I hunted pheasants, with the permission of my father and to some extent following his model (though we only hunted together once), when I was growing up on a farm in rural Illinois until I left home at 18 for college and then out of state to work. I did not hunt or keep any gun in my home until my father died when I was 46 when I inherited several high power rifles, .22 rifles, and shotguns. I first began taking the high power rifles out to shoot at the rifle range and then decided it would be nice if I could find a place to hunt using these rifles. While showing my inherited guns to my niece's husband, he invited me to deer hunt on his small cattle lease. This is how I got started -- or "restarted" maybe -- hunting.

It wasn't that I wouldn't have liked to hunt before, but I didn't own my own guns and didn't know where I would hunt if I did have guns.

My own plan is to try to get each of my three children involved in hunting early. My 15 year old son and I have gone squirrel hunting several times, though we haven't found a productive squirrel hunting ground yet. We have gone dove hunting several times, but we haven't found a good dove hunting ground yet. We drove from our Texas home to Gilette, Wyoming, this October and both took pronghorn antelope -- my son taking a buck and me taking a doe. We both hunted deer on the above mentioned cattle lease this November when I took a doe and my son had no shot (he obstinately insisted on a buck-only license, because his first deer kill MUST be a buck -- and there are fewer bucks on this hunting ground than does). My middle daughter may not care to hunt. Maybe I can get her out to shoot and to become familiar with guns even if she doesn't hunt. My youngest daughter likes to eat venison and seems like she may want to go deer hunting when she gets older. Time will tell. I also have taken one neighbor boy who is a friend of my son's to the hunter safety course, at the same time my son took it. I took it with them as well, though in most of my hunting I am not required to have the certification, because I figured I could learn valuable information also, and so I did. I plan to take another of my son's friends to hunter safety course this year. I have taken the first neighbor boy squirrel hunting, but we saw zero squirrels. I also took him dove hunting with my son and I, but the dove hunting was poor.

Generally, I think each hunter has an obligation to introduce others into the sport of hunting. Your children, obviously, but preferably others in addition. This extends to general gun handling -- you ought to introduce others into the sports of shooting, starting with the hunter safety course. These are probably the best ways to preserve the sport for hunters and to keep the second amendment alive.