Since "hunters" are a minority within a minority, "we" need to consider the image we project onto the rest of society which does not hunt and which is not firearms owning, "they" who are the majority.
Their view of us, whether true or untrue, is going to determine the outcome of whether we may continue to "hunt" in America, since "they" are a majority and "we" are a minority.
Their majority is sensitive to certain issues that they see as "abusive" among "hunters."
Killing for "sport" alone is one of those things that is "offensive" to them.
Ergo, it makes the most sense to "hunt" for that which you plan to eat yourself. Not which you "could" eat but that which you "will" eat.
That's the first critical point that the "hunting community" needs to fully understand and comprehend.
Killing "anything that moves" is another one of those things that is offensive to the non-hunting and non-firearms-owning community. Particularly in view of the biological science evidence that suggests that ALL species are valuable to the ecology. For example, coyote and bobcat populations keep rodent and vermine populations down. Rodents and vermine carry plague. Ergo coyotes and bobcats are valuable to the environment.
Killing for "trophies" alone is yet another of those things that is offensive to them. This however is less of an issue in the USA than in Africa. Yet someone who travels to Africa to engage in this kind of hunting is creating ill will among the non-hunting non-firearms-owning majority in the USA.
I suggest we all reconsider our own actions with our firearms, and try to project a positive favorable image among the whole population.
I am a meat hunter, and although I do not feel that meat hunting is currently at risk in the USA, I have to constantly explain to others who do not hunt that (1) I do not kill "predators," (2) I do not shoot anything that moves, and (3) I do not trophy hunt at all.
As the temple at Delphi in Greece says, "Know Thyself."
Are you truly a principled hunter? Or are you really just a psycho with a gun?