Resources / Ripples & Wipeouts

In most parts of New York State a person has to be at least 16 years old to drive a car, 18 to purchase a pack of cigarettes and 21 to legally consume alcohol.  To serve in the United States military one must be 18 to enlist on one’s own and 17 to join with parental consent. So perhaps you will be as surprised as I was to learn that it is perfectly legal for a 12 year old child to hunt in most of New York State, and that includes doing it with a rifle, as well as the less dangerous – and I use the modifier loosely – shotgun.

You see, if a kid with a shotgun gets careless, he is probably going to maim or kill only those idiots who are foolish enough to be hunting alongside him.  (Think Dick Cheney shooting his pal Harry Whittington at point blank range.) If that same kid has a rifle, however, the bullet can travel over half a mile, quite possibly knee-capping you while you’re in the backyard of your country house raking leaves.

That’s why I’m waiting until after December 9th, when deer season ends, to travel upstate to visit my brother on his organic farm in Steuben County.  I want to walk in the woods without worrying that one of us or one of the dogs could become a casualty of some kid’s poor aim.  And I find absolutely no comfort in knowing that the law requires that kid to be accompanied by a person 21 or older. 

My insecurity is aggravated by my brother’s stories about listening to the hunters on his shortwave radio, yucking it up about how the Jack Daniels is keeping them warm while they tramp through the woods after Bambi and Thumper.  Alcohol, guns and testosterone:  Talk about weapons of mass destruction!

The best part is that, once I get there, as sure as the sun rises and the deer die, someone is going to ask me how I can possibly live in New York City, where it’s so very dangerous.

--Bonnie