Even if Lockwood doesn't have customers lining up around the block, the notion that a venue exists for remote-control killing has triggered a backlash of disgust, compelling lawmakers and forging an unlikely coalition of big-game hunters and animal-rights activists.
...."It's not hunting," said Kirby L. Brown, executive vice president of the Texas Wildlife Association, which represents landowners, hunters and conservationists. "It falls off of the end of the ethical chart."
The California Senate will be voting on a bill to ban the site today. Unfortunately, it sounds like a wrong-headed bill.
In February, California state Sen. Debra Bowen, a Democrat from Marina del Rey, introduced SB 1028 to forbid Californians from using Lockwood's Web site or starting a similar business. The bill faces a vote in the full Senate on Thursday. Bowen said she shares the concern about where Internet hunting might lead. "What's the line between real life and a video game?" Bowen said. "It has all the video-game feel: It's remote, it's disconnected from the reality of it, the hunter doesn't have to deal with any blood or wounding or tracking."
Constitutionally speaking, I don't want to see a bill that outlaws websites and video games. I want to see one that targets the offensive behavior: killing animals by computer. The feds have a better idea - pass a law that requires hunters to be in physical possession of their weapon.
A bill banning remote control hunting was introduced in Congress this week:
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., introduced a bill to make Internet hunting punishable by up to five years in prison. Lawmakers in states from Texas to Maine also have introduced bills, some that would require hunters to be in physical control of their weapons, others that make it illegal to kill a bird or animal by remote control or via an Internet connection. Virginia has already imposed such a law.
Lockwood defends his new venture.
Lockwood argues that legislators haven't taken the time to understand how his business can help disabled people or soldiers stationed overseas enjoy the thrill of hunting. He says he has received inquiries from soldiers in Iraq and Spain, including one who said he was less interested in hunting than in getting meat to his family.
"Most people would prefer to be out there," Lockwood said. "But I do get many, many e-mails from those who can't. Why deny those people that opportunity?"
I have nothing against hunting. I support an individual's right to buy, sell and possess firearms under the Second Amendment and I oppose restricting the sale of video games because they contain violence on first amendment grounds. But this one leaves me speechless. Do any of you care to respond?
