New Gun Law in Wisconsin

Apparently any child under 10 can carry and shoot with their own gun now.

Someone should make a better thread than me since i don't know where to find a good source that will be considered "true"

But at the end, can you really let 5-6 year old girls and boys hunting? What is next? A baby with a pistol?

I never understood hunting or shooting living things for fun, and really despise how some parents want to teach their kids to kill, but there at least should be some age limit so the kids to actually understand what they are doing.

Source

This isn't a new law, it is a revision to the hunting laws in Wisconsin.

It allows children of any age to go hunting with a licenced parent.

I don't think this is a terribly bad thing. Up until the mass influx of gun laws, Dad's would often take their boys with them hunting.

This doesn't mean children will be running around with guns at home, or out with their friends. This means Dads and their sons will be out deer hunting in the woods, teaching their boys valuable lessons many don't get to learn until later.

From my linked source above:

A Wisconsin resident must be at least 12 years old to purchase a hunting license or hunt with a gun. However, until now children as young as 10 could participate in a mentored hunt. That program allows the child to hunt with a mentor who is at least 18 and has gone through a hunter safety course or had military training if they’re younger than 44. The mentor and student could have only one gun between them, and they had to stay within arm’s reach of one another. The new law allows children of any age to participate in a mentored hunt and allows mentor and student to each carry a weapon.

Thirty-four other states have no minimum hunting age. Several groups, including Whitetails Unlimited and the National Rifle Association, registered in favor of the Wisconsin bill. The proposal generated fierce opposition from minority Democrats and child safety advocates. Republicans pushed ahead anyway, saying parents should be allowed to decide whether their children are ready to kill an animal and that the measure will attract more children to hunting.

originally posted by: Cygnis
Source

This isn't a new law, it is a revision to the hunting laws in Wisconsin.

It allows children of any age to go hunting with a licenced parent.

I don't think this is a terribly bad thing. Up until the mass influx of gun laws, Dad's would often take their boys with them hunting.

This doesn't mean children will be running around with guns at home, or out with their friends. This means Dads and their sons will be out deer hunting in the woods, teaching their boys valuable lessons many don't get to learn until later.

Oh well, thanks or explaining it to me.

a reply to: ZeroFurrbone

I never understood hunting or shooting living things for fun

It's called feeding your family.

a reply to: ZeroFurrbone

Well, in Wisconsin kids are also allowed to drink at the bar if with a parent or legal guardian who approves it.

So in Wisconsin you can have drunk kids with guns!

originally posted by: ZeroFurrbone
Apparently any child under 10 can carry and shoot with their own gun now.

Someone should make a better thread than me since i don't know where to find a good source that will be considered "true"

But at the end, can you really let 5-6 year old girls and boys hunting? What is next? A baby with a pistol?

I never understood hunting or shooting living things for fun, and really despise how some parents want to teach their kids to kill, but there at least should be some age limit so the kids to actually understand what they are doing.

Anyone I know who hunts does it for the meat, and does so in a humane and respectful manner. Kids very young can hunt with a guardian. For a person to buy their OWN gun, they would have to be 18 for a long gun and 21 for a pistol, in most states. Kids learning about gun safety at a young age pretty much ensures they will never have any negligent "accidents". I have seen 6-10 year old's at various gun ranges handle weapons more responsibly than some of those in their 30-50's. Education is the key.

I doub't this law means a 5 year old can just go off on their own with a firearm to hunt.

ParentS spending time with their kids, is one of the best ways to keeps kids out of trouble.

How many times have your heard, "gun safety", teaching a kid how to handle a gun is a lesson that will last a life time

Plus, hunters typically respect nature and their hunting fees typically go to protect nature/animals

ZeroFurrbone, if you don't want to hunt, at least go to a shooting range. After that, I think a lot of your misconceptions about guns will go out the window.

I'm very pro-gun, but I think this is a stupid idea, harebrained, in fact.

I'm a cheesehead and very sick of the annual male ritual centered around the gun deer season. These people turn into complete assholes hopped up on testosterone and rude to the people in the small towns who host their stupidity.

But I digress. Kids in the age range cited should not be handling firearms.

www.usatoday.com...

I have no problem with this whatsoeverexcept I do believe every hunter should have passed a hunter safety program prior to being allowed to hunt. Other than that minor discrepancy, I think it should 100% be the parents' decision when their child is ready for hunter safety and, thus, hunting.

originally posted by: Lurker1
Kids in the age range cited should not be handling firearms.

My 9 year old daughter will outshoot you with a rimfire rifle with both iron sights and a scope and will smoke your ass with a bow. My 11 year old son will outshoot you with a 5.56 with peep sights and with a scope and, again, would smoke your ass with his bow. I do not know you or your skills, but I say the above with complete confidence.

a reply to: ZeroFurrbone

I never understood hunting or shooting living things for fun, and really despise how some parents want to teach their kids to kill

Do you buy and eat meat from the supermarket? In my opinion, if you're not prepared to kill and prepare your own meat then you have no business eating meat. I think if you're a meat eater then you should be willing to source it yourself. If not then you're a hypocrite in my eyes.

