Northern Minnesota is under a new alert until Friday at 7 p.m.

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

In a move portrayed as preserving
Wisconsin's hunting heritage, the state Senate takes up legislation
Tuesday that would allow 10-year-olds to hunt under the supervision
of an adult who couldn't carry a gun.


      State Sen. Jim Holperin, D-Conover, the change's prime sponsor,
said it's a proven way to safely recruit urban and suburban youths
to the sport amid growing concern about losing too many of them to
other activities.


      Critics call the change -- which lowers the minimum hunting age
by two years -- an accident waiting to happen because children so
young are not mature enough to handle guns.


      The Senate Transportation, Tourism, Forestry and Natural
Resources Committee passed the bill 6-1. Holperin predicts
passage in the Senate, too. It would still require approval from
the Assembly and Gov. Jim Doyle.


      "I think the sports community is properly fearful that if there
isn't enough interest in the next generation in these issues, that
our whole outdoor heritage slips slowly away," he said. "This is
all about educating and immersing the next generation in the
sport."


      Hunting in Wisconsin is a $1.4 billion annual industry that
supports 19,000 jobs, supporters say. It attracts about 650,000
deer hunters each fall for the gun season but those numbers are not
growing and are expected to shrink as the baby boom generation
ages.


      The bill before the Senate sets the minimum age for hunting at
10 with three restrictions -- an adult with a hunting license must
accompany the child, the child must always be within "arm's
reach" of the adult and there can be only one gun between the two of them.


      Holperin contends the bill is "just replete with safety
requirements," although hunters of any age going out with a mentor
would not have to complete a safety class to buy an apprentice
license.


      Randy Stark, chief warden for the state Department of Natural
Resources, said removing that barrier allows a "test drive" of
hunting for participants. If the sport interests them, they later
would have to pass the hunter's safety class.


      Wisconsin law now allows 12-year-olds to hunt with supervision --
a parent or guardian must be within visual or voice distance --
provided they have passed hunter's safety training. Hunters must be
at least 14 to hunt alone.


      According to the Columbus, Ohio-based U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance,
30 states have no minimum hunting age and 28 states, including
Minnesota, have created apprentice hunting licenses like what is
proposed in Wisconsin, Vice President Rob Sexton said.


      "Wisconsin is doing a more cautious approach than almost every
other state," he said.


      Since 2006, about 285,000 of the licenses have been sold, with
only one shooting accident in which a youth suffered a
self-inflicted foot wound in Pennsylvania, he said.


      Brittany Zebrasky, a teenager from Hartland who has battled
cancer, testified in support of Holperin's bill in April, saying
she first went hunting with her father when she was 3.


      She was 8, she said, the first time she hunted with a gun. 

"But
it wasn't in Wisconsin. It was in New Mexico," she said. "I was
successful and harvested a bull elk."


      Two years later, the girl said she shot a whitetail buck in
Texas. "I have met so many special people who have mentored me in
hunting," she testified.


      Rep. Scott Gunderson, R-Union Grove, called the plan a parental
rights bill that allows parents to decide when their child is ready
to hunt.


      The DNR says about 9,000 more licenses would be sold annually to
young hunters participating in the mentoring program. 


A residence
hunting license now costs $20, but Holperin said the price for the
apprentice license may be $5, to attract more youth hunters.


      Stark said the apprentice program was safe because all the
attention of the adult would be focused on the young hunter. In
addition, license records indicate that the majority of mentors
will have graduated from hunter's safety training -- giving them
skills in safety.


      Jim Slattery of Mazomanie, a retired surgeon who had a
14-year-old relative shot and killed by a 12-year-old hunter in
2005, opposes Holperin's bill, calling the term "mentor" nothing but
a fancy word for someone with a hunting license who has no special
training.


      The change makes 10- and 11-year-olds take up the slack for
stagnant hunting license sales, he said. 

"Is that moral? Is that
ethical? Is that serving the public interest?"

      There's no requirement for those youths to take hunter's safety
classes because their reading skills are not developed enough,
assuring that letting them handle guns is an accident waiting to
happen, Slattery said. 


"It may not be in three years or four years
or five years, but there will be a significant injury that is not
necessary."


      Dr. Kathryn Nichol, a pediatrician in Madison and former board
member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said 10-year-olds are
not old enough developmentally and don't have the judgment to
handle guns.


      "We have a role to protect, at times, this very vulnerable
population when they can't protect themselves," she said,
discounting the argument that always having an adult nearby is a
safety guarantee. 


"How often do you hear of a child drowning in a
bathtub, for God's sake. And the mother is practically there."


      Allowing 10-year-olds to have a true hunting experience by
carrying a gun makes it more likely they will take up the sport for
the rest of their lives, said Holperin, Wisconsin's former tourism
secretary.

      "Twenty or 40 years ago, there was just a natural assumption
that the family unit would be there to interest the next generation
and the generational heritage of hunting would occur naturally,"
he said. "That is not happening."
      

Gallery

Lawmaker seeks to curtail hunters' use of lead bullets

Modern wildlife management began 150 years ago

In a move portrayed as preserving Wisconsin's hunting heritage, the state Senate takes up legislation Tuesday that would allow 10-year-olds to hunt under the supervision of an adult.

Wis. may allow 10-year-olds to hunt with mentor

Go Deeper.

Like this?