power to invoke real change. By resisting change and standing up for “nanny state laws”, they are actively engaged in promoting gun control.
Think of it this way: If you are against modernizing hunting with fighting rifles, then YOU. ARE. IN. FAVOR. OF. GUN. CONTROL. Let me say it again: If you are begging the government to keep me from the wilderness with my AR15 or AR10, YOU are an enemy of liberty. And it doesn’t need to be that way. We can align as a collective and force the expansion of our human rights. We have a choice to make. And, as much as I’d like to think hunters would make the change, I’m just not sure we will ever see that come to fruition.
A Sleeping Army of 15 Million
Hunters like to flex this idea that “we are the largest standing army”. Are we standing, or sleeping? If you promote gun control, aren’t you simply an arm of the federal and state government, doing the dirty work for them? A huge portion of hunters don’t vote. Many support these ridiculous age requirements and regulations. So I sit here and fully acknowledge that hunters COULD save the Second Amendment. I just don’t think they will. That is an unfortunate reality I am wrestling with to this day.
