Man who shot Kaimai hunter blinded by stag fever

Gotta love Kiwi justice: 6 months community detention for killing a human being. "She'll be right!"

@geeve "Its only a matter of time before they hit a tramper" one was sht/killed on a track in the Ruahines, last yeat. heading up to Sunrize, I think. There doesnt seem to be any way to predict who is most likely to shoot before indentifying their target. It will keep happening. just as some drivers are carelless and end up causing deaths. some hunters will also. "experienced" or not. And "experienced" means little. hunting once a year for 20 years could be "termed "experienced". 20 years of doing the same risky things and getting away with it

> Gotta love Kiwi justice: 6 months community detention for killing a human being. "She'll be right!" There are probably comparisons to be made with something like Careless Driving Causing Death, which happens much more frequently. https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/69901401/Driving-death-penalty-change-appears-unlikely In the end, no punishment will ever seem adequate, and probably no punishment will stop people who reckon they're never going to make that mistake to begin with. Much better would be to find ways to make it less likely for people to shoot each other before it happens. > one was sht/killed on a track in the Ruahines, last yeat. heading up to Sunrize, I think. I think that was another hunting party, although they were on the open track leading up to Sparrowhawk. There were certainly stories about the shot man either carrying or being seated next to a deer carcass, or something like that. Whether that was completely true or not is another question. It all sounded bizarre, though, and in that area of an open track could very easily have been a tramper. I reckon that's a distraction from a more important issue, though. It shouldn't be necessary to divide back-country users into different tribes and act as if one has more right to not be shot than the other. If hunting's a thing at all, then hunters should be able to feel as confident and safe in doing their thing as trampers should be able to. When we're at the point where anyone has to be cautious about getting too close to someone wielding a firearm, surely the most appropriate solution would be to stop those people from having firearms than to tell the victims that it's their own stupid fault simply because they're taking part in an activity where others aren't doing things properly, as if it somehow makes it less of a bad thing.

careless driving causing death you don't intend to crash let alone kill an animal. when people shoot others because they identified their target incorrectly, they were setting out to kill an animal, they are 100% responsible to be 100% certain they have identified their target and their firing zone correctly. you are supposed to use a seperate optical device to identify your target before you even point the rifle with a scope on it at your target.. if you didnt identify your target then its entirely your fault for pulling the trigger. people need to get a strong message, if you can't identify your target with 100% accuracy 100% of the time then you shouldnt be shooting at live targets at all and you will face jail if you do.... you're taking a risk when you go hunting, you need to fully understand and accept those risks and the consequences or just don't hunt, all we have at the worst for most people who shoot other people dead is community service... what sort of message does that send? if you needlessly destroy another life you must face serious consequences. if you shoot someone on a track that should be mandatory prison sentence. that is pure negligence

But you can make parallel arguments about all that stuff for someone who's driving and kills a person. Motorised vehicles are lethal objects that can cause carnage in the hands of someone who's not responsible enough to drive them safely. People are meant to be qualified when they drive, they're meant to take heaps of precautions, and they're not supposed to kill people. But some people do, and the courts deal with it frequently. I'm not trying to suggest that hunting death punishments are adequate. That's a separate question. But I'm wondering if they're consistent with how we treat something else which, to me, seems relatively similar and is in the courts all the time, and maybe a lot of us just accept because it's more normalised than hunting deaths.

no you're getting too hypothetical. people dont drive cars to kill people. hunters shoot to kill end of discussion on that argument

Wish that was end of argument not that it matters. How many people here have a position of authority in the hunting community? We may have a great deal of experience in the outdoors and may have a good answer to the problem but the truth is we have as much chance of being heard as those from the Ponsonby embroidery club.

i mean thats the end of the comparison between car crash deaths vs hunting deaths discussion

@waynowski "no you're getting too hypothetical. people dont drive cars to kill people. hunters shoot to kill end of discussion on that argument" Not quite. hunters shoot to kill game, not people But hunters do have a higher duty of care, in my opinion. They are setting out to kill game, and have the tools designed to do it To me, that puts the onus on the hunter to take more care than would be expected of a driver There is a known risk of using firearms, so I think the penalties for breaching the firearms code probably deserve to be higher than say careless driving. But as for drunken driving and killing someone, I see that as similar to hunting. More so, in that the drinking driver knowingly broke the law and injury or death to someone is more likely to happen The higher risk of being killed by a careless driver versus a hunter is often cited. Its true, but not that simple. But if trampers considered it that way (its riskier getting to the tramping than getting shot), it might put it in perspective a bit - safety wise personally, I don't hunt from roadends or any high use hunter areas. and avoid other hunter when I can. mainly because I want to be alone, and don't want my hunting spoiled by others in the area. but also because I just don't want the risk. I've encountered hunters (in same place) in fringe areas in the bush, that I didn't know were around. didn't like it much. I can understand anyone being wary of hunters, after all they are looking for something to kill, and you have no idea if the hunter/s are safety conscious or not. But I don't regard access tracks as being a high risk. even though the Ruahine shooting did happen on a track

during the roar the odds of being shot increase exponentially and may well surpass the risk of being killed in a car crash