Gun safety

Another asshole with a gun
Originally uploaded by vegacura.

By the looks of things, Saddam Hussein understood gun safety (first rule, point the gun skyward) better than Dick Cheney.

"Where the mistake was probably made was not verifying where other members of his hunting party were not keeping in visual contact," Hammer said.

And, despite the bloviatings on the right that this incident will actually improve Cheney's standings in the Red States, where they imagine manly men "pepper" each other all of the time, seems...maybe not so much.

Safety experts say shooter carries responsibility

BY JOE DUGGAN / Lincoln Journal Star
Tuesday, February 14, 2006

When it comes to hunter safety, political spin doesn’t fly. Neither do arguments that blame the victim in Vice President Dick Cheney’s ill-fated quail hunt Saturday in Texas, said Mike Streeter, hunter education coordinator for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

“Any attempt by whomever to take the blame off the shooter and put it on the victim is wrong,” Streeter said Monday.

Point blank: The guy who pulled the trigger was the vice president.

News accounts of the incident quoted the property owner saying the attorney got shot because he put himself in Cheney’s line of fire without signaling or announcing himself. That makes gun safety more complicated than necessary, Streeter said.

“The principle is to be sure of your target and what’s beyond it,” he said. “That’s the principle that apparently wasn’t followed.”

The “sure target, safe shot” mantra is one of 10 rules of gun safety that all Nebraska youngsters are required to learn through a certified course before hunting with a firearm or bow and arrow. Others include maintaining muzzle control and to always treat every firearm as if it were loaded.

That's the Lincoln Journal Star, folks. Lincoln, Nebraska.

I'll take Publius one step further on this. Ridicule is great, but there is no more effective means of diminishing a politician, even in the eyes of his true believers, than convincing them that he's an asshole. Thanks, Dick!