The denial of a game license last week for the Chuck E. Cheese’s in Amherst, N.Y., has stirred some controversy recently, as the Amherst Town Board voted against renewing the entertainment venue’s license over concerns about violent video games. The games in question, at least in part, include hunting-related video games.

The troubling part about this story is that last week’s vote was the first time the town board failed to approve a game room license. The licenses, which are legally required for businesses such as Chuck E. Cheese’s to run arcade games, had generally been rubber-stamped by the board in the past.

So what was different this time?

According to The Buffalo News, “Council Member Shelly Schratz said she was disturbed by several ‘action-packed shoot-and-kill games’ that were accessible to children as young as 4.”

“When I see 6-year-olds, 8-year-olds playing those games, when all the time we’re opening the paper and seeing those stories on youth violence, do we need those games to make money?” she told the newspaper.

Anyone who knows anything about hunting knows that it is not the cause of violence in our kids.  Hunting is about teaching kids to have a respect and understanding for wildlife, firearms, and the outdoors. It’s about the lessons passed down from generation to generation, time spent with family, and developing a deeper respect for wild things and wild places.

Hunting isn’t about video games. And most of the video games on the market don’t even accurately depict what it’s like to go hunting. But when a town board oversteps its authority and tries to tell its citizens that kids shouldn’t play games that depict hunting because they’re violent, it’s a perfect reflection of how many elected officials feel about hunting. Or better yet, it shows their ignorance about hunting. I’d be willing to bet that the officials who voted against the license think hunting games are a true reflection of what hunting is all about. That bias is why we’re forced to defend our traditions at every step.

The fact that that game license wasn’t passed isn’t as important as why it was denied. That board viewed hunting as a danger to kids, and you can be sure that same prejudice extends to real-life hunting, not just the “pretend” hunting kids do in an arcade or on a television screen. Ignorance and a lack of understanding are as much a threat to hunting as anything else.