Help End Cyber Hunting

Imagine sitting in front of your computer and anxiously waiting for a deer to walk across the window displayed on your monitor. When the unlucky animal enters the view, you use your mouse to position the crosshairs over the kill zone and click the mouse. If your aim is true and your hand wasn’t shaking while you aimed the mouse, the head of your trophy will be shipped to you via UPS or FedEx.

Does this sound like hunting? It sure doesn’t sound like it to me. However, Texas entrepreneur John Lockwood has found a way to make hunting a virtual sport. Now, with a subscription to his Web site, you can sit in your jammys, sip a warm latte, and kill an animal.

Lawmakers are, pardon the pun, up in arms about cyber hunting. Illinois state Rep. Dan Reitz has proposed banning cyber hunts in Illinois, and I believe that other states should follow suit. Giving a virtual customer control of a loaded gun is as dangerous as it is unsporting.

Although some may make the argument that cyber hunting allows the disabled to experience hunting, I believe that very few disabled people will take advantage of this technology-based imitation. I doubt that many disabled people would liken this experience to actually hunting. Lockwood disagrees.

“Ever since we stopped running after our prey and killing with our hands, we've evolved by distancing ourselves further and further from the game and making it more and more efficient for whatever reason we want to take it," Lockwood said.

Improving firearms and hunting weaponry has been a part of hunting since cave men figured out that using rocks and spears to kill a Wooly Mammoth wasn’t a very good idea.

In today’s world, the thrill of hunting is derived from the experience of stalking the animal, lining up your shot, and actually pulling the trigger. Cyber hunting eliminates all of these elements and cheapens the experience by making it no more exciting than shopping on Amazon.

For once in my life I actually agree with the NRA. Hopefully this powerful lobby will persuade lawmakers to ban cyber hunting and keep the sport free of pseudo thrill seekers who are too scared to get in the field and fire a real gun loaded with live ammunition.

To help ensure that this mockery of hunting is forever banned, consider doing at least one of the following:

• Write your local, state, and federal representatives and ask them to ban cyber hunting.


• Spread the word about cyber hunting to build a groundswell of support against it.


• Write to the NRA and ask them to lobby against cyber hunting.