The anti-hunting post has been occupying a bit of my mind the last day or so, so I haven’t been able to come up with new topics right now. Hog hunting promises to pick up over the next couple of months, so there’s something to look forward to.
However, I can’t let the day go by without expressing my sadness and my frustration at the tragic news stories coming out of the turkey woods recently.
First, a Minnesota father shot his eight year-old son. What happened? Well, the story doesn’t help the cause of hunters… the man followed some turkeys, the boy followed his father, the father turned and shot at “some movement”… discharging a full, 12ga turkey load into the boy’s chest at approximately 20 yards.
Then a 19 year-old West Virginian shot a 16 year-old after apparently spotting movement and mistaking it for a turkey… and then he ran away and left him, according to the reports. I wasn’t there, and I can imagine the panic in that teenager’s mind could have made him react thoughtlessly… not to let him off the hook, but to keep it in perspective. The worst thing was that he shot the young man in the first place… by mistake.
Now I hesitate to highlight these stories, because… well there’s just no good way to see it. As hunters, we go on about our dedication to safety and ethics and all that, but just a couple of these stories take the wind out of those claims pretty handily. Sure, statistics still tell you that hunting is much safer than almost any other sport you can take up. But statistics probably don’t mean squat to the family of the dead youngsters right now, and they sure wouldn’t mean anything to me either.
I could use this to launch another diatribe about the importance of maintaining our image as hunters and how these incidents really give us a black eye… but I really don’t have the energy, and honestly, I can’t see how that would be constructive. All I can do when I think about it right now is imagine that father’s agony. I doubt any of us needs to point out his errors to him… or to anyone else.
Instead, I just want to say to all of you, “be careful out there, folks.”
I know we all think we’re safe hunters, and I’m sure most of you are. But it only takes a second…less than a second… and a lifetime of practicing safety is erased.
So very tragic to read about something like this especially in such an enlightened society where safety for self and others around us is so strongly presented and even enacted into law.
Could it be that we have allowed ourselves to be so “Safety, Overly Legislated” that people have become complacent and even debilitated by media saturation of situations like, winning lawsuits against gun makers for crimes committed with one of their purchased firearms?
(Let someone else take the blame for my irresponsible and thoughtless actions, Right!)
Also, I wonder if the lack of outdoor exposure and not being re-briefed upon the subject of firearm safety plays some part in these type of accidents.
We have to be re-certified in C.P.R. every 2 to 3 years for our certificates to remain current and active!
My Grandfather always stressed the point to me that there is no such thing as a firearm accident and that neglect to firearm safety and inexperience is 99% the culprit to an accidental shooting.
So very disheartening and sad to read about these accidents.