I haven't seen any reports outlining exactly what happened, but it's a cinch that somebody did something stupid. People making light of it is to be expected, I guess, but there's absolutely no excuse for a hunting "accident." In almost every case, there was negligence on somebody's part. It's fortunate that the guy wasn't killed or seriously hurt--it does happen, even with birdshot if the victim is unlucky enough to be hit in the wrong place. This could have been a real tragedy, not to mention a black eye for the administration.
And before anybody jumps on me, I've been a hunter all my life. I have a cardinal rule that I don't hunt with people who are unsafe, and right now I'd have serious doubts about whether I'd want to be in a hunting party with some of these people. Flame away.
Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter
Feb 12 4:20 PM US/Eastern
By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON
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.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/02/12/D8FNQDG80.html
From what I'd heard and read, the lawyer got behind the Vice President and didn't let him know.
The buddy shot my manager and he was hit in the shoulder and face. Blinded in one eye, and lost half his sight in the other. Wounds into the sinus cavities that were problematic as well.
I spent Friday shooting pheasant and as there was a large group I heard some buckshot rain but thankfully, we had a pretty safe group.
Quail hunting is not something I've done, but I know that it is supposed to be something done with only two or three in a group for the very disorienting flush of a covy going in any direction from right at your feet.
I doubt you are a bird hunter.
I started hunting when I was ten years old (don't hunt any more, but not because I think hunting is wrong).
And my dad made it absolutely clear that I was to only shoot when I knew I wouldn't be hitting something accidentally. You need always be aware of where everyone in your party is and where any nearby roads or buildings are - especially with quail which stay low to the ground.
I thinks this does not speak well of Cheney or Whittington that they are just jumping out of a car and shooting willy-nilly at quail without observing any kind of caution. And I think it was also wrong that it was not reported sooner.
So now we'll both get flamed by those who just defend Bush or Cheney without thinking through the entire story.