This editorial from the Allentown Morning Call demands that pigeon shoots be outlawed in Pennsylvania:
There is opposition to these bills from some who fear that any restriction on one’s use of guns — or bow and arrow — might lead to greater restrictions of the Second Amendment. And so, the bills languish in committees. We have no quarrel with those who wish to hunt game animals in the wild. But a pigeon shoot is not hunting.
Well, except that later in the article, it’s pretty obvious that you’ve been talking to the Humane Society of the United States:
The state’s best-known pigeon shoot was in Hegins Township, Schuylkill County, where the Fred Coleman Memorial Pigeon Shoot began in 1933 as a means of giving prizes and raising money to feed hungry citizens and to support local charities. The spectacle died a natural death there, but according to the Humane Society, 22 others were held here last year. Though most are not widely publicized they are just as objectionable.
And yes, they do have an agenda to ban hunting in the United States. Now, I should make my biases clear here: I hate pigeons. I think they are basically rats with wings, and I don’t have much sympathy for them. That said, I personally would not particularly want to attend a pigeon shoot, unless it was on the SEPTA platform at 30th Street Station in Philly. As to whether it should be illegal, well, if the HSUS is the one pushing it, I’ll oppose. They have an agenda, and Pennsylvania sportsmen, even the vast majority who do not shoot trap with live birds instead of clay birds, should be skeptical of their motives and goals. HSUS has followed the path of the anti-gun movement and taken a divide and conquer strategy to outlaw hunting piecemeal. They are no friends of hunters. They were instrumental in getting a ban on dove hunting passed in Michigan. An overall ban, not just on using them in trap shooting. Even if you wanted to hunt doves in Michigan because dove is tasty, now you can’t, thanks to HSUS.
It’s similar to the gun argument. You should oppose it because the next thing they’ll come after is your favorite game.
The media is positively over-flowing with self-appointed arbiters of right & wrong. These people would not think twice about using every ounce of governmental force to *make* you and me do what they “know” is best. These people are truly frightening…and because they are so sure of themselves, there may be no way to stop them except force.
**shrugs**
So, I’m an inhumane bastard. I’ve been called worse by much better people.
I recall an unsubstantiated rumor, a few years back, that the Cincinnati city council (now THERE is a pack of morons for you), seriously considered renting BB guns on fountain square downtown, to control the pigeon population.