In order:

1. Emergency self/home defense

2. Broadly, shooting is a lot of fun. Target shooting, competition shooting, trap and skeet, old west action shooting, it’s all a ton of fun when done safely and responsibly. It’s the same appeal as darts, horseshoes, cornhole, axe throwing, bowling, archery, any activity where the object is to accurately launch a projectile. It’s an ancient human pastime and a natural thing to like, shooting is just the modern version of it.

Hunting is also a lot of fun, but deserves to be addressed separately. For most hunters, it’s all about enjoying the outdoors with your friends. “Putting meat on the table” generally isn’t involved with it. Deer tags are given out on a lottery basis here, so it’s rare to even have the opportunity. If you do harvest one, unless you have a big freezer, you’ll probably end up giving most of it away before it spoils. Most other furbearers will be infected with some sort of disease, parasite, bot fly larvae, etc. so they generally aren’t eaten. But, that doesn’t mean there’s no value in the activity. One critical aspect of environmental conservation is controlling the population of invasive species, and hunters are an important part of that effort. More broadly, hunting and environmental conservation are closely tied to each other, both economically and in terms of desired outcomes. Here, rabbit season is an important part of protecting farmers’ crops, promoting ecological diversity, and preventing their predator populations from growing too large.

All of that to say, I like hunting because it’s fun to be outdoors with friends, but I also like it because it’s good for the environment and lets me feel like I’m contributing to something bigger than myself for others to enjoy.