A Nation of Hunters?

Die Hannoverische Allegmeine repeats the common view of the media concerning John McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin:

Palin dürfte überdies die große Zahl der Waffenfreunde in den USA
anziehen. Sie ist selbst Mitglied der einflussreichen National Rifle
Association, einer Lobby-Gruppe, die sich gegen jegliches
Schusswaffenverbot stellt. Gott und Schusswaffen – das gehört im Herzen
Amerikas oft zusammen. (Pain will furthermore attract the large number of gun advocates in the US. She herself is a member of the influential National Rifle Association, a lobbying organization that fights any prohibition of firearms.  God and Guns – they often go together in the heart of America.)

Much is made of the fact that Sarah Palin is an avid hunter.  It seems that anyone running for higher office in the US needs to demonstrate that they love hunting.  Mitt Romney lied about his hunting experience in his failed bid for the Republican nomination.  And even Hillary Clinton reminisced about squirrel hunting with her grandfather when she was campaigning in rural Pennsylvania.

I live in a rural state where deer and moose hunting are popular.  I don’t have any personal objection to hunting, although I have never hunted.  I do not understand what is sporting about using high-powered automatic weapons to kill bears, but otherwise don’t have any problem with hunters.  I personally enjoy hiking in the woods and observing wildlife, but never had any inclination to kill it. But why is hunting so sacrosanct for Americans?  In fact, the number of hunters in America continues to decline sharply:

Hunters remain a powerful force in American
society, as evidenced by the presidential candidates who routinely pay
them homage, but their ranks are shrinking dramatically and wildlife
agencies worry increasingly about the loss of sorely needed license-fee
revenue.

New figures from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service show that the number of hunters 16 and older declined by 10
percent between 1996 and 2006 — from 14 million to about 12.5 million.
The drop was most acute in New England, the Rocky Mountains, and the
Pacific states, which lost 400,000 hunters in that span.

The primary reasons, experts say, are the loss
of hunting land to urbanization plus a perception by many families that
they can’t afford the time or costs that hunting entails.

So, only 4% of Americans hunt, but if you watch the presidential campaign you would think that we were a nation of hunters.  Interestingly, the number hunters in Germany has increased recently, although hunting is less popular in Germany than in France of Spain:

Die Zahl der Jäger hat in Deutschland im vergangenen Jahr einen neuen
Höchststand erreicht. Wie die Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ),
Samstagausgabe, mit Verweis auf Angaben des Deutschen
Jagschutzverbandes berichtet, gab es im vergangenen Jahr in Deutschland
über 349 500 Jäger. Das sind gut 10 000 Jäger mehr als 1997 und sogar
rund 85 000 mehr als 1987. Die meisten Jagdscheininhaber gibt es in
Nordrhein-Westfalen (83 900), vor Niedersachsen (rund 60 000) und
Bayern (rund 48 000). (In the past year the number of hunters in Germany has reach a new peak. As the Westdeutsche Allegemeine Zeitung reports on Saturday, based on statistics provided by ty the Society for the Preservation of Hunding, there were over 349,500 hunters.  That’s 10,000 more since 1997 and about 85,000 more than in 1987.  The most hunting licenses were issued in in North Rhine-Westfailia, ahead of Lower Saxony and Bavaria.)

I don’t recall Angela Merkel hunting for anything but votes.