From: russ@wpg.com (Russell Lawrence)
Subject: Re: HUNTING NEWS
Organization: WP Group
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 19:34:01 GMT


Ferrell S. Wheeler writes:
fw> The National Shooting Sports Foundation claims that taking a 
fw> bath is twice as dangerous as hunting because 350 people per
fw> year drown in their bathtubs, while "only" 146 people were killed 
fw> by hunters.  However, the 16 million licensed hunters hunt fewer
fw> than 10 days a year on average.  Thus if the 251 million Americans 
fw> bathe on average once a day, 83,665 people per year would
fw> drown in bathtubs if bathing and hunting really were equally 
fw> dangerous hunters would kill only one person every four years.

From article <ya1xrkm@rpi.edu>, by vanetten@unix.cie.rpi.edu (John S. Van Etten):
jve> And you AR folk wonder why we don't take your propaganda seriously.
jve> Ferrell, old friend, why on Earth do you post drivel like this?  Did
jve> an "N"-key abuse you as a child and this is your retalliation??  (For
jve> those that lost me, the "N"-key scrolls to the next message on most
jve> news software on a Unix box.)  It was bad enough when Rob U. was
jve> posting tripe like "hunter kills 12 cows," but this *really* takes the
jve> cake.
jve>      It's a common notion among certain hunters that AR folk have come
jve> up with their convoluted values (no offense anybody) from watching the
jve> film "Bambi" too many times, and actually starting to *believe* it.

This notion is rather dimwitted, don't you think?  Would you say that
the prevalence of such an idea among hunters reflect poorly on the
legitimacy of animal rights arguments, or would you say that such notions
reflect poorly on hunters?  

jve> Well, Ferrell, I'll have to bite on this one and ask just how many
jve> times have you and your pals at _Animal Agenda_ seen "*The Little
jve> Mermaid*?"
jve>
jve> You see, very few Americans spend the *entire* d-mn day from
jve> sunup to sundown *bathing*.  Darn, I forgot to tell you to sit down
jve> before the shock.  Are you OK?  I do hope you didn't fall down and hit
jve> your head on something (although it could help, if not a fatal blow).
jve> Those stats would be meaningful *only* if the entire time people spent
jve> hunting during a *full* day were equal to the time they spent bathing
jve> during a day.
jve>      I admit it was a nice try, but in the future, please tell the
jve> publishers to stick to the facts, if they want anyone other than you
jve> AR folk to take them seriously.  Oh and, not that I'm trying to be
jve> net.police or anything, but, you really don't need to waste bandwidth
jve> like this.  Thanks.

You're asking your opponents to stick with the facts, and yet you 
seem to be very fond of blathering on and on about "Bambi" and 
"Little Mermaid" movies while facetiously addressing the people 
you're hoping to insult as, "Old Friend" or "Old Chum".   Unless
you have reason to believe that animal rights concerns do, indeed,
arise from watching such movies, your continuing promotion of such
an idea strikes me as the product of shabby thinking at best and
outright dishonesty at worst.  As you say, there's no need to
waste bandwidth on such drivel.

Let's get back to the main argument:

Would you mind explaining to me why you think the National Shooting
Foundation is reasonably justified in claiming that bathing is twice
as dangerous as hunting?  

If we're going to consider, as you seem intent on doing, that 
hunters spend more time in the field per day than bathers spend 
in the tub, it might also be useful to consider the sorts of 
events that precede bathtub drownings as well as the 
state-of-health of bathtub drowning victims. 

-- 
Russell Lawrence, WP Group, New Orleans (504) 443-5000
russ@wpg.com   uunet!wpg!russ