Five draft deferments do not excuse you from learning the basic rules of weapons safety. I've neither hunted nor shot a single round outside a Marine Corps firing-range. But I think I could teach the avid hunter Dick Cheney something about weapons safety. That's because before laying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of their ammunition down range, I was forced by the Marine Corps to learn four basic safety rules:
1. Treat every weapon as if it were loaded.
2. Never point a weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot.
3. Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you are ready to fire.
4. Keep the weapon on safe until you intend to fire.
Those are the ABCs of weapons safety. Dick Cheney: memorize.
With all the bullets flying it is amazing he didn't wing a few other people.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported today that 500 farm-raised pheasants were released yesterday morning at the Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier Township for the benefit of Cheney's 10-person hunting party. The group killed at least 417 of the birds, illustrating the unsporting nature of canned hunts. The party also shot an unknown number of captive mallards in the afternoon.
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/2693558/detail.html
You forgot number 5.
Never use weapons or operate heavy machinery after downing a fifth of Wild Turkey and five beers.
was the dude shot a lib.? if so dick needs more range time!
I'm not allowed to possess firearms. I will overcome.
Apparently it wasn't entirely Cheney's fault. The lawyer had gone to retrieve a quail and come back a different way than he went.
I know that the shooting certainly can't be taken lightly, but this was an accident plain and simple. A dangerous one yes, but an accident nonetheless.
So, why is Cheney now the media's public enemy number one?
It doesn't appear as much that it's the incident itself but a media scorned that is causing all of the controversy. They are apparently upset about the fact that Cheney and his team kept the report quiet for 18 hours before news broke.
F’em!!! And that seems to be tact Cheney is taking. Isn’t it more important that his friend is ok? Shouldn’t the ‘story’ really end with that?
I listened this morning to a Cheney rep at a press conference defending the actions taken and the reporters were entirely out of control. Insulting and wise azzing the official. He should have turned around and walked out but didn’t.
So sick of these self important weasels.
Having worked for many years at the FAA and having read hundreds of aircraft accident reports, one thing I learned was that no accident ever came to the point of personal injury (or worse) unless not one - but several - safety rules had been ignored, violated, or intentionally skipped. This is probably also true in this case. But, it was an accident and should be treated as such. How many times in a year do you suppose someone gets shot accidentally while hunting? The media frenