Bundy Terrorists: Did Nurture create the horrible people that the Bundy's became?

http://blog.aba.org/2016/02/malheur-occupation-how-does-nature-nurture-shape-the-adults-we-become.html

As the occupation of Malheur stretched from days into weeks, my anger towards the Bundy brothers turned to sadness. I began to realize that they have been irreparably scarred by a virulent father whose teachings left them wholly unprepared to function within the framework of the agreed-upon laws that the rest of us abide by. Ammon Bundy never appears to seethe the same way his father seethes, but he is certainly a prisoner to the family credo and perhaps a need to live up to the old man’s expectations.

Growing up on the arid rangelands of Nevada, one might expect that the Bundy boys had a magical childhood. The soundtrack of their youth was surely filled with the songs of Western Meadowlarks, desert sparrows, Sage Thrashers and nighttime hooting of Great Horned Owls. But did they hear them? Coyotes, jackrabbits, pronghorn, and all sorts of snakes and lizards were likely common sights on their family’s land. But did they notice, or were all these animals merely fodder for youngsters learning the shoot straight? Did their father and mother know the names of any of the local plants and animals? Could they, or would they explain to their boys that all these creatures have a place on the planet and serve as important links in nature’s balance? Sadly, the answer is probably no. Did their parents ever take them on vacations to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Arches or Zion? Being Mormon, they presumably made pilgrimages to Utah. Do they even know that Bear River National Wildlife Refuge exists, or did they ever go there? Given their father’s disdain for federal land ownership, it seems unlikely. This saddens me.

My parents joined the Audubon Society when I was about five years old. Family vacations usually involved camping on state or federal lands and included visits to many National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, National Scenic Areas and state wildlife areas. For as long as I can remember, my parents worked on conservation issues. Both are past presidents of the Audubon Society of Portland (Oregon), now one of the largest independent chapters in the country.

I don’t recall my parents carping about the government, or talking disrespectfully about elected officials, even those at the opposite end of the political spectrum. If there was something that they thought needed to be changed, they reached out to their representatives and made their feelings known. They organized campaigns, inspiring others to do the same and worked to elect like-minded folks. They routinely testified at government hearings, wrote to and called on elected officials. They were squeaky wheels to be sure. These efforts contributed to the creation of the Big Walnut Creek preserve in central Indiana, the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, and Oregon’s landmark “Bottle Bill.” While working for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, my mom came up with the idea to organize a cleanup of Oregon’s beaches in 1984, the first of its kind in the United States. Thirty-plus years later this annual cleanup is still going strong and many states and countries now make similar efforts to remove trash and debris from their coastlines.

In my home, there was definitely what I call nature nurture–not to be confused with nature vs. nurture. I firmly believe that our values and beliefs are shaped by unique sets of life experiences. These start with where we were raised and who raised us. Given my upbringing, there was little chance that I would grow up to own a gun, or come to believe that transferring any of the public parks and refuges that I visited as a child back into private hands would be a good thing. Birds and other wildlife large and small were valued and to be protected.

I have to wonder…was there much nature nurture in the Bundy childhoods? It seems that they learned plenty about guns and confrontation, while their education about compromise, civil discourse, and the natural world lagged behind. Were the Bundy children taught to value any wildlife? Did they learn how wildlife was abusively exploited for profit before the Audubon Society and Teddy Roosevelt came along and convinced us to think about it differently?