Yes, it is cruel and hard to understand

The tragedy that occurred in Wisconsin over the weekend, when an angry hunter shot and killed five other hunters and wounded three more, was a terrible thing. Rescuers and other hunters trying to help the wounded were also shot at by the gunman, who got carried away over an argument about a tree stand. There was a private property dispute, the man was not white, and one hopes one's worst assumptions aren't true, though it wouldn't make any difference at this point. The man has been arrested, but now we have before us one more incident of what happens when people have no clue how to deal with their anger, and what happens when those people own assault rifles.

A Wisconsin law enforcement officers appeared on MSNBC and said that the question he was asked over and over was "How could anyone do anything so cruel?" This struck me as a really crazy question to ask about hunters, given that their recreation involves destroying living creatures who have not attacked them. But it is a sign of our culture's denial and lack of insight that we would ask such a question.

I know the standard answer: The animals are suffering from over-population and it is better to kill them with guns than to let them starve. But why is killing living creatures recreation, i.e., something that people enjoy? Granted, in those places where over-populaton is a fact, killing animals with guns does indeed seem more humane. That is, until you realize that they are over-populated because we drove them from their homes so we could build more Wal-Marts and fast food franchises.

It happened where I live. Deer and raccoons used to wander this neighborhood, but now they walk down the highway and get hit by cars. But I can visit extraordinarily ugly banks and cell phone stores where the deer used to live.

The other thing wrong with the "hunting is humane" argument is that hunters (with the exception of the nut case in Wisconsin) are careful to "clean out" populations only of non-human creatures. If they think hunting is so good for the population problem, why don't they have a season for killing people?

Oh, wait...they do. It's called war.