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I had two people tell me that people used assault weapons, that they were used for hunting wild boar in Texas according to these two. One of them carefully explained to me that he and his family could kill them without shredding them apart and said they filled their freezer with wild boar meat. I do not hunt nor have I ever had hunters in the family, so I know very little about hunting at all. I am glad to know the alternative story about hunting feral pigs. And if I ever see that excuse again, I will have an account to use.

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Yesterday, I heard an interview with author and veteran Phil Clay. He has a new book of essays out Uncertain Ground. He talked about one of his essays, which details the history of the military assault weapons. He was speaking in response to the availability of these weapons to average citizens and their use in mass shootings. He explained that the bullets from guns used in World War 2 entered the body slowly. Soldiers were killed, yes, but medics could also work to save some of the wounded. With assault rifles, bullets enter the body at high velocity and are intended to shred organs, flesh. How anyone can argue with a straight face that these weapons are great for hunting game is beyond my ability to reason. Why do you think authorities in Uvalde had to collect DNA samples from the parents of the school children? Every politician who argued for the protection of assault rifles should be called into our classrooms, churches, movie theaters, supermarkets, concert halls or night clubs after one of these shootings and forced to collect the evidence for identification. I live right down the street from the Laguna Woods church where there was a mass shooting less than two weeks ago. I knew the aunt of a 22-year-old victim of the Mandalay Bay massacre in Las Vegas. I drove 45 miles to attend her memorial. There were more than 1,000 people present. It was heartbreaking to watch her father fall to pieces in front of that crowd. Where are our leaders? What is our true definition of sanctity of life?

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Beats me about the hunting....only reporting what these two said when I spoke against against assault weapons. At least they didn't mansplain about different weapons and what they do and what we should call them. I was talking with my LMT yesterday about weapons and bullets. He talked about what the bullets do. He did hunt at one time and I learned a lot about how to do it right. He is also a veteran who spent time on an aircraft carrier. Now he fishes and we are going to enjoy the halibut bounty tomorrow for dinner. People who are only interesting in power and money don't give a damn about anyone's lives, only their own. If we didn't have the filibuster, we could get something done maybe.

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I grew up with a father who never used anything more powerful than a 22 rifle--without a scope--to hunt for the meat we ate. He never owned a shotgun, always said it wasn't fair to the quail. And I had plenty of quail when I was a kid. Hunting wild boar with assault weapons--actually, hunting animals like wild boar at all--sounds like sport hunting to me. It's not something I know about or want to know about. I can't avoid thinking about "Lord of the Flies." Starting with the cowboys, turned into heroes as they savaged an entire culture, are we now playing out the wet dream of a bunch of boys out slaughtering a sow and, in their blood lust, a child? I don't think there really are any words that describe the world in which this history and undercurrent of violent death has bubbled to the surface and roams like some pitted and misshapen monster through the hallways of our schools and our lives. When we begin to settle for the murder of children, we are lost.

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What did hunters do before the availability of military weapons?or in the “dark” ages?

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Irene Back long ago—even before I was born—in hunting and gathering societies they used nets, at times stampeded a herd over a cliff, or, about 3000 BCE crafted a spear with a crude stone head.

In the battle of Crecy (1346) Welsh long bows decimated the French horsed knights and again at Agincourt (1415)—-Henry 5th–we few, a band of brothers.

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Michelle I’m surprised that these ‘hunters’ didn’t mount a machine gun on their vehicle. This way they don’t have to bother with training, though it’s difficult to put a bayonet on a machine gun.

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In the first instance, the guy was someone I respected for his other comments on the Maddow blog. He did explain to me how he and his family were crack shots and ate the meat. It was interesting, because he was also well-off. The second instance is someone I know who is a R pastor in the small rural community where I taught. He spent loads of time at the school and had way too much influence with kids. I didn't think he belonged there, frankly. I just had an ex-colleague whose son is now very religious (and on the school board) just tell me that she thought the pastor had an undue influence on her son.

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