By Kim Hiss

     Here we are on the day of a historic Supreme Court ruling. In a 5 - to - 4 decision, a deeply divided court said the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own a gun (not just the rights of states to keep militias).
     As reported in this New York Times article, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said the amendment does not allow, "the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home," thus ruling that the D.C. handgun ban was unconstitutional.
     But, far from a blanket ruling in favor of unlimited rights to individual gun ownership, the decision also states, "It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose."
     Today's ruling was the first since 1939 to deal with the Second Amendment, and the first in the nation's history to fully address the meaning of the amendment's original text.
     In case you don't have time to read the 64-page Opinion of the Court (not to mention the dissenting opinions that follow it), I've highlighted a couple of the places (there aren't very many) where hunting comes up in the dense text. First, an excerpt from the Opinion of the Court:
     "It is therefore entirely sensible that the Second Amendment's prefatory clause announces the purpose for which the right was codified: to prevent elimination of the militia. The prefatory clause does not suggest that preserving the militia was the only reason Americans valued the ancient right; most undoubtedly thought it even more important for self-defense and hunting."
     And several pages later, the dissenting opinion of Justice John Paul Stevens:
     "The parallels between the Second Amendment and these state declarations, and the Second Amendment's omission of any statement of purpose related to the right to use firearms for hunting or personal self-defense, is especially striking in light of the fact that the Declarations of Rights of Pennsylvania and Vermont did expressly protect such civilian uses at the time."
     Of course, the fallout from the decision is already rolling as challenges to other city firearms restrictions get underway and District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty plans legislative counter-measures.
     What was your reaction to the ruling (leading question, I know) and were you at all surprised by it? - K.H.

By Kim Hiss

     So what do you make of this incident in Vermont, where a grade school student was silenced by his teacher for talking about hunting in class? According to this Rutland Herald story the student, Jared Harrington, was discussing turkey hunting with a classmate during a free snack time, when his teacher reportedly covered her ears to block out the conversation, then told Harrington there was to be no talk of "killing" in her room.
     Harrington's father said that when he later confronted the teacher about the incident, the conversation ended with her asking him to leave the classroom (the paper noted there was some "screeching" involved in her request).
    According to Harrington's parents, the teacher then seemed to single out their son with unfair treatment such as assigning excessive homework. Citing freedom of speech issues, the parents took the incident up with the school board and ultimately decided to home school their son for the remainder of the year.
     Even if you're willing to give the teacher the benefit of the doubt, it's hard to come up with much to say in her defense. I'm not sure what I would have done as a parent in response to such a situation, but I will say I don't envy that school board's prickly job of finding a solution for it. -K.H.

By Kim Hiss

Our own Laura Bell from Garretsville, Ohio just sent this success story from her spring turkey season. I'll just get out of the way and let her tell it -- she has a lot to say. Congratulations, Laura! -K.H.

     I was lucky enough to fill both my tags this year as well as call in a few birds for my dad. Here's the rundown:
     We did our scouting well ahead of time and had a group of birds picked out for opening day. The birds were hot the day before the opener and gobbling at any sound around. But the first day fizzled. The birds barely answered a call and finally shut up all together.
     We tried again the second day and got a much better response. We set up right under a gobbler and had him riled with a combo of my H.S. Strut Diaphragm call and my dad scratching up some leaves. He pitched off roost and minutes later walked into an opening and I took the shot. He weighed 19 pounds, had a 9 1/4" beard, and 1" spurs.

     The next day my dad downed his first of he season. Again the mouth call from the previous day brought his Tom down.
     Then for the third day in a row we scored. We tried a new woods and before we walked too far I hit an aluminum call. Nothing. Walked a little and tried again. Still nothing. Went just a little deeper again and I got one cluck out of the call when a gobble rang out within 100 yards of us. We dropped next to a tree and got ready. I popped in my lucky mouth call and let'm have it. Within a minute they appeared, a trio of bright blood red heads. They were excited, but they wouldn't come into range. They skirted it while gobbling their heads off, then slowly filtered deep into another part of the woods. They were hot and willing so we thought a new position might help us. We moved and soon the gobbles had turned back to us and edged closer. Soon they popped over a hill on my dad's side. They didn't like something and were on their way out when I told my dad to take the shot. A 10" inch bearded bird with 1 1/4" inch spurs was the reward.
     For my last tag we played with multiple birds but they wouldn't play into our set up. Finally on the last day it came together. It was pouring rain -- not the weather you want. We thought we had the birds' roost patterned, but after we set up and it was light out, my gobbler spoke up in another woods across the field we were watching. We thought about moving but knew we'd be busted. Again I had my mouth call, and combined with a gobble call that my dad was using we made our best attempt to make the Tom jealous. We sat in silence for some time, and finally I saw his white head coming our way across the field and he had a Jake along. He seemed to listen to the calls but something was keeping him out at the 50 - 60 yard range.

     Then several hens came out of the woods to join the Tom in the field and feed. They came in to about 15 yards and took notice of us. This is where the rain helped us out. It started really beating and the turkeys hunkered down into tight little balls of feathers and were still as stones, just letting the rain come. It was very neat, to say the least.
     At this point I was shaking awfully bad from the cold and wet, but also the excitement. The rain gave in just slightly and my dad told me to call, as he didn't know how much longer he could sit. I hit it and it was enough to get the hens moving, but my gobbler still stayed out of the way. The hens started to feed off to my left and the Tom and Jake acted as if they would leave.
     I knew they were far but if this was the only shot, I was going to take it. I leveled my gun on him. I gave an aggressive call and they answered so I hit them right back even harder. The Jake took the bait and started to take a step closer, then a couple more. The Tom knew what he was up to and ran and cut the Jake off. The Tom now spots the decoys and starts running in with the Jake hot on his heels -- or spurs, rather.
     They closed fast and I got my shot at the 20-yard line. The Tom dropped instantly. It was an awesome end to the season! This bird weighed 21 pounds soaking wet! He had a 10 1/2" beard and 1" spurs.