The denial of a game license last week for the Chuck E. Cheese’s in Amherst, N.Y., has stirred some controversy recently, as the Amherst Town Board voted against renewing the entertainment venue’s license over concerns about violent video games. The games in question, at least in part, include hunting-related video games.

The troubling part about this story is that last week’s vote was the first time the town board failed to approve a game room license. The licenses, which are legally required for businesses such as Chuck E. Cheese’s to run arcade games, had generally been rubber-stamped by the board in the past.

So what was different this time?

According to The Buffalo News, “Council Member Shelly Schratz said she was disturbed by several ‘action-packed shoot-and-kill games’ that were accessible to children as young as 4.”

“When I see 6-year-olds, 8-year-olds playing those games, when all the time we’re opening the paper and seeing those stories on youth violence, do we need those games to make money?” she told the newspaper.

Anyone who knows anything about hunting knows that it is not the cause of violence in our kids.  Hunting is about teaching kids to have a respect and understanding for wildlife, firearms, and the outdoors. It’s about the lessons passed down from generation to generation, time spent with family, and developing a deeper respect for wild things and wild places.

Hunting isn’t about video games. And most of the video games on the market don’t even accurately depict what it’s like to go hunting. But when a town board oversteps its authority and tries to tell its citizens that kids shouldn’t play games that depict hunting because they’re violent, it’s a perfect reflection of how many elected officials feel about hunting. Or better yet, it shows their ignorance about hunting. I’d be willing to bet that the officials who voted against the license think hunting games are a true reflection of what hunting is all about. That bias is why we’re forced to defend our traditions at every step.

The fact that that game license wasn’t passed isn’t as important as why it was denied. That board viewed hunting as a danger to kids, and you can be sure that same prejudice extends to real-life hunting, not just the “pretend” hunting kids do in an arcade or on a television screen. Ignorance and a lack of understanding are as much a threat to hunting as anything else.

NRAhuntersrights.org is happy to post a guest blog from a soldier with a thought-provoking idea:

My name is MAJ Darin Harper. I am an active duty officer in the US Army, and am currently a student at the Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, KS. I have served in uniform since 1987 when I enlisted after high school graduation and have served in a variety of assignments all over the world. In the course of my profession I have been assigned to seven different locations in the continental United States as well as four overseas assignments, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am an avid outdoorsman and enjoy hunting and fishing whenever I can.

 As a service member, I get the opportunity to apply for a resident license in whichever state I am currently assigned. I am extremely appreciative of this benefit as the cost of seven different out-of-state licenses over the past 16 years would be pretty expensive! However, because my profession often sends me to locations that are not of my choosing, if I want to hunt with family or friends in other states (even ones I had lived in before) I lose my resident status.

For most hunters, the additional cost of hunting out-of-state is just a part of the game--if you don’t want to pay…don’t play. Over the past four years I have been deployed twice and have found it challenging and expensive (when I am home) to attend a family quail hunt over Thanksgiving in Oklahoma, summer fishing trips with other family members in Colorado, and spring turkey hunting with friends I just left in Kentucky. The operational tempo of the US military, over the past eight years, has forced many of us to change assignments and locations at a rate higher than ever before. I think that states should allow active duty servicemen to apply for resident licenses regardless of their current location. The states themselves would benefit from this as their total number of sold licenses would increase among service members as opposed to them not buying one at all because of the high out-of-state costs. I think it would also increase the total number of sportsmen in the military if the costs and availability of licensing were reasonable.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.