Fair doesn't necessarily have to mean equal. Even the Maasai adulthood ceremonies, which involved lion hunting with a spear, wasn't fair - there was more than one Maasai but only one lion. However, it is about whether it is sporting.
Now, let's take big game hunting. Two weeks ago I was at a park in Mt Kenya, where I took a guided walk through the thickets along pathways that were created by cape buffalo (one of the meaner critters one can come across), and with the trails leading to a waterhole. There were elephants in the area, said buffalo, and leopards. My guide was fortunately armed with a G3. Interesting thing is that we never came across any large game - apparently they heard us approaching and left, but at night, in the safety of the lodge, we saw many of them. Now, imagining the days of yore when people would hunt big game, following a wounded cape buffalo into the thicket was often a fatal adventure (they have a habit of circling around you). Same can be said about following a wounded leopard, which was arguably one of the more dangerous things that could be done at night. My simple two hour walk had my blood pumping and senses strained trying to locate even the smallest movement or hear the slightest sound ...I can only imagine what it would be if I was following the bloody spoor of some beast. That is hunting.
Let's go down a bit. 'Normal' hunting. Say you take your rifle (or bow or large handgun) and are out for boar (or deer, etc). You are tracking the deer. Maybe calling out for them. Hours pass. You are tracking them, before spotting a good stag. Then, all that boils down to one moment where your shot better be true. That is hunting.
Let's go down even further. You have your shotgun and you are out for geese or quail. Maybe you have a fowler's dog for the quail. Maybe you are simply just mucking about in the marsh with a duck whistle. The birds fly, you take a lead, and pull the trigger. Skill is involved, since if your lead is off, even with shot, you will miss. That is hunting.
What is not hunting?
Well, there are caged 'hunts,' where in South Africa they will lock up a lion in a cage and have some 'brave' hunter put some holes in it. I am certain all those 'hunters' say how they followed the lion for hours on end across thorny underbrush, when in essence all they did is shoot something in a manner that was easier than brushing teeth.
Or that invention of a few years back where a remote controlled gun, that could be controlled via the computer, was shot at caged animals. More shooting.
And finally, this smartgun. Shooting an animal that is browsing from a 1,000 yards is an amazing level of skill ....if one is using their own shooting ability. If someone is using a computerized shooting system that is not hunting, and it is not skillful. Obama could replicate those shots based on what I have seen in the YouTube video.
Anyways, I would definitely want that shooting system. I am sure at least a fifth of the guns sold will be re-sold to foreign governments who want the targeting systems. It is a nice gun, and in terms of military applications it can be amazing since it takes what would require EXCEPTIONAL level of skill and makes it a commodity only limited by financial wherewithal. However, as a hunting tool that it is not.
Hunting is not about giving the game equal footing. If everything is equal that is not hunting ...it is survival. But neither is it shooting a caged beast from 10 feet, or using a computerized shooting robot (which is what this gun is ...it is a shooting robot that controls a gun, with the human interface being simply to align the sights to the general direction of the target, and pressing down on the trigger) to strike down game from 1,000 yards.
Clarification - the Mt Kenya trip wasn’t a hunting expedition. It was a forest walk after a day of viewing animals from a car at another reserve.
“:)” usually is taken as “in jest” or “for fun” etc.
As for hunting, I gave that up as a teenager when I used to hunt rabbits and squirrels.
Once when we first met, my son-in-law asked me “what do you have all those guns for - hunting.”
I looked at him dead-eye and told him “I didn’t buy those guns to kill no Bambi.”