Just for the fun of it? I read how in many US states hunting is almost dead because there simply are hardly any deer or other animals left to hunt. Wisconsin deer hunting season is a few days long I heard. What's the point to own rifles and guns in a peaceful little town back in the woods?
You do understand how ridiculous this sounds to people who grew up without ever seeing the need for gun ownership, right? How does a gun or rifle bestow safety or maturity without bullets you have access to? Do you see how this sounds stupid to some? Also, maturity originates from the head, not a big swinging dick replacement, called rifle. I mean I get it, humans can be conditioned to think anything and normalize what they are accustomed to. But can you try to picture yourself for a second in a person standing on the outside and listening to the glorious crap some gun owners share?
LOL, where do you get your twisted information from? Whitetail Deer populations are at a three hundred year high in the United States. Diseases and automobiles kill far more deer than hunters. It is widely known that US deer are in fact overpopulated in areas like the NorthEast US. State wildlife agencies carefully survey wildlife populations and health, and adjustments to hunting seasons are made each year. In fact, there are more Elk, Moose, Mountain Lion and Bear than there have been for about a hundred years in the lower 48. Hunting clubs like Ducks Unlimited buy millions of acres of farmland along migratory bird routes in order to preserve wildlife habitat. Same for fishing clubs like Trout Unlimited.
Your profile says that you're a Canadian - you do realize that millions of your fellow countrymen own firearms and hunt, correct? In fact, your provinces actively promotes hunting and calls hunting and fishing a "Canadian way of life". https://www.tourismsaskatchewan.com/things-to-do/hunting/hunting-in-canada https://mffp.gouv.qc.ca/english/publications/online/wildlife/hunting-regulations/index.asp https://www.northernontario.travel/hunting
Sure, but we don't have 10 day long hunting seasons And gun ownership is only allowed after 1, often 2, training courses and examinations, both theoretical and practical, registration of every owner and firearm, and required hunting training, examination and mandatory mentorship. You can't just buy a rifle in Canada, get a license and go hunting. In BC you need to find a mentor who takes you for, I think it was 6 months, and takes you under his/her supervision. Gun ownership here means you are a serious hunter and for nothing else. No guns needed for anything else. People earn and learn their pride and manhood not from some rifle ownership but from living life responsibly. Hardly anyone here needs a firearm to defend his home or life ever.
You post a link without reading and understanding it. Wisconsin very actively surveys and manages it's native wildlife populations. https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/WildlifeHabitat/deermanagement.html
I can understand the appeal of owning a gun in a rural or country setting, for both sport and protection. (Not hunting, though. I could never revel in the killing of an innocent animal. Yes, I eat meat, but I take no pleasure in its killing.) But in a densely populated city, the appeal wanes. While there are sane and responsible people who own guns, I think that most people would agree that fervent preppers are, by and large, tinged with a bit of crazy. And so, I not sure I'd want to live next to one. In fact, I'm fairly certain that I wouldn't.
That was never the topic. How long is the deer hunting season with firearms in Wisconsin this year? That was my point. Look it up. Killing is not a sport. It has been made to be one by crazies and the gun industry. Hunting for thousands of years has only been practiced to garner food and has only been perverted in the US over the past 50 or 60 years. No other country (at least not on a meaningful scale, so please don't mention some crazy helicopter hunting episodes in Russia) markets hunting as a sport that is practiced for the fun of it. The reason hunting seasons are what they are today is because every country side bumpkin feels the need to go out there and shoot something. Just outright weird.
Should it not be the other way around? Why would you need a gun in little peaceful Mushroom Heaven in WV where the rabbit and fox say good night to each other. I would rather like to have a gun in some nasty part of Detroit should I and that city ever cross paths.