Letters for July 17, 2024
Endangered deer, not predators
Taylor Ganz pedaled misinformation in the article by Michael Wright (“Study: Food availability more important than predators for white-tailed deer,” June 30) in northeast Washington about food availability being more important than predator impact on northeast Washington white-tail populations. In 2015, there were almost 8,000 deer harvested by hunters in NE Washington District 1, Region 1. In 2022, there were 3,169 harvested, a record low. Washington does not use harvest numbers to estimate populations. Many states do and it is a good and accepted method to establish trends.
With that said, we can be reasonably certain that our deer numbers are less than half of what they were eight years ago. With half the deer in the landscape, forage is not the issue as this article is trying to convince us. On the other hand, a cougar kills a deer every seven days, it used to be ten days but with the abundance of bear and coyotes, wolves too but not so much, these other predators are finding and consuming cougar kills, so the cat has to kill again, hence the seven days. Using numbers per the department’s density of 2.3 cougars per 100 kilometers squared (it is probably two, three times that), the annual cougar take of white-tails in District 1 is estimated to be 15,000, wolves, coyotes and bears kill another 5,000 or so. It is not a groceries problem. Predators are not endangered in any way, but our deer, elk and moose are. It is a predator problem.
Dale Magart
Deer Park
Lack of regulation increases all gun deaths
In “First Amendment protects the Second Amendment” (July 3), Sue Lani Madsen discusses a good suicide-reduction program, the Gun Shop Project, but willfully distorts the larger picture of guns in America.
She endorses the conclusion that “rising gun deaths (don’t) match the typical progressive campaign to reduce gun deaths by banning bump stocks and limiting magazine capacity,” because most gun deaths are suicides. This misleads by implying that (a) progressives are narrowly focused on things like bump stocks and (b) their concern about bump stocks and high-capacity magazines is misplaced.
Most progressives (and many others) aim to reduce all gun-related deaths – homicides, accidents, suicides – by enacting common-sense measures like better background checks and the banning of guns and gun accessories that can have little point except to maximize human body counts.
Consider Stephen Paddock, who took his life with a gun in 2017. Just before that, from the comfort of his Las Vegas hotel room, he strafed a crowd with over a thousand rounds from 15 guns in 10 minutes, killing 60 and wounding 413. No bump stock was needed for his suicide. But the toll he took on others would have been hard to pull off without bump stocks and high-capacity magazines.
America is the only high-income country in which most suicides are by a gun. And you’re about 25 times more likely to be murdered by a firearm here than in other advanced countries. Gun proliferation with lax oversight and accountability has everything to do with both phenomena.
Brian Keeling
Spokane
Natasha Hill for House of Representatives
Please join me in supporting and sending Natasha Hill to the House of Representatives in the 3rd District! Natasha doesn’t just talk the talk; she walks the walk. She was raised in Hillyard and is the only one running who understands the difficulties facing many in the 3rd District, which remains one of the poorest in the state! Even though the 3rd is one of the most eclectic in Eastern Washington, we have been represented by white males since 2013!
It’s time that our representation reflects the diversity of our rich culture of the 3rd district.
Natasha will fight for those most in need because of her learned experiences. Learn more about her at hilltothehouse.org.
Louise Chadez
Spokane