The citizens of the US should thank their lucky stars that they still have the ability to be self-sufficient if they choose/need to be. Here in the UK the citizens, on the whole, are bound to the corporations and big business for their food supply and don't have the means or the option to hunt their own food.

I think teaching kids to be self sufficient, to hunt, to understand and respect where their food comes from and to learn what it means to take a life to feed oneself is a valuable lesson in respect of both oneself and the environment...

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

Very reasonable post.

I was 10 when Dad introduced me physically with firearms. We talked about guns WAY before I was allowed to handle them., Both long gun and handgun. Great time with Dad. One of the few good times I remember.

Wisconsin has been disarmed 4-6 weeks though with Arron Rodgers being sidelined.

Weird double post.

Sorry

a reply to: ZeroFurrbone


My children went hunting with me at very young ages. They also had their own rifles, around age 10.

Never any negative consequences either, since I taught them gun safety and respect early on. Both are well adjusted and social adults, neither have ever been in trouble for any sort of violence.

When I was a young man, other students would often have hunting rifles in their vehicles during hunting season. Including times those vehicles were parked at the High School. No big deal.

Students also carried pocket knives to class, which were never an issue. No big deal.

Yet somehow, in spite of all the weaponry present (even at schools), we didn't have the kind of crap happening then that is happening today. This tells me there is something wrong with the people (despite having harsher gun control laws), not the tools they use.

a reply to: JBurns

10 seems to keep popping up. Maybe that's an unconscious age that parents feel kids are OK with guns. So this law is more about those that feel kids can handle guns at a younger age. Seems reasonable to me.

a reply to: ZeroFurrbone

You have some really odd preconceptions surrounding guns and gun owners.

1. Yes, it's perfectly acceptable for a 5- to 6-year-old to shoot a firearm, and even go hunting with an adult or other responsible person. This wasn't uncommon that long ago, and it's still not uncommon in some places.

2. Hunting is not equivalent to "shooting living things for fun." You'd do yourself well to talk to actual hunters, or attend a meeting of a hunting club, and see the actual average person who hunts and hear the average reason. I guarantee you that the answer will not be, "'Cuz that there shootin' of live critters is a hoot!"

3. Teaching hunting to children is a skill that I (a) wish that I could do and (b) wish I had forced it so that I could have taught my son at a young age. As it stands now, I have a friend who hunts deer and turkey, and he always gives me some of the venison. That beats purchasing meat at the grocery store where you don't know where it came from or how brutally it was slaughtered en masse.

You really should write a better OP--you lack of links to actual sources, especially to the actual verbiage of the law--is very telling to your desire to be hyperbolic and emotional rather than logical about the law.

As others have pointed out, this isn't a new law, but a revision to an old one, and it doesn't give 5-year-olds the ability to walk down the street unsupervised with a firearm at the ready.

Another thing that you need to consider is that, to hunt deer legally, the rifle must be 26" in length or longer, with a 16" barrel at minimum. Even though Wisconsin allows the minimum caliber for hunting deer to be .22 (I find that to be ridiculous, as that's not a caliber likely to drop a deer without causing elongated suffering...in KY, it's .223, and that's still iffy, IMO), that's still a very long, heavy rifle for small, under-10-year-old child.

I'm quite certain that the odds of a 5- to 6-year-old being willing and capable of properly using such a rifle will be slim.

But if they are willing and capable, the state should not be telling a parent or person willing to mentor that child in hunting that they cannot do it.

Do better.

a reply to: JBurns

Yup!

A lot of high-schools used to teach hunting, had target shooting classes, and such as well. (As well as wood shop, metal shop, and automotive shop).

This all changed in the 80's/90's and then Columbine happened a few short years later after the Democrats had guns banned from school.

Since then, it has been all downhill.

a reply to: intrepid


Agreed intrepid Of course I'm not saying they should just be given guns and turned loose at 10 y/o, I think it is really important they are supervised by a responsible adult (to make sure no accidents happen!) and have as much safety training as they can get.

My girls had their own rifles (.22 lr leverguns), and they were allowed to keep them in their own gun cases. But the ammo was stored in the gun safe, since the only loaded guns in my house are/were those being carried/designated for home defense. The carry weapons stay in holsters, or go into one of a handful of biometric safes in various locations

a reply to: Cygnis


Agreed, I have no idea what exactly changed in society in that time either. But the public at large is an entirely different animal (to use a phrase, not literally saying they're animals) than it was even 20-30 years ago

Look back 40 years, and society is unrecognizable.

I think a general lack of respect for others (including their lives) and a lower standard of parenting is part of the problem. But even that doesn't really explain anything.

Crazy times, my friend!