[MikeS]

When do video games cross the line? Exhibit A...

Cue the SPCA...

From Pulse24.com today:

"There are plenty of ways to make money over the Internet, but many are wondering if this should be one of them. A Texas man is hoping to set up a website that allows hunters to track and shoot at their prey over the world wide web.

John Underwood had noticed the popularity of sites that focus on wildlife with a camera, and spent $10,000 developing the technology to take it one step further.

His investment has resulted in the creation of a remote controlled rifle and webcam that will eventually allow hunters anywhere in the world to shoot at deer or other unregulated animals on his 330-acre ranch.

"We were looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that,'" he recalls of the scheme's origin. "A little light bulb went off in my head."

Underwood's site, live-shot.com, currently allows visitors to use a .22 calibre rifle for target practice. And the 39-year-old believes his vision is viable, and insists the carcasses won't go to waste.

He plans to hire an attendant to pick up the killed animals, have the meat processed and shipped to the shooters or have the heads preserved by a taxidermist.

Besides the arguments that many animal activists have against the pastime, Texas officials are closely scrutinizing the idea to see if it violates any of their hunting laws. If not, there may be no way to stop Underwood from literally taking a shot with this new venture.

"The current state statutes don't cover this sort of thing," admits Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesman Mike Berger.

But he's hoping officials will pass new laws preventing the idea from reaching virtual reality. He wants changes that mandate hunters have to be on site when they shoot. If not, it could be a free for all throughout the world.

"First it was rocks and clubs, then we sharpened it and put it on a stick. Then there was the bow and arrow, black powder, smokeless power and optics," Berger sighs. "Maybe this is the next technological step out there."

[VioletlightHeron]

ok, this is just weird and goes totally against the ethics of hunting cratch:

[skippy the wonder dog]

This idea will last until the first attendant goes out to pick up a carcass and takes a .270 slug through the lungs.

Seriously, the safety concerns alone....

[grooveless touque]

Those "guns nuts" are more creative than I thought. If you can't go out and shoot a weapon yourself, if you're tied down to the so-called "civilised world" where you can't have a gun 24/7, you can always get yer kicks remotely...

[Jenna_Bird]

That frightens me. A lot. I do not see how anyone can think that's a good, sane, or logical idea... hock:

-Jenna

[VioletlightHeron]

Those "guns nuts" are more creative than I thought. If you can't go out and shoot a weapon yourself, if you're tied down to the so-called "civilised world" where you can't have a gun 24/7, you can always get yer kicks remotely...

Gun-nuts are the reason first person shooter games were invented Where else can you safely let out some aggression and not get charged in a court of law with riddling your opponent with bullets?

[j-monster]

WTF???????? hock: cratch:

[lord brazle]

I don't think it's a bad idea. I think it's a bad idea.

Let me explain that if ya didn't get it.

Hunting is ok. We are the superior species. We need meat. As long as we don't torture, waste or terminate an entire species (poor little dodos) then I think hunting is ok.

BUT...

This idea is working on the same premise as drive-thru's, video rentals and grocery stores... convenience. Lazy assholes don't have to get up off their asses and go through all the "work" of hunting, they can just sit on their asses at home, shoot an animal and have the meat delivered to them. Feel the steady buzz of humanity...

This idea will never get off the drawing board.

How is the rifle supposed to go through the woods? A remote-control car? Only one person will be able to hunt at a time? Or will there be 100 rifles attached to remote-control cars revving through the woods? How is he gonna monitor the deer population with all these little cars winding through the woods with rifles on top of them? How will these little cars actually get through the woods? Will the rifle just sit stationary and people will wait at their computers until a deer just walks in front of it? And how long before animal-rights activists decide to sign up and go hunting for this jackass?

Some people are just born without the capacity for invention.
And some of those people think they can still invent shit.

[K-Town Lassie]

Really, how safe is this? We've all heard stories of people being shot because they were in the woods and some drunk-ass hunter mistook them for game. (When we were growing up and lived in the stix , we lost two family dogs for just this reason.) Who's going to protect people from the armchair asshole who thinks it's o.k. to have a couple before he cyber-kills everything he sees? I agree with Brazle, it's a bad idea.

[grooveless touque]

As if we needed more proof...there is a direct correlation between the desire to own a gun and a distinct mental imbalance.

Hayward, Wis. — A dispute among deer hunters over a tree stand in northwestern Wisconsin erupted Sunday in a shooting that left five people dead and three injured, officials said.

The alleged gunman was arrested Sunday afternoon at the line between Rusk and Sawyer counties, according to sheriff's officials.

The violence began shortly after a hunting party saw a hunter occupying their tree stand, Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle told KSTP-TV of St. Paul, Minn. A confrontation and shooting followed.

One of the shooting victims radioed back to the deer shack for help, Zeigle said. When more hunters came to the scene, they also were shot.

The shootings happened in the town of Meteor in southwestern Sawyer County, Sheriff James Meier said in a news release. Three people were taken to a local hospital.

One victim was in critical condition at a Marshfield hospital, a nursing supervisor said. KSTP reported that the others who were wounded were being treated at a Rice Lake hospital, where one was in critical condition and the other was in fair condition.

Wisconsin's gun deer-hunting season started Saturday and lasts for nine days.

Bill Wagner, 72, of Oshkosh, was about three kilometres away near Deer Lake with a party of about 20 other hunters.

After they got word of a shooting, it took him and others about three hours to round up the rest of their party. He said they heard sirens, planes and helicopters and noticed the surrounding roads blocked off.

“When you're hunting, you don't expect somebody to try to shoot you and murder you,” he said. “You have no idea who is coming up to you.”

But the incident won't stop their hunt, Mr. Wagner said.

“We're all old, dyed-in-wool hunters,” he said. “We wouldn't go home because of this, but we will keep it in our minds.”

[VioletlightHeron]

As if we needed more proof...there is a direct correlation between the desire to own a gun and a distinct mental imbalance.

I think that's a little bit of a stretch, does it give a mentally imbalanced or irrationally angry person an easier time to kill people for stupid reasons? Yes it does but I think if this jackass had a bow or a knife they would have still killed over something petty and stupid. Clearly, it is obvious you need to regulate felons and clearly disturbed individuals from owning firearms, but I'm guessing the perp in this case didnt have a record or had done anything to raise eyebrows before he went off the reservation.

[grooveless touque]

OK, I didn't mean to make reference to people who really do have mental problems. That was a shortsighted comment meant mostly in jest. I will refer you to the last line of my most recent post in the "other thread", re: sardonicism.

[VioletlightHeron]

heh, no big deal I guess i have the Sardonicism and cynicisim detection part of my brain turned off tonight *cue earnest Mr Smith goes to Washington music*. That's just me, when the topic turns to politics and topics like it, I'm assuming the discussion is serious as shirley temple

[grooveless touque]

Nah, tonight it's all about having a laugh at someone else's expense. I felt like letting it all hang out, taking it a lot more loosely. That was one exhausting election campaign, and I didn't even bang on a single door or hand out a single leaflet. Now that it's all over and the left got their brains fed to them like Ray Liotta at Anthony Hopkins' dinner table, I wanted to relax a bit!