Hum hum hum ... I don't have anything against hunting. Friends come for deer on my property every fall. They give me a nice piece of meat when they're successful. But saying that hunting maintains the ecosystem, is a bit presumptuous in my opinion. Ecosystems are usually well better off without human input. All we tend to do, is f_ck them up.
Deer population will prosper if there is food enough for them to do so. Mild winters will help too. If they reproduce too much, food becomes scarce and they don't have as many fawns. If a winter is either too cold or receives too much snow, some will die and again, they won't reproduce much. THAT is what I call an ecosystem that regulates itself, that's what ecosystems do.
You might tell me that they are a pest where you're at. I know what it is, it's 14 deer to 1 km² around here. One car accident out of 4 is due to deer. Insane. I hit one every 5 years on average. But why are there so many ? Because we tilted the equilibrium by destroying their habitats, so they now feed themselves in corn fields and orchards. WE put our hand in the ecosystem and f_cked it up. So yes, we now try to regulate the situation by killing some, but it has nothing to do with pretending to maintain an ecosystem.
Sorry ... I had to go there.
While this is partially true, do you not recognize deer overpopulation as a consequence of us already f'ing up the ecosystem. We've removed their predators because, well, if they're big enough to hunt deer, they would have a good long look at our Lil Johnny, too. And cats and dog and livestock. Once deer's natural enemies were gone, and food was as plentiful as ever, deer population exploded. Hunting is one of the reactions that tries to rebalance the ecosystem we've already screwed up for our own safety.
They got rid of wolves in Yosemite park decades ago, I think it was. Pretty soon, all their prey were overpopulating and eating all the natural flora, close to disastrous with no respite. They've since reintroduced the wolves because, well, the devil you know ...............
____________
On guns? I've had them, I've used them, had firearms training, etc. They seem like they're unnecessary in the big smoke. Well, until the Zombie Apocolypse.
I don't like game (give me a dumb old cow any day) and I don't like waking up early, so hunting's not my thing. But 40 years ago, we thought nothing of the fact that every pickup had a gun rack in the back window with a 30/30 and shotgun. And maybe a .22 for the kids. This was life in the west, and still is in some more remote areas. This is big country. Not even has been everywhere.
