On lead bullets, judges rule against environmentalists

[vkkv]

31. Fortunately hunting license numbers have been on the decline.

In California, but in the U.S. in general.

From 2012.
No state typifies the evolving role of fish and wildlife agencies more than California, where there’s been a precipitous drop in hunting license sales over the last three decades and practices like trophy hunting are alien to the vast majority of the electorate. There were only 268,000 licensed hunters last year in a state with 38 million people―less than 1 percent of the state’s population.

http://blog.humanesociety.org/wayne/2012/02/ca-mountain-lion-killing.html

AND:

The number of gun deer hunting licenses sold to Wisconsin residents declined from 644, 991 in 2000 to 602,791 in 2010. This is a decline of 6.5% in ten years, despite the fact that 10 and 11 year old hunters were added for the first time in 2009 and 2010. Declines have been most stark among males age 25-44, who have (in the recent past) hunted at high rates and killed a large number of deer.

Projections of future hunters suggest that the male gun hunter population will decline more dramatically over the next ten to twenty years. We provide three future scenarios for male gun deer hunters using two different methodological approaches and making different assumptions about future participation rates and how they will vary by age and cohort. Overall, the models suggest that in 2020, the number of male gun hunters will drop to about 480,000 (compared to 549,505 in 2010). If current patterns continue, the number could drop to 400,000 or fewer by 2030.

http://www.huntersnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/APL_hunters2011_web.pdf