It's so typically FR-at-its-near-worst* immediately to look for ways to blame the dad. Seems to be the first thought of so many. "Who sinned -- the boy, or his dad?"
How nice for so many of you that you evidently never, ever make mistakes that could have serious consequences. If you ever do, God help you if it gets reported here.
My first thought is how unsurvivably and completely devastating it would be. I'm horrified and sick to my stomach just reading about it happening to another. An almost pathological fear that some inattention, forgetfulness, distractedness, or simple butt-stupid mistake of mine would bring harm to any family member.
God help this guy.
Dan
*FR at its worst is probably those threads that make jokes about human tragedies.
Thank you for saying that. Perhaps the father or son was at fault. Perhaps pointing out proper firearm-handling and hunting procedures will prevent readers from being careless. Perhaps there's room for discussion and debate in this case.
But the knee-jerk unfounded blame-throwing is not helpful. I recall when my father slipped and broke his ankle while hunting with me when I was a teen, the first thing he checked was the safety--and it had disengaged in the fall. I'm perhaps a bit paranoid, myself, hating revolvers that rely on double-action trigger pulls without a safety, for example. But it's important to realize that the safety can disengage, and the trigger can be pulled, in brush.
The pain this father must feel...it must be horrific for him.
>>"FR at its worst">>>
Thanks for pointing that out. This is one of the only things that disturbs me about FR. There are always those who come out early in any tragedy to say that "something just doesn't smell right about this". I guess they think they are being super sleuths because they recognize someone as being 'insincere in their grief' or 'too happy' about something. God help them if they are ever involved in a tragedy.
The dad was monumentally careless. It's right to point that out. It was his primary responsibility to make sure that gun was under control at all times. He failed to do that.
"My first thought is how unsurvivably and completely devastating it would be."
You're right, that should have been his first thought. That thought should have motivated him to be careful, before he even picked up the gun.
"An almost pathological fear that some inattention, forgetfulness, distractedness, or simple butt-stupid mistake of mine would bring harm to any family member."
You evaluate before you act. You evaluate by assuming all that could happen would, then clear the area of anyone that could be harmed.
In this case the guy should have kept his kid to the side, or behind, carried the gun low, pointed forward, hands on action, paralell to the ground and kept it that way.
Attributing this to accident, in public, does no one any good. It's a real life example to be used to show that careless acts do indeed lead to monumental tragedy.