Anyone out at night is waiting for Wiley, not Bambi. Wiley is trickier than Bambi.
Posted on 02/12/2006 12:46:46 PM PST by bayourant
Edited on 02/12/2006 2:10:43 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, his spokeswoman said Sunday.
Harry Whittington, 78, was "alert and doing fine" after Cheney sprayed him with shotgun pellets on Saturday while the two were hunting at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, said property owner Katharine Armstrong.
Armstrong said Whittington was mostly injured on his right side, with the pellets hitting his cheek, neck and chest, and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Whittington was in stable condition Sunday, said Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Health System.
Cheney's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president was with Whittington, a lawyer from Austin, Texas, and his wife at the hospital on Sunday afternoon.
Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shot at a covey of quail late afternoon on Saturday.
Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another spot and found a second covey.
Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong told the Associated Press in an interview.
"The vice president didn't see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."
The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
She said Whittington was bleeding but not very seriously injured, and Cheney was very apologetic.
"It broke the skin," she said. "It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that."
She said emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington, holding his face and cleaning up the blood.
"Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been," she said. "The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."
Armstrong said Cheney is a longtime friend who comes to the ranch to hunt about once a year. She said Whittington is a regular, too, but she thought it was the first time the two men hunted together.
"This is something that happens from time to time. You now, I've been peppered pretty well myself," said Armstrong.
___
Associated Press writer Paul Weber in Dallas contributed to this report.
Most of the reporters do not have a clue about this and unless they watch sportsman programs showing these Quail Hunting Expeditions, or actually go along with Hunters they will remain clueless. I personally do not hunt and have no desire to, but I don't skydive or race motorcycles either but have family or friends that do all that stuff, and more power to them. There is a greater percentage of accidents happening in these sports especially if you are elderly and forgetful and not as agile as when you were 35 or even 65,but sometimes that is what makes the Sport more exciting.
For the rest of his life this Texan is going to be able to say
"I got shot by the Vice President of the United States."
It is always the shooters responsibility to know what is around him. If you don't know, you don't shoot. I like Cheney, but he screwed up. I am glad the other person was not badly injured, but this isn't his fault and isn't a no-nevermind.
1997 Hunting Accident Summary
Hunting Safe and Getting Safer
From the IHEA web site:
The International Hunter Education Association (IHEA) is the international organization comprised of officials having responsibility for administering the various state and provincial hunter education programs in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The mission of the IHEA is to provide leadership in developing safe, responsible, knowledgeable and involved hunters. The IHEA is recognized as the primary source of information on hunter education and hunting accident statistics.
As the table below indicates, the hunting accident rate is lower than most outdoor activities. Obviously, there is a risk of injury in every outdoor activity.
When compared to hunting however, some activities are much more hazardous than most people realize. For example, look at the following list of outdoor activities and compare the number of accidents for these activities with those for hunting.(These statistics were provided by the National Safety Council, Statistics Unit in Chicago for 1995 for the U.S.)
Outdoor Activity Deaths
Boating 836
Hang Gliding 28
Sky Diving 28
Football 4
Personal Watercraft 79
Hunting 96
Scuba Diving 97
Swimming 1,700
An important question to be answered is "How does one prevent becoming a victim of a hunting accident?". Since the most common type of hunting accident involves the victim not being seen by the shooter, the best course of action is to be seen by wearing blaze orange clothing. During the past ten years the bulk of the accidents are vision related accidents.
Vision related accidents are caused by the following factors:
The victim moved into the shooter's line of fire.
The victim was covered by the shooter who was swinging on game.
The victim was out of sight of the shooter.
The victim was mistaken for game.
Heard that version first did not hear the incorrect version
But it is always so much funner to not read the whole story before you comment on it.;)
Tinfoil hat time? If you can, you might suggest to the DUers that this is the first step in Bush claiming a third term GWB will say the Democrats are right, that he lost the first term so it does not count. Therefore, if he runs in 2008 it will only be his second term.
My uncle went pheasant hunting one year. He was holding his gun while attempting to shake someone's hand that he just met. It slipped, the safety got knocked off, and the trigger caught on one of the buckles on his fancy hunting vest. My uncle lost the two little toes on one foot. He quotes himself as "Nice to meet you." BANG!!! "I hope that really impressed you, 'cause it hurts like hell."
You don't hunt, do you? I assure you, Cheney knows it was his fault.
I hate to laugh, but that's funny about your friend!
You never heard of Hunters actually shooting themselves. They are the victims!!! People that live on the edge of woods that Hunters use have been victims and how can you blame a Hunter everytime he fires and does not hit his target and the victim is raking leaves and gets shot in his own yard. If you run into my firing line at the instant I am shooting it is your fault not mine.
Anyone out at night is waiting for Wiley, not Bambi. Wiley is trickier than Bambi.
Sounds like he did
lol Oh they had that debate a week ago. They were al worried(secretly excited it I think) until someone pointed out that the electoral college "elected him" and it was a done issue
I think the RATS best hide for a while, never know what could happen here....(roflmao).....
Is this guy any relation to the Whittington the NRA center is named after?
Were they hunting with Jimmy Carter? Just wondering since he DOES have a history with bunny rabbits......
Of course hitting a quail with a single buckshot will not cause it to explode, but I suspect you already knew that and were using a little hyperbole.
I wonder what end the info comes out of that filter. I am guessing a low part.;)
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