Chapter 15 of Omnivore's Dilemma was a short chapter on how Pollan was preparing to make a meal from sustenance of all foraging groups. Fruits, vegetables, fungi, and meat were what made up this meal and he wanted to find and gather enough of each to make his first meal that he has ever gathered all of the needs to create. Pollan had just moved to California, so he was not to familiar with the area, so he decided to hire a foraging Virgil. This way he would not have to worry about shooting the wrong animal, picking the wrong fungi, nor consuming the wrong forage. I would say this was a smart move on Pollan's behalf, especially when you have just moved to an area that you are not familiar with.
Pollan seems to poke fun at how easy it is for a resident of California to buy a firearm, but can't take aim at an animal before taking hunter's education. I personally don't believe that you should have to take hunters education to buy and own a firearm, but I do think it is a good idea. Hunters education teaches you allot of common sense things like the proper way of carrying a gun over a fence and things like this, things you think people should already know, but the truth is that they wouldn't teach it if it wasn't a problem so what most think to be common sense is often not common sense until they have taken hunters education or some safety class on guns. So maybe if you don't feel like taking hunters education you should still have to take some sort of firearm safety course before being allowed to purchase a firearm of any sort. Not every person buying a gun has handled one before so accidents are immanent, so why not send them through a class before allowing them to buy a gun and giving them the chance to learn from trial and error.
I think Pollan made a good choice by not eating the mushroom he found while on his nature hike. That kind of thing should really be left to a professional and maybe once you have been taught by a proffesional, then you too could be an expert on the matter. Maybe if he had consumed that familiar looking fungi he might not of ever finished this book. haha
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I agree with your conversation on firearms for the most part. A gun is a deadly weapon and while hunters education might not be necessary for everyone, since not everyone buys a gun to hunt, I think that there should be a class that you have to take in order to get a gun license, just like when you get your drivers license. And honestly, I think that guns shouldn't be as easy to own in general because people use them for the wrong reasons, to kill and harm other people, and anything that gives anyone that kind of power should be put on serious lock down.
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