Chad Love: Hunter Safety (and Politics) Course

Who among us younger hunters doesn’t look back on the completion of our hunter safety course as a major childhood or adolescent milestone on the path to becoming a hunter? Passing your hunter safety course and getting that card was a gateway into the adult world. It meant you possessed the knowledge, ethics and the responsibility that is required of a hunter.

What you weren’t required to have was a particular political or religous philosophy. Unless, of course, this guy was your instructor.

From the story:

Thirteen-year-old Lane Dunkley just wanted to go hunting with his grandfather. What he got was a lesson in politics and human nature. Dunkley and his father Daniel Reddy, who live in Tulsa, went to Broken Arrow Tuesday night for a hunter safety course normally required to get an Oklahoma hunting license…But when father and son arrived at the lesson, the volunteer instructor, Kell Wolf, asked if any of the students voted for President Obama. Reddy, a transplanted Californian – and ex-Marine – raised his hand. According to Reddy and others in the room, Wolf called Obama “the next thing to the Anti-Christ” and ordered Reddy and Dunkley from the room. When Reddy refused, Wolf said he would not teach “liberals” and would cancel the course if Reddy didn’t leave. So Reddy and Dunkley left, as did a few others.

To the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s credit, Mr. Wolf’s title is now “Ex Hunter Safety Course Instructor.”

Everyone has strong political opinions and there’s certainly nothing wrong with airing those opinions – in the appropriate venue and to an appropriate audience. A hunter-safety course full of wide-eyed kids is neither.