By Jason Reid
Rochester, New York – -(Ammoland.com)- Sitting on the stage were three influential women within the hunting culture.
Nicole Reeve, Melissa Bachman and Kendal Jones sat before the SCI Hunter’s Defense Fund luncheon and recounted the death threats, and personal distress they have been subjected to, just for carrying on a part of human nature.
With today’s fast paced communication world, the content is both positive and negative. Unfortunately, due to immature uneducated individuals around the world, these women have been tormented by people behind a computer screen.
Each of these women where raised in the culture of hunting. but for these women, vilified for carrying on tradition, the death threats are real. When we hear someone has received death threats, can we actually relate? Or do we just blow it off? Threats have come in the form of death threats to themselves, their children, and family.
Nicole Reeve says even allowing their children to play in their yard at home is a safety concern. They have had to increase their home security and have law enforcement keep an eye on their home in order to stay safe.
Melissa Bachman has reported people where showing up at her door step threatening to kill her, then they took things a step farther as she waged a war with people trying to steal her identity. And Kendall Jones has been the subject of countless death threats as her picture has been pasted all over the world by radical anti-hunting tormentors. There were support pages for Jones and kill pages for Jones on Facebook. The support page was taken down in one day while the kill page stayed up for over a week.
Each woman sat on the stage in front of us and fought tears recounting absolutely horrible stories which came as a result for chasing their dreams, passions and doing something completely legal.
Melissa Bachman was firm, “There must be repercussions for those who threaten us [and our hunting lifestyle].”
You would think there would be repercussions for the person who showed up to her house with an ice pick to kill her. She also made an interesting point in anti-hunters seeming to single out women since women hunters connect extremely well with families and the younger generation which hurts the anti’s twisted ideology.
All the women were in agreement, when fans jump to the defense on social media, they feel the support and are extremely appreciative.
One thing was evident which all three women brought to our attention once again. As the fire storm of hatred began raining down nobody was exactly sure where to go or what to do. The Hunters Defense Fund ( www.hunterdefensefund.org ) is actively growing to provide a central place for all hunters which fall under attack, verbally and with physical threats to go for support and information. The goal is for hunters to be able to contact the Defense Fund in times of need and will be able to receive the support and advice of professionals to help hunters navigate tumultuous path.
I walked out of the room with a pit in my stomach.
The sleeping giant, the power within the collective culture of the hunting world has been stirred. Like being poked repeatedly to see how we react by those opposed to hunting, we have been tested. We realize what we need to do to assert our leadership capabilities in this country and around the world to preserve our hunting, science based conservation and to stick up for each other.
We are hunters and yes, we have better things to do than to be dragged into rhetorical battles with those opposed to us. I’ve got food plots to plant, stands to hang and businesses to run. Unfortunately the days of being reactive when a fellow hunter falls under attack an now over, since emotionally driven rhetoric is making its way to the decision makers in this world.
Hunters lose and wildlife loses, when policy is based on trumped up fear and emotion and not facts. And the facts are on our side, hunting is the bed rock of conservation.
About Jason Reid:
Jason Reid is a writer and business professional from upstate New York. After deciding to pursue his dream of becoming an outdoor writer, Jason started a blog from his dorm room at Houghton College, growing it and working hard to earn opportunities. While bowhunting big game is his ultimate passion, Jason welcomes all outdoor challenges which force him to push his limits. Jason’s work can be viewed on his website Pushingthewildlimits.com