Reply #223: A lot of early posts focused on the "shooting a whale with a machinegun?? WTF?" angle. [View All]

Look at this thread, Ben. Well over 200 posts as of this writing, virtually all of them dealing with the interesting, troubling and truly significant aspects of this tragedy: tribal sovereignty, inter-tribal conflicts, treaty provisions, traditional hunting rights, the legal liability of the perpetrators, thorny conflict of law issues, and so forth. And what's your sole contribution? Repeated gripes about the inaccurate description of the gun that was evidently used. Yes, there's a great deal of difference between a machine gun and a Weatherby hunting rifle, but that difference ultimately amounts to exactly dick in terms of what's really important, here.

With a .50 cal machine gun?

That's not hunting, that's slaughter.

If they get to kill whales with 50 cals I get to own slaves.
That's "cultural" too.

I Don't Think Their Traditional Whaling Involves a 50 Caliber Machine Gun

If they want to get out in a small boat and poke it with a sharp stick, I might respect that. Not this.

But these jokers used a MACHINE GUN to kill a whale.

they don't have a right to machine guns

under treaty.

sorry.

my god! how traditional is using a fucking MACHINE GUN

fuck these traditions.

didn't christians burn people as witches?

we don't do that anymore just to keep a hold on some fucked up traditions

whoever did this belongs in prison

These buffoons want to do it like their ancestors then may I suggest they carve out their canoe and sharpen stones for their spears. They are pathetic. With modern day equipment and especially a machine gun they should not be able to hunt unless they do it like their ancestors. That is their gripe after all.

Machine gun vs. antiquated methods

I'm no expert in whale hunting, but I would think that using a machine gun would result in a more rapid death in which the whale suffered pain far less. We agonize over the methodology used by the state in executions of prisoners. Would anyone favor "traditional methods" of execution in capital punishment via throwing spears at the prisoner? Of course not. It would be sadistic cruelty.

The animal floundered for 8 hours before dying..
...after being attacked with a machine gun. If this is part of their culture--then we should stop it.

And what's your sole contribution? Repeated gripes about the inaccurate description of the gun that was evidently used.

Let's see if a little history can put this in perspective: I can recall quite clearly that for a significant part of the day of November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle was referred to as a ".30-06." It was an hysterical situation in Dallas, somebody saw the rifle, it looked vaguely like a U.S. Springfield, so it was christened a .30-06. The error was corrected in a few hours, but guess what? The designation of the rifle as a 6.5mm Carcano didn't bring Jack Kennedy back to life, it didn't retrieve Kennedy's brains from that street by Dealy Plaza, it didn't prevent Lyndon Johnson from becoming president, and it sure as hell never solved the mystery of who really pulled the trigger(s) that day. I was in Austin on August 1, 1966 when Charles Whitman opened up on the University of Texas campus. Initial reports indicated that he had a .30-06 in his arsenal; this was subsequently corrected. Again, it was a frantic time in Austin, initial reports were garbled, and some assumption was made that a common caliber like the '06 must be part of the large arsenal that Whitman toted to the top of that tower and used with such deadly effect. But the fact that Whitman used a 6mm Remington rather than a .30-06 didn't help any of the dozens of people he either killed or wounded. Designation of the right caliber didn't remove the blood stains from the South Mall of the campus, and it didn't answer the question of why a nice guy like Whitman turned into a berserk mass murderer.

There is no evidence that the mistaken firearm descriptions in 1963 and 1966 were the result of any nefarious actions by the media. And despite some possible wishful thinking on your part, there is no evidence of any overt media plotting or willful ignorance in the present instance, either. Maybe the description of the gun will be corrected, maybe not. Ultimately, it's just not that important....

(By the way, thanks for the photo of the Weatherby Mark V, but I don't really need it---I've owned one for a couple of decades, now. It doesn't have a plastic stock, a pistol grip or a bayonet lug, but I like it anyway....)