August 22, 2012

Hunting Numbers on the Rise

Several organizations are trumpeting a rise in American hunter numbers, according to a survey by the federal Fish and Wildlife Service (PDF.)

Dave Hardy (himself a former FWS attorney) comments at Of Arms and the Law:
This is a sharp reversal or earlier trends downward. This matches my hypothesis that we're seeing a broad cultural turnaround. Americans have historically liked guns, shooting, and hunting. From the 1960s onward, that was reduced. Now (at last, after fifty years) it's returning to the norm.
 In a news release, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation notes,
The just-released 2011 National Survey of Hunting, Fishing, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation shows 13.7 million people, or 6 percent of the U.S. population age 16 and older, went hunting last year. That marks a 9 percent increase over 2006, reversing a previous downward trend.
Is this trend a response to hard times, as one of Hardy's commenters suggests? Or people becoming gun owners for self-defense purposes and then moving from target-shooting to hunting?

3 comments:

jason said...

Speaking of which, are you going to do any turkey hunting this fall?

Chas S. Clifton said...

Jason, I'll get back to you by email.

Heather Houlahan said...

I think it's an increase in interest in primitive skills, sustainability, woodcraft, and food quality generally.

The new hunters will have different values than the majority of the old guard.

Overall for the good.