I have walked into the woods much like hunters have done where there was a deer, a buck (with tiny antlers I might add ) that I had earlier deemed Red Wind for his coloring and speed. (in case you are wondering from my username) This deer would allow me to walk up to him and pet him if I wanted to, though in the small herd, he was the only that would allow this, though I was very close with Silent Moon. (but that is another story). I suppose what I am getting at is the fact that I am sad that Red Wind was living there, behind my house, by the street in a small patch of woods, bordered by other homes, though he didn't have a choice due to overpopulation in my area.
Since you are 15, and willing to reach out into the unknown to explore your questions...I have a long series of comments that I hope can make you better understand a viewpoint other than yours. Take it or leave it.
Whan I suggested that you spend some time in the woods to understand what hunting is all about, I meant some real woods...where no one is around for miles and the deer are not domesticated (or possibly sick - if he let you touch him) by suburban protection. And not a governmentally-controlled Park, where hunting is not allowed and rangers make paths, roads, campgrounds, etc.
I have no idea where you live. Get out into a place where people actually hunt - the woods of Maine, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Minnesota, Washington, etc. Look around at the people you see on the way there. They probably wear a lot of hunting clothing year-round. It's most likely all they can (or want to) afford. This is their land and hunting is their way of life.
Your views and the way you live your life are your own, but the "hunting is evil", "hunting never solved any problems" rhetoric you are touting is prejudiced bigotry. Hunting solves the problem of hunger for many many people.
Hunting for sport rather than food is a tradition that connects mankind to our roots. If you don't like it...don't do it.
It sounds like your parents have provided a very nice environment for you to sit back in judgement. You reach out in judgement from your protected lifestyle and tear apart my family's hunting tradition that dates back to hunting the same land since they first discovered it while serving as laborers building a railroad to the Pacific.
Hunting and gun ownership are a proud tradition to me because my family clawed its way up from Irish roots where only the Irish Lords were allowed to hunt, through the days where my grandfather had to sell his rifle every year after getting enough meat for the winter and to today where these stories, traditions and quiet solitude wandering the same woods with a rifle in hand pass on to my children.
Environmentalists TALK about saving ecosystems. Hunters over the past centuries - particularly in the USA - have designed and paid for the preservation of ecosystems. The only reason there are overpopulation problems with deer in the suburbs is because an artificial environment has been created where preditors like wolves cannot do their job and humans only get outdoors if they can afford to golf.
So you want to be a vegan. Great! Go do it. Don't pass judgement on others who don't share your views.
Although I would NEVER try to stop anyone from living their life the way they want, I personally think the vegan lifestyle is extremely selfish. I could easily pass judgement on vegans with logic similar to that used against hunters.
Meat is an excellent, concentrated source of nutrition -- especially protein. If everyone on the planet decided to stop eating meat, do you think the earth's soil could support the new requirements? We would be competing for soil with other herbivores -- and humans would win. To support a growing human population, crops, forests, wetlands and open areas would have to be converted to grow the high protein plants humans need to eat. First the meat animals would die off, then the wild animals.
It still would not be enough. The real problem is all the people. First, the "blame America" crowd would say "Americans are too fat" and we would all be placed on strict diets. That would not be enough, and populations would need to be controlled. The only way to achieve a utopia where people live in harmony with nature is to have a significantly higher soil/person ratio. Since we still only have one Earth, a reduction in people is the only answer.
Easy answers like "hunting is evil" and "meat is murder" tend to have significant unintended consequences. A totalitarian regime would be the only way to institute a true solution to save the Bambis.
A final solution would have to crush ideas and lifestyles like those espoused on this website.
My $.02.