My comment might of been a bit harsh but if it makes the right people think then more good comes than harm.
Too many people are dieing this way Who knows how many close calls are never reported. Too often the shooter is someone that knows better but had a lapse of reason.
Something has to be done
do whatever it takes stops people from pulling the trigger irresponsibly.
there has been no mention in the media at all about the injuries sustained by the people who have been shot dead.
no one wants to disrepect the dead but as mentioned here, the injuries caused by hunting rifles and hunting ammunition are stomach turning. not quite the magnitude of "saving private ryan", but still very gruesome....
Also very little info on injury causing shooting accidents.
In industrial safety they recon for every death occurrence there is 10 serious injuries 100 lost time injuries 1000 first aid injuries and 10000 close calls.
This has to be the hunting fraternities worst nightmare. It is time for the Deer Stalkers Association to take the lead here and realise that there is something wrong with their basic concepts of firearm safety. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7737613/Hunting-death-sentences-must-be-tougher
got to a hut one afternoon, one bunk left, ne of our party took it and the rest of us setup tents.... twenty mins later the guy who had taken the bunk cam out and said, "it's full of hunters, beam me up scotty there's no intelligent life in there"
Contrary to the inference in the 29 Sept post, the majority of hunters are responsible , decent types.
There is a minority element(as there is in any society )of irresponsible types, but one cant judge the rest of us by the actions of those
ie: (Q)Are all motor vehicle operators idiots ?
(A) No , only a small percentage are.
Comments like those of 29 Sept, are way off the mark and serve no useful purpose to the serious matter of firearms safety, and the safety of the public at large.
A young lady has lost her life, and a young man has made a terrible mistake that will be with him for the rest of his life.
i've seen more than a bit of irresponsible behaviour from hunters. not just that comment. a hut with live ammunition left around it when people had burners running on it...
it was a comment that was made in reaction to what the user felt after spending time in taht particular hut with hunters. yes it was an extreme comment. but its food for thought as to why that person made that comment.
i've come across hunters who dont know they have to remove the bolt when they get to a hut let alone leave the safety off or oil their barrel. thres still too many incmpetent hunters out there despite all teh competent ones. they are using weapons to kill deliberately and they need to be 100% sure of what they are shooting at before pullng the trigger.
intelligence is needed with hunting to avoid shooting the wrong target. licences are given out too easily to too many people who arent identifying tehir targets. for every death from hunting there are numerous near misses .. in the work place you will find with osh uncidents for every death there are ten serious injuries and a hundred minor injuries and a thousand incidents where injury was avoided.
I think one of the problems is that it isn't always the irresponsible element that is the cause of fatalities. Often it is experienced, normally safety concious, hunters that end up shooting their mates. The guy who was convicted near Wellington was an ex NZDA branch President and the bloke who shot his mate near Rotorua was a firearms safety instructor.
I think the hunters recognise the problem and call it "buck fever". The name is misleading as it seems to imply that it only happen to young bucks. Infact I believe the getting a mind set in the bush can happen to anyone in the bush. It has certainly happened to me, especially when alone. You begin to see things that aren't there and even use clues around you to substantiate your mind set. I can't imagine a senario more likely to encourage mindset than a hunter, adrenaline flowing, stalking game.
The Rosemary Ives case is actually unusual in that (a)gross stupidity was involved and (b) the victim was not another hunter.
I would ask any hunter to ask himself if he can truthfully say that everytime he has pulled the trigger he has absolutely positively identified his target. I bet everyone has had occasions where they have successfully shot game but, even if they don't admit it, they probably should not have pulled the trigger.
BTW.. I say this as a person who has never had a firearms licence, never been hunting and has no experience in this field whatsoever. I am just another back country user who has shared huts with hunters over many years.
thers a whole question of what is a responsible hunter now.
seemingly very respoinsible hunters are not identifying their targets, isnt that irresponsible? you shouldnt be pulling the trigger based on seeing a small piece of something you consider to be an animal. even experience can breed arrogance. they've always identified their target correctly in the past may relax their judgment.
i wouldnt dream of wandering off a well marked track during the roar and i prefer tracks in the open during the roar, the risk of being shot is always there at that time of year... some places you're reminded of that with regular gunshots. i have mates who have been tramping on established tracks and been shot at.
