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The world's largest army? America's hunters
Redding.com ^ | December 6, 2010
The worlds largest army
I don't spend my fall weekends tramping around the woods in pursuit of a buck, but a lot of my friends and neighbors do.
This blogger adds up all the hunters in just a handful of states, and comes to a striking conclusion:
The state of Wisconsin has gone an entire deer hunting season without someone getting killed. That's great. There were over 600,000 hunters.
Allow me to restate that number. Over the last two months, the eighth largest army in the world - more men under arms than Iran ; more than France and Germany combined - deployed to the woods of a single American state to help keep the deer menace at bay.
But that pales in comparison to the 750,000 who are in the woods of Pennsylvania this week. Michigan 's 700,000 hunters have now returned home. Toss in a quarter million hunters in West Virginia , and it is literally the case that the hunters of those four states alone would comprise the largest army in the world.
His point? America will forever be safe from foreign invasion with that kind of home-grown firepower.
Hunting -- it's not just a way to fill the freezer. It's a matter of national security.
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I love my country
It's the Government I'm afraid of.
God Bless America
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Taken from an email. ear
Good post Ear!
I looked up the total number from 2006, from the US Fish and wildlife Service and the total was 12.5 million
The US Fish and Wildlife Service sponsors a National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation every five years. The questions are developed in concert with technical committee members from every state and with representatives of nongovernmental organizations. The last survey was conducted in 2006. The final report for 2006 will be issued in late 2007.
The most recent survey report (2006) indicated in that year:
* 12.5 million people 16 years old and older enjoyed hunting a variety of animals within the United States. They hunted 220 million days and took 185 million trips. Hunting expenditures totaled $22.9 billion.
* An estimated 10.7 million hunters pursued big game, such as deer and elk, on 164 million days.
* There were 4.8 million hunters of small game including squirrels and rabbits.
* They hunted small game on 52 million days and spent $2.4 billion on small game hunting trips and equipment.
* 2.3 million hunted migratory birds such as doves or waterfowl
* 1.1 million hunted other animals such as woodchucks and raccoons
The sad part is...........In 1996 there was around 30 million lic. hunters. The numbers are dropping drastically!
It is becoming a dying sport, and without the large number of hunters to keep the pressure on, the gun grabbers will have less trouble disarming the public.