February 13, 2006
Firearms Department
Hunting Safety at Hit&Run
After my post about Dick Cheney's little hunting mishap, I posted a question in the comments to a Hit&Run post, asking about the rules for safe hunting. With as many libertarians as read that site, I figured they had to know a lot about guns.
A regular calling himself Hakluyt responded,
When it comes to gun injuries, etc. I was taught from NRA classes as kid forward that the decision is always with the person that pulls the trigger. Obviously folks can do stupid stuff that makes it more likely that they'll get shot, but the decision-maker is the guy with the gun, not vice-versa. So make sure you want to shoot that you are aiming at, etc. I've only been deer hunting though, but I'd imagine that bird hunters have a similar attitude.
Another poster named Pine says,
- Yeah, standard gun safety responsiblities apply, but there's some "special case" stuff, too.
- When you're quail shooting in a group like this, you stay conscious of who's where. Before flushing a covey, you have a mental "safe zone" where you can shoot without anybody being there. Knowing that is the shooter's responsibility.
- When you're moving around, you have to let your friends know where you are. This is usually verbal. The point is that you don't want to accidentally (or negligently) move into somebody's "safe zone".
And someone called rmark says,
When bird hunting, the hunters usually walk in a line abreat so none are in front of the others. The center hunter knows he can't swing too far left or right, and the end hunters only go for bird straight ahead or to their side. To get shot requires someone being out of place or someone shooting in a direction they aren't supposed too.
R C Dean sees it a little different:
[...]staying clear out of other hunter's safe zones is everyone's responsibility.
Getting peppered is not unusual when quail hunting. The birds fly unpredictably and at low levels, the terrain is often brushy, etc.
Plus, when wingshooting it is not possible to throughly scrutinize everything in the line of fire. That is why you establish zones of fire, and why the nonshooters have a responsibility to stay clear of it and shooters have a responsibility to make sure they are where they belong.
Jeff responds:
The whole idea that by "coming up behind" Cheney the victim somehow caused the shooting is just absurd. Given a choice, whether at a range or on a hunt, "behind the shooter" is where you want to be, for obvious reasons. For equally obvious reasons, panning and scanning with your gun at shoulder level, approximately 180 degrees, and then firing, is frowned upon. The description of the guy merely "getting peppered" is not consistent with getting knocked down and ending up in the ICU for three days. It is not uncommon to feel a few pellets as they come down when you are bird hunting, but getting a blast to the head and neck ending in a hospital visit is called "getting shot."
This all adds up to about what I'd concluded from doing a little reading on the web: For his own safety, Harry Whittington—the guy who got shot—would have been wise to announce his movement as he approached the hunting group, so that the hunters would know where their safe zones were. Nevertheless, it was Dick Cheney who pointed his gun in an unsafe direction and pulled the trigger.
Blogger alkali left this bit:
Overheard at the phone bank at RNC HQ:
"... No, Mr. Abramoff's skybox is no longer available, but at that contribution level we could arrange to have you shot in the face by Vice President Cheney ... no, I'm pretty sure it's not fatal ... well, I'll just put you down for the Reagan commemorative totebag then ..."
Heh. Just 165 minutes until Jon Stewart gets a shot at this story.
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