Are crossbows good or bad for hunting?
I'm just responding to that article on the home page. One other thing to think about is how traditional bow hunters felt when compound bows drew more people into the sport. Although you have to get closer to the animal in any type of archery than with a rifle, you have to get particularly close with a traditional bow which probably put some people off after being unsuccessful at approaching game that closely. Traditional bow hunting is more challenging, but allowing for compound bows attracted more hunters into the woods. A similar argument is now being made about crossbows.
I believe all Americans should have to hunt for at least some of their food. It teaches us respect and appreciation for wild life and it provides the highest quality protein (coming from truly free range animals). With that said, we simply do not have enough land and wildlife to support everyone. Maybe we're fighting the wrong battle here. We have more and more people every year taking up more land and more resources with no end in sight. The earth is only so large, what happens when we approach critical mass?
Is it possible some politicians are going to permit more of our public land to be available for housing after land in private hands gets sold off to people building more and more subdivisions for people to live? At some point, I think hunting, as we know it, will completely disappear. If we want to prevent that, we need to make the argument about population and preservation and expansion of public land.