When It Comes to Guns, Ducks and Geese Are Treated Better Than Kids and Teachers

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, commercial hunting was devastating populations of ducks, geese and other water birds. In response, Congress passed the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918, granting the United States Fish and Wildlife Service authority to regulate the killing of migratory birds nationwide. Now waterfowl are thriving in North America, an exception to the general global trend in the decline of birds and other wildlife populations.

One of the earliest waterfowl protection regulations put in place by the Fish and Wildlife Service restricts the firearms that hunters can use by limiting how many shells a hunter’s shotgun may hold. People hunting ducks, geese, doves or other migratory birds anywhere in the United States cannot use a shotgun that is capable of shooting more than three times without reloading. They also cannot use shotguns larger than 10 gauge in order to prevent situations where one blast might kill several birds in a flock. These regulations have been in place since the 1930s, and have driven the manufacture and availability of hunting shotguns.

Gun controls have been part of waterfowl management for nearly a century, with relatively little controversy even today, and have worked to protect populations of ducks and other migratory birds. There are no semiautomatic assault weapon equivalents for hunting migratory birds, because their use is prohibited. But those weapons, as we have seen in so many mass shootings, at schools and elsewhere, are otherwise widely available.