One Step Closer

“What do you mean she can’t have a hunting license?!” asked an indignant, middle aged father.

“I’m sorry sir,” the twenty-something store clerk said from behind wire-rimmed glasses. “It’s a new policy; I can’t do anything about it,” he added dryly. This was obviously not his first outraged customer of the day.

“I want to talk to your supervisor!” The father could barely contain his outrage.

The clerk sighed, paged a manager, and busied himself shelving items from a shipping tote behind the counter. A few minutes later an overweight manager arrived wearing half a smirk. The father could tell he was not the first person to have called the manager to the counter that day.

“How can I help you sir?” asked the manager half-heartedly. He knew he couldn’t actually help the girl’s father any more than he could help himself buy his own teenage son a hunting license. Nevertheless, he was paid to follow protocol.

“I’m trying to buy my daughter a hunting license and this…this…” the father paused, torn between using the word he wanted to use and the word he knew he should use in an effort to maintain some semblance of diplomacy, “…this kid here tells me that because of one of your policies, I can’t. He gave me some crap about some special firearm user course she has to take.”

“Sir, I understand your frustration but it’s not our policy. We’re simply following the law. Until she has her registration card that shows she’s taken the course, we can’t sell her a license. The course is required of everyone between 16 and 40.”

“What are you talking about?!” The father was now raising his voice causing other customers to take notice. “You can’t do that! She’s been hunting since she was four years old and never needed a damn gun user course. She has her hunter safety card right here. That’s all she needs.”

“Sir, I know what you’re saying,” the manager strained his voice a bit as if he thought that if he talked lower, it would encourage the father to calm down. “I’m not happy about it either but it’s a new law. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“New law?!” The manager’s lowered voice apparently had no effect. “Since when? And who the hell passed that law? I damn sure didn’t vote for it.”

“Actually, you probably did.” The manager’s patience was running thin now, evident in the way he snapped out the phrase. He took a deep breath, remembering his own frustration at the policy two days earlier. “The policy was started as part of the ‘Safer Streets’ legislation.”

It all clicked then inside the father’s mind. He remembered reading about this landmark legislation that was guaranteed to ‘clean up the streets’ by giving municipalities and local governments power to ‘crack down on criminals’ by pretty much any means necessary. The law offered federal funding for neighborhood watch efforts, more patrol cars on the streets, better lighting, and more after-school programs in addition to harsher penalties for convicted criminals. It was a popular bill for sure. It had gained so much media attention and rave publicity that he didn’t take the time to fully understand every aspect of the bill. In fact, it was so popular that when the issue came across his county’s ballot, he voted for it.

He did not realize that his vote would give local legislators supreme power to enact legislation without a vote under this ‘blanket policy’.

The policy-makers knew that passing a law requiring everyone between 16 and 40 to take a government-sponsored ‘firearm user course’ as a prerequisite to purchasing a hunting license would be met with fierce opposition from the pro-gun and sportsman’s community. But under the guise of the new legislation, they could practically do what they wanted. To justify the new policy, they simply had to claim that the majority of crimes were committed by people between the ages of 16 and 40, thus the policy was simply ‘an effort to keep the streets clean’ by educating the public and was well within the powers granted to them by the legislation.

Granted, the course was simply one more step in a long pathway to complete gun removal from the public’s hands. If it was difficult to purchase hunting licenses, they figured, then it would be easy for some to just give up on hunting and give up on their gun ownership. For those that stuck it out and took the course, they’d be required to prove proficiency with every gun they own. In so doing, they would be forced to register each gun. Then, as future policies were enacted, those guns would be tracked down and confiscated – all in an effort to 'make the communities safer'.

“Sir…Sir?”

The father snapped back to reality. “Huh? What?”

“Would you like to register your daughter for the course? We have the registration forms here. There’s a course being offered next week. Just in time for the season.”

The father exhaled, defeated. He put his arm around his daughter’s shoulders, turned, and walked her slowly away. By the end of the isle, he was able to finally speak again.

“How do you feel about moving to America?”