I'm responding to the article "Officials asked to back effort to ban rifles" in the Feb. 5 Sunday North in which Kenneth Ventresca predicted that banning the use of rifles for hunting in suburban areas such as his community would end most of the accidental shooting cases across Pennsylvania.
With all due respect to the gentleman, who appears to have suffered a dent in his car from unspecified cause(s), may I refer to a study published in the March 2005 issue of the Journal of Trauma, which examined 1,345 hunting-related shooting incidents that occurred in Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1999.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission also carefully studies all shootings/woundings whether by firearm, blackpowder arms, bow and arrow, or other sporting arms. This study shows 77 fatalities due to hunting over a five-year period, or 15.4 deaths per year by all hunting implements.
While I agree that even one death due to a hunting accident is one too many, when applied to the nearly 1 million licensed hunters in Pennsylvania, annual deaths due to all hunting implements, including rifles, are 0.00154 percent of hunters in the field. As the story noted, buckshot-only areas include all of Allegheny County. Mr. Ventresca's argument is at best emotional, and at worst, specious.
As the suburbs continue to impinge on traditional hunting grounds, the extension of shotgun-only areas will occur. Gun bans, however well intended, do little to increase safety. Hunter education, game land improvements, and the continued good works of organizations such as the Allegheny County Sportsmen's League will help keep the number of hunting deaths near zero.
Hunting is a traditional activity enjoyed by many, and it fills the state's coffers with license fees, not to mention the benefits to merchants in sales of hunting equipment, campground fees, restaurant profits, and other fiscal benefits derived from the 1 million hunters who most generally hunt in a safe and responsible manner each year.
I most heartily disagree with Mr. Ventresca's math and his premise. The right to keep and bear arms is well grounded in both the U.S. Constitution and that of the commonwealth. Incremental efforts to slowly erode our rights must not be tolerated.
JOHN DeLALLO
Johnstown
Editor's note: The writer is a certified firearms instructor and member of the National Rifle Association.
Suburban sprawl squeezing hunters
I spent more years than I care to remember with my head behind the breech end of 30-caliber rifles, shooting on military rifle ranges, and as a former competition shooter. I never hunted, for reasons best described as lack of interest. I have not the least bit of emotional involvement in hunting, one way or the other.
Mr. Kenneth Ventresca, of Pine, is of the opinion that his car was hit "by what he believes was a small-caliber rifle bullet," ("Officials asked to back effort to ban rifles," Feb. 5). Perhaps so, but lacking positive evidence of such situation, what causes him to so believe? Possibly his own prejudice against guns and/or hunting?
Rather than seeking to curb hunting with rifles or any other proper arms, how about curbing urban/suburban sprawl, which might lead to a significant mitigation of all manner of problems.
ALAN SCHULTZ
McCandless
First Published: February 12, 2006, 5:00 a.m.
