I recently discovered that the New York Times has a website section called “Op-Docs” (as opposed to “Op-Eds”). So I scoured it for anti-gun agitprop. (The idea that the Gray Lady would restrict its love for civilian disarmament to its published pages is as absurd as the idea that Veronica Varekova would ban beach shoots from her repertoire.) I found this “Shoot One Please” – CUNY grad Ken Christensen’s documentary about a reluctant deer hunter who wounds his first deer (you can hear it screaming in the sound track). Later, after his brother administers the [unseen] coupe de grace, the young man promises to “hunt my whole life.” You know; after he “regroups.” Fair enough or a cherry-picked example of gun culture bullying its people into the fold? Documentary, propaganda or both?

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21 COMMENTS

  1. Looks like a documentary to me. I hate to say it but I don’t think that kid really wanted to kill a deer. He was not prepared mental or in his skills. His father might have taken a positive experience and made it negative, and that’s a shame.

    • Don’t assume that shooting and abstaining from meat are mutually exclusive. I like guns and shoot (and poison, bash to death, etc,) pest animals, and don’t care for cats and dogs, but gave up meat long ago. This was after one too many meat-borne food poisoning incidents, and the realisation that my saturated fat budget should be saved for things like cream puffs and chocolate eclairs.

  3. It’s what you say first and last that they remember most.
    In this case, I think this is something that will put the father and hunters in a bad light.

    I’d make the kid grow and eat his own food. We’d see how long he’ll stay on the school team with reduced protein intake.
    Either he’ll hunt or got to art school. 😉

    • Not enough people realize that this was commonplace for young people for thousands of years up until only recently. Hunting wasn’t a choice it was a necessity. There is a real disconnect from life. I’m not advocating that people be forced to go hunting, but they need to realize that this stuff has to occur and what it entails when they decide to get a hamburger/venisonburger. In fact, hunters are usually much more humane about their kills than slaughterhouses are. Oh well, preaching to the crowd.

      • Very true. We were hunter/gatherer exclusively until relatively recently (10,000) or so years ago with the domestication of plants and animals, though hunting was (clearly) still a huge part of survival since.

  4. What a crappy hunting guide that dad was. Just awful. Making his kid take a standing shot at what was easily 200 yards? You can hear him breathing hard, his form sucks, he’s making all kinds of stressed noises. This kid is probably ruined on hunting forever.

  6. i am kindadeeply skeptical about the “sound effects” like the deer screaming. I think that there was some “artistic license” taken in the name of propaganda.

  7. Deer can and do scream – a horrible sound. So can any other poor creature when dying. This is something that an ethical hunter minimizes by a subsequent shot, proper caliber and bullet selection, range limitations, etc. It is also something a father prepares his son or daughter for.

    Animals raised in captivity, waiting for slaughter, do not necessarily live a better life because they are killed by an air gun bolt to the head. I appreciate the fact that the deer and other game I harvest have a legitimate chance at getting away, and lived a free life in the elements.

    • They definitely do, and it is an awful sound. It can sound like a child screaming. Avoid putting yourself in that situation at all costs by making sure you always get that one shot one kill.

  8. “This kid is probably ruined on hunting forever.”

    Not everyone is cut out to be a hunter, and fewer kids are. I think you all should stop blaming the father. If the boy never turns out to be a hunter, it’s none of your never-mind. None of you are his father. This is family business, documentary or not. The documentary makers are not to be welcomed in this family affair.

    Neither are you. My advice: STFU.

    • The father agreed to bring the crew along, then proceeded to make sketchy decisions knowing full well he was being recorded. He opened himself up to it.

  9. Having shot lots of critters and needing to do a coup de grace, I have never heard one “scream”. No sounds from any of them ever.

    I would have to say this was a highly edited video.

    • Had it happen just a couple years ago when hunting with a friend. He wounded a doe (Montana allows taking doe for meat) and sent it rolling down a hill. It practically screamed as it went down before he put it down with a second shot.

  12. Jesus. This video is ridiculous. Animals die and people eat. People complaining about Dad and the kid being put off on hunting and OMG Bambi is making noises. Why no one is thinking about the millions of cattle whose stomachs are burning from corn induced infections and they are slaughtered just moments before they die of infection brought about by eating corn. Who cares about Bambi or the kid learning to grow some. By the time it took me to write this paragraph about sixty people died on planet earth. Bambi and the teenage shooter are small topics.

  13. I think this is an authentic account of one person’s experience and I don’t doubt for a second that it is not unique. Not everyone gets treated with kid gloves and gentle encouragement growing up. Also, I think the boy’s internal conflict in making the kill is something that many if not most hunters experience before their first. It shows that he took seriously what he was about to do and needed to reconcile those feelings. It was a very well done short.

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