On The Ridge with Joe Judd: Breaking down a report on Americans Attitudes Toward Hunting and Sport Shooting

At a recent event I attended in Spencer sponsored by the Central Mass. Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, I found myself engaged in dialog with people at my table who were attempting to explain their take on a recent report they had read. The report was called “Americans Attitudes Toward Hunting and Sport Shooting 2024,” and discussed the views of Americans across the country in reference to hunting and how people felt about it. As I listened to this conversation, with some of the insight at times very critical, I was surprised to learn that public support nationwide for hunting, while not at the lowest point on record, is significantly below the 81% approval ratings that we enjoyed in 2021. That number today sits at 76%, a 5% decrease since the last time the study surfaced just three years ago.

This startled me a bit. Even though these numbers are not what you might consider staggering, they certainly got my attention. That led me into a little research of my own a few days later, and upon doing so, I found that my friends were spot on with what they were saying, that the approval ratings for hunting, nationwide, appears to be trending on a downward spiral.

That said, this recent report which was built on years of collecting data and studying trend analysis, does offer a broad understanding of how the attitudes of Americans have evolved on this subject while highlighting the importance of sportsmen and women trying to better understand the implications of public opinion to improve the communication and engagement with the outdoor industry in relation to hunting. And as I read it, I found myself agreeing that this report just might be on to something! For example, this study found that the data could potentially become essential in shaping our current efforts to promote hunting and other related activities as being relevant throughout all parts of society. It could also help identify concerns and assist with efforts to enhance more safety elements combined with better conservation and education programs. It also clearly delineated that the approval rating of legal hunting, and I emphasis the word legal, is noticeably higher among rural residents, males, and Midwest Region residents than other regions of the U.S.

Also, approval of legal recreational shooting was the highest among rural residents of the Mountain West Region, and when you think about the vast tracts of land in those regions, comments like that make perfect sense. Among the highest approval ratings when it came to hunting? Eighty-three percent of those responding approve of hunting for the purpose of obtaining locally sourced meat for a family. Conservation efforts also drew strong support with trophy hunting showing the lowest approval rating in the study.

And as my own research continued I realized that if nothing else, studies like this show that there is a population of people out there who see things differently than those who so often rage on. It’s like extremists will sometimes do, with no validity to many of their arguments while hating all forms of hunting and hunters simply because someone would disagree with them on the subject. And as a hunter and sportsmen myself, it’s hard not to be preoccupied by this, at times, daily siege against hunters and hunting.

But let’s be realistic about two things. First, as hunters we must always stay respectful on many levels of the playing field. We need to be respectful of the game we pursue, of the land we hunt on, and most importantly, respectful of each other. That’s right, respectful of each other. And second, we should all keep in mind that the public’s perception in respect to hunting and hunters will always play a pivotal role in our future as sportsmen and women. You may not like that, but’s it’s the truth. And when reports like the one noted above show approval ratings like these, even though down some this year, that should be all the incentive we need to know that we need to up our game, stay in a positive light with the public, and watch the approval ratings stay steady. That will always be the best way to receive support when asking someone to vote for anything that we hope to achieve, by staying mindful of who we are, and what we do, every step of the way.

Joe Judd is a lifelong hunter and sportsman. He is an outdoor writer, seminar speaker, member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association, and a 2019 inductee into the N.E. Turkey Hunting Hall of Fame. Joe is also on the Quaker Boy Game Calls and Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s Pro-Staff. He can be reached at jjontheridge@comcast.net