This isn't going to end well...
I just read this news story on cnn.com about ' Internet Hunting ' . Supposedly, this guy in Texas (*are you surprised??*) is going to set up a remotely controlled hunting rifle on his hunting ranch, which can be accessed by anyone via the web.
First off, understand that I'm not a warm and fuzzy-PETA-type person. My father was a hunter, mainly deer. If he shot one, we were eating deer meat kielbasa for the next 6 months (Good stuff!). So don't bother starting a massive flame war on my blog about control. Gun control is 'hitting your target'.
Anyways, this 'Hunting via the web' has got to be the dumbest idea that has made the major news sources. Which brings up the likelyhood that this is just a big joke like that 'Bambi-hunting' thing that was supposedly happening a while back in Vegas (don't ask).
Can you imagine being the poor schmuck working on the ranch who, after the 'web-deerhunter' makes a kill, has to go retrieve it? He better hope that internet hunters are smarter than some of the local hunters you read about in the newspaper on the first day of hunting season ("It was his own fault he got shot, driving around in that brown car with the white license plate"), or he'll be next on the virtual bullseye.
What also kills me (no pun intended) was this little bit of info which unfortunately gives you a clearer understanding of this guy's thought processes.
"The idea came last year while viewing another Web site on which cameras posted in the wild are used to snap photos of animals.
"We were looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that.' A little light bulb went off in my head," he said."
Um, hello??? The first thing you think of when you see an animal in the wild is "SHOOT IT! SHOOT IT!" ????
Remind me to never visit Texas.