OT I am a stunned gun owner

I hadn't been listening to the radio, so I just happened upon the story of
Cheney's "shooting accident". I think most gun owners are even more stunned
than the rest of the population.

As one rural poster said:
"What got to me though, in the story I just read, was where one bigshot
there said in effect that the accident really wasn't VP Cheney's fault.
That the guy who he shot came up behind them without announcing where he
was and that the sun was behind him! So the excuser tried to put a good
spin on it all; but in other words, what he said was that the VP turned
around, couldn't see that well staring into the sun; but yet he shot
anyway! Now that's stupidity! You can't see another grown man, you can't
even see him well enough to tell him from a quail and yet you blast your
shotgun in that direction and under those conditions! And this guy is
just one heartbeat away from being President of the United States! Whoa!"

ALWAYS, whether a hunter, or a soldier, or plinker, the first thing you
learn is gun safety!

The implications of this are so enormous! Shooting without identifying your
target, careless handling of weapons around high officials. I think this
single incident is so blatant it should require that the man step down from
his job. This is bad enough on a personal level. As an indication of this
man actions with broader repercussions, as the action of a Vice President it
is unconscionable.

Tina

Christina Peterson wrote:
I hadn't been listening to the radio, so I just happened upon the story of
Cheney's "shooting accident". I think most gun owners are even more stunned
than the rest of the population.

As one rural poster said:
"What got to me though, in the story I just read, was where one bigshot
there said in effect that the accident really wasn't VP Cheney's fault.
That the guy who he shot came up behind them without announcing where he
was and that the sun was behind him! So the excuser tried to put a good
spin on it all; but in other words, what he said was that the VP turned
around, couldn't see that well staring into the sun; but yet he shot
anyway! Now that's stupidity! You can't see another grown man, you can't
even see him well enough to tell him from a quail and yet you blast your
shotgun in that direction and under those conditions! And this guy is
just one heartbeat away from being President of the United States! Whoa!"

ALWAYS, whether a hunter, or a soldier, or plinker, the first thing you
learn is gun safety!

The implications of this are so enormous! Shooting without identifying your
target, careless handling of weapons around high officials. I think this
single incident is so blatant it should require that the man step down from
his job. This is bad enough on a personal level. As an indication of this
man actions with broader repercussions, as the action of a Vice President it
is unconscionable.

Tina

In Australia we only just heard about this last night on the evening news,
the main thing I was stunned about was the fact that the "accident" wasn't
reported to the police and relevant authorities. My parents shoot, they
started before I was born, so I've had firearms safety drilled into me
for as long as I can remember especially after I started shooting, I was 12.
By your definitions I'm a 'plinker', but it's my sport, I compete and I'm
fairly good. The Aust. 100m silohette nationals are coming up soon I'm
on the team for the third year and defending the titles I won last year.

When stories like this come along I can see sense in having a firearms
licence with associated penalties for doing the wrong thing.

--
Melinda
http://cust.idl.com.au/athol