Last week we received an unsigned letter to the editor, which, as a policy, we don’t print. The only thing is, there is a story involved and we thought it was worth telling.

The writer emailed us:

“They’re hunters. We’ve had several calls about it.” That was the response to my second 911 call last week about the men shooting rifles at Beekman beach.

“Perhaps I overreacted and should not have used 911. Perhaps our police don’t consider such behavior an emergency, but do we need a tragedy in a public park before we hear sirens? Has violence become so pedestrian that we wink at a couple of nuts shooting ducks where we recreate?

“This isn’t the mountains. This is happening in a densely populated community literally down the street from Oyster Bay High School’s ball field and Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School. How about a little preventative medicine before one of us is lying in the morgue.”

The letter was signed “Scared in OB.”

We’ve known about hunters using the harbor to shoot ducks. The DEC runs classes for hunters out of their building on Beekman Beach.

Last Sunday we drove down to Beekman Beach to enjoy a cup of coffee while looking at our wonderful harbor. As we pulled up in our car, we saw two men dragging up a metal rowboat onto the beach. They were dressed in hunting camouflage. The men were talking and one held up a duck he had shot.

We went over and introduced ourself to the hunter. We told him about the letter and he agreed people call the police and that they don’t understand that hunting is allowed. He said you can shoot as long as you are on the water, even though a house is nearby.

He said that this year the geese and mallard ducks are uncontaminated. That is good news for him since he was going home to cook the duck. He said people don’t realize it but the money from licenses and permits go toward helping the waterfowl.

The bay is many things to many people - which just gives us more reasons to keep it healthy and vital.

- DFK