The hunters association which is organising an exhibition in schools – a move that has brought disdain and concern, including by the Children’s Commissioner – has defended itself saying that children “kill” on their Playstations every day.

The association said it is perplexed that children's commissioner expressed concern that hunting exhibitions in schools could "inadvertently promote the use of firearms among children”. The exhibition is financed by the Gozo Ministry.

“Considering most children are using firearms to “kill” on their Playstations daily and are also exposed to films or news showing the use of firearms and violence, where did she ever condemn such promotion of the use of firearms?” the association said in a statement.

Surely any Children’s Commissioner cannot deny the fact that education is the key to proper understanding and learning. Children should be educated on any subject making them aware of what is right and what is wrong and what is safe and what is not, the association said.

This is exactly the scope of the exhibition even more so when, unlike her Office, since 1994 our children’s educators follow a syllabus prepared by Birdlife Malta who do “have a position or agenda on hunting” which is totally against hunting, publicly declared and promoted to our children in our schools.

Before declaring her “ludicrous assumptions”, the association said, one would expect a person with such a responsibility to check her facts before parroting an opinion. The exhibition is purely educational and does not entice children to take up hunting. It informs on the right and the wrong, the culture and benefits being either culinary or the work of hunters towards the environment, all being facts which are intentionally omitted in our children’s education, the association said.

Indeed hunters do “have every right to pass their pastime onto their children in a controlled setting that provides context and guidance and which ensures that children only engage in hunting when they come of age”. However should they be labelled as murderers by their children or told that hunting is wrong since this is what they are taught at school?

The Commissioner had better concentrate on the indoctrination of our children against hunting in schools run by an organization with a declared abolitionist agenda rather that worry about an informative exhibition that enjoys official acceptance which she obviously has not bothered to inform herself about, the association said.