February 12, 2006

This is too easy

Vice-president Cheney has peppered a companion with birdshot while quail hunting. What a gift to stand-up comedians and bloggers everywhere!

Excuse no. 3: Whittington’s repeated ribbing that Bush is actually the “real president”

What interests me, though, is the persistence of the "drunken hunter" meme. I will presume that Cheney was stone sober, not that I am trying to excuse him. The first rules of hunter safety are to know your target and also to know what is behind your target.

When I worked a couple of times as a camp hand and cook for a hunting outfitter, I never saw any bad behavior. We had a camp rule that all firearms were put away before any wine or liquor was served, and no one complained about that. But I have heard "drunken hunter" all my life. Not that no idiot ever combines alcohol and firearms, just not necessarily in a true hunting situation--as opposed to using "I was hunting" as an excuse. I'm just saying that in forty years afield, I personally have never encountered that stereotype.

But I suppose that someone will tell me how they have encountered it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I had a neighbor (around 15 or 16 years old) who accidently shot his step-father in the leg in a hunting accident. I believe that this hunting accident can be attributed toward lack of experience with a firearm than a drinking issue.

Hunting accidents happen all the time, which isn't good, but I would like to think that hunters in general take every precausion when hunting because they know, or they should know, that there are other hunters in the woods with them.

My Uncle had a close encounter when he found himself in the sights of a fellow hunter. The hunter could have shot, but he looked before he leaped.

Hunting is a dangerous sport, like any other sport and its safety precaucions should be taken very seriously. The Vice President was probably following all of the safety precaucions, but like anything you do in life, something unexpected happened.

-Matt W.