Presidential candidates and their gun lust

In her column in today’s New York Times, 2/23/08, “A Bad Year to be a Mallard,” Gail Collins quotes several of the current and former candidates regarding their liking for hunting:

“I’m pretty sure there will be duck hunting in heaven, and I can’t wait.”
— Mike Huckabee

“I’ve been a hunter pretty much all my life.”
— Mitt Romney

“I’ve always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints if you will.”
— Mitt Romney, amending the record once it was pointed out that he had never had a hunting license.

“Maybe he can get out his small varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his yard.”
— John McCain

“My father taught me to shoot 100 years ago.”
— Hillary Clinton

I’m particularly distressed by Governor Huckabee’s statement. This man was a minister. Here he is suggesting that the Lord would allow the murder of animals in the Heaven that he imagines to exist. Its one thing to suggest that hunting is ok if you are going to eat what you shoot, or if you shoot an animal because it is killing your livestock (wolves or foxes for example), but it is quite another to justify it for mere sport. Surely, Governor Huckabee, doesn’t believe that there will be a problem getting a good meal in Heaven. Hmnn, perhaps he had the other place in mind.

Now former Governor Romney has some justification for his alleged hunting. You can eat rabbits, and they aren’t readily available at supermarkets in Massachusetts where he was Governor, but you can’t eat varmints. Why shoot them. Why not wake up that dog that is doing absolutely nothing around the house and send them out to hunt; by themselves. Terriers, for example were specifically bred to hunt varmints. Why not buy them and let them do it. I had an Irish Terrier once and he loved nothing better then going after varmints, even if he almost tore your arm off with the leash when he did so. Let your terrier do varmint hunting and get your ducks, geese, and rabbits at the butchers. That way you’ll know that they died with a minimal amount of pain.

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