The morning sun rises on the ranch, and sophomore Dalton Robertson sits silently in his hunting blind. Robertson was up an hour before the sun was, loading his gun and preparing for the day ahead.

When he turned 11 years old, Robertson received his first hunting rifle as a gift from his parents. Now, five years later, Robertson enjoys seasonal hunting with his family.

“Our first safety course was…well we never even got a gun,” Robertson said. “We got fake guns that don’t shoot and we learned the best places to hold them, which is obviously up to the sky, and why not to hold them to the ground.”

Hunting season varies depending on animal, but Dalton and his family most often hunt deer. Usually for a three month span, they are out on their ranch around once a week, bonding closer together as they try not to make noise from the comfort of their blind.

“[Guns] have been in my family for generations,” Dalton said. “One of my grandpa’s buddies had some ranches in south Texas where my mom and her brother got to go hunting, and it’s just always lived in the family. Now, my mom and grandpa are passing down their skills and their way of life to me and my brother.”

Hunting serves different purposes for different people: for some it’s a sport, others it’s a way to eat. Even though Dalton’s family hunts for both reasons, his mother, Lori Gruver, reveals the benefits beyond that.

“The main reason I introduced my kids to hunting was to spend time together as a family,” Gruver said. “Of course we work hard on the ranch [by] clearing brush and trees, using a chainsaw, hauling a trailer, repairing ranch equipment and trucks, feeding cattle, hauling hay.”

Robertson’s brother, freshman Hayden Robertson, also enjoys the ranch.

“[The best things about the ranch are] being outdoors, the work the ranch offers, and spending time with family,” Hayden said. “[It’s nice] being out of the city where things are more quiet and peaceful.”

Although Dalton mainly enjoys guns for hunting purposes, he still believes that guns provide an important attribute to self defense.

“I mean, my mom does own a gun for self defense because she lives by herself half the time whenever we’re with our dad,” Dalton said. “So if she’s going out on the ranch and there’s somebody there or some wild animal’s gonna attack her for whatever reason, she needs to have a gun to protect herself.”

Given his extensive safety training, Dalton recognizes that guns are no laughing matter; as he says, guns are all for the same thing: to kill.

“Treat every gun like it’s loaded, even if it’s not,” Dalton said. “I never load the gun unless I intend to use it, that’s just the easiest way to be safe. Whenever we have it in our car, we always have the barrel facing down with nothing loaded in it, so if anything ever happens, it’ll go through the floorboard and it won’t hit anybody— it’ll just go through the truck, which is fine, way better than anything else happening.”

Regarding the recent push for gun control, Dalton believes harsher procedures will not give the country the results they want.

“I think some states and some cities have cracked down on gun control whereas others have not… I don’t really think it helps,” Dalton said. “I think if you’re a criminal and you intend to get a gun and you intend to shoot people, then it’s gonna happen. [More gun control] won’t help anything, it hasn’t helped anything with the cities and states who have cracked down on it.”

In order to buy a gun in America, all buyers are required to go through a background check that identifies their criminal history and mental health problems, if any. However, some people believe the U.S. needs to do more.

“People are talking a lot about extra background checks, which is fine,” Dalton said. “I believe in extra background checks. They already have background checks, but if they want to extend it that’s fine, I think that’d be okay if you had nothing to hide.”

In response to the recent spur of gun violence, many citizens argue that specific precautions be taken in order to ensure the safety of Americans. Dalton used the Parkland shooting as a jumping off point when deciding possible measures that could be taken in order to protect the nation.

“[Precautions are necessary] because there’s a rise in shootings, but I honestly don’t know,” Dalton said. “For the social media [threats], you’re gonna want to investigate them. Threats should be taken seriously or at least investigated, but yeah, [figuring out what to do] is kinda the big topic in America right now.”