Spear Hunting

    In these great United States, in my own home state of New York, it is somehow illegal to hunt if your weapon of choice is a spear. Let me be clear: you can kill an animal with a gun or bow, but in this day and age you can't even spear hunt if you want. What is this noise? Why can this all-American past time only be done with guns and bows? I absolutely feel this is one law we do not need and I'll tell why.
    I don't care much for hunting myself. I can't really see any joy to be had in squatting in a 'tent' made of camouflage netting at 6 AM and luring helpless animals to their death. I especially say helpless, because of the use of guns and bows by the hunter. The deer might be 75 ft away from the thing that kills then and they'd never even realize. I'm sure that hunting enthusiasts would laud the ignorance as compassion, that at least the animal didn't suffer having to run for his life from a killer he could see coming. I, alternatively, don't even see the sport in it.
    I understand the concept of hunting for sport, and that the enjoyment comes from acting on long-obsolete instincts to succeed so completely over another being. They are very primal emotions some people are just more in touch with. However, wouldn't the thrill, the adrenaline rush that comes from that hunter-gatherer mentality be amplified if you could rush up and fight in melee combat with a spear? Or even thrown from a short distance? That would be true skill, man truly exerting his higher primate brain over lesser mammels. Trophies shot with a gun seem hollow to me. With a spear-hunting scenario theres even the risk the animal might hurt you. Risk, to me, is what makes the reward worth it. Can you imagine needing real skill to bring home a nice trophy? Stalking, stealth, speed, agility, strength, the ability to think on your feet. If you fail, not only do you leave sans trophy, you might very well get a hoof in the jaw or claw scars across the beer belly. That might be real sport. Not drinking beer with some buddies far earlier than people should be imbibing while making a lawn chair bow under you and occassionally looking up at the salt lick on the tree to see if there's a 20-pointer that'd look great in the cabin.