This is in response to the Armchair Mayor column, Do We Need More Teenaged Hunters? (The Daily News, Feb. 21).

I am a young man who has grown up in a hunting family. This is tradition. I remember hunting with my grandfather before he passed away. He and my father taught me the ethics and ways of hunting.

Columnist Mel Rothenburger makes hunters out to be nothing that we are at all. There is no comparison to us and kids who spend their days playing shooting games on game consoles.

We’ve spent our time with our families growing up in the outdoors. We’ve been taught to respect and value nature. We are taught responsibility and the consequences of our actions, unlike those who live in video games.

It’s not hunters who are driving around on their quads and dirt bikes in the grasslands destroying the habitat of many of the animals out there.

We aren’t littering and throwing trash out of our vehicles.

Are you a vegan? If not, you might want to look into the butchering of cattle and chickens because there are more inhumane ways than shooting an animal.

By his writing, I can tell Mel has never been hunting and rarely spent any time in the outdoors.

During hunting season and in the outdoors, in general, you see people helping everyone, even people who we don’t know because it’s the values we’ve grown up with. It’s who hunters are.

We’ve grown up with strict values on safety, ethics, and helping those who need help.

We also will pass on these values and the pure appreciation of the outdoors to our families and kids.

I hope hunting is not in danger of dying out, but ignorant attitudes like those expressed in Mel’s column may jeopardize it for future generations.

ADAM JENAWAY

Kamloops