Guns and the environment

The disaster taking place in the Gulf of Mexico has got me thinking about the environment and the ways we destroy it. Last week I wrote about how some people are pro life and pro death. I stated that I try to take a common sense approach to issues that many see as divisive.

One group of folks who don’t seem to share my common sense approach are gun owners, specifically those that are hunters. Common sense dictates that these people should want to try to preserve the environment. Afterall, if you destroy an animals natural habitat and they are forced to move or worse, don’t you also destroy the ability to hunt that animal. If you look at their usual political positions, the same people who want to hunt seem to be the same people who’d clear cut every tree in sight if they could make a buck (as opposed to shooting one).  I never quite understood those two political/societal stances on these issues. You’d think hunters would the first ones lining up to join the Sierra Club, the NRDC or other environmental groups but I don’t think they are because there extremist buddies see environmentalists as the enemy.

For those of you who are going to tell me I’m anti-gun and I’m anti-NRA and I’m a tree hugger, well I’m not (although I did hug my big backyard tree this weekend because it’s starting to show it’s age…but only on side). Yes, I do have issues with gun owners, the NRA and tree huggers but my common sense approach guides me to realize that these opposing sides don’t always make sense.

Why is it that it’s always those that take the extreme sides of an issue that you hear about the most? It’s always the crazy gun owners holed up in some backwoods cabin or the nutty tree guy chained and locked to a redwood. Hey crazy gun guy – do you really need an Uzi to hunt a deer? And you tree hugger – chaining yourself to a tree makes you look like a friggin’ idiot.

OK, so I think I may have strayed a bit from my original premise but you all get the picture. We are screwing up our planet but good and as they used to say in those old Chiffon Margarine commercials “It’s not nice to screw mother nature.” So I changed it a little. Deal with it!