My father was a sportsman, a big time sportsman. His passion was Bass, but hunting was right in there. As a kid, hunting clothing and a shotgun were under the Christmas tree as soon as I got large enough to barely fit in the smallest available size. There were a few rules.
- All guns are to be considered loaded at all times.
- Never shoot until you know where everyone else in the party is.
- Safety is the responsibility of the one with the gun
Safety was more important than hunting. I don’t hunt anymore, but I’ve retired in a place where the sound of gunfire during deer season is as common as cars on the road at the bottom of the hill. For our little weekly paper, hunting accidents would be front page news. There aren’t many. Maybe if Cheney hadn’t dodged the draft, the Army would have taught him how to use a gun.
In the military, I was stationed in the UK and lived in a house on a pheasant preserve. Once a year, the rich would gather on a nearby estate and have a "shoot." There were pheasants everywhere, always – ten or fifteen on our back lawn at any time. During the "shoot," we would stay inside, away from windows. Rich guys on a "shoot" with engraved guns and Shooting Sherry make for a dangerous combination. It wasn’t a "hunt," it was a "slaughter." I’d say the fact that there were two contiguous coveys suggests that this was a similar situation – a "stocked" field – a "shoot."
But, who knows? Maybe the guy he shot was being reckless. I kind of doubt anyone who could shoot two quail on the wing was anything like a rookie, but who knows? More to the point, they "covered it up." The owner was talking like a redneck instead of a baroness with her own game preserve [was it "30 yards" or "100 yards?"]. Were this someone else, we might feel sorry for him – a humiliated Sportsman showing the whole world that he didn’t know what in the hell he was doing. But for Cheney, the reason it’s a story is that it’s par for the course – ineptness followed by a cover-up.
Ineptness followed by a cover-up.
You may want to go check Talking Points Memo from late yesterday. Josh Marshall solicited input from experienced hunters, and the verdict is:
That said, one point that comes through really clearly from everyone is that when you’re hunting and you hit a person — that’s your fault. Period. End of story. Outside of extreme cases of negligence or self-destructive behavior on the part of the victim, it’s not his fault. You’re responsible, as the shooter, for knowing no person is in your line of fire before you pull the trigger. So this stuff about Whittington being at fault for the accident just doesn’t wash for any of the hunters we’ve heard from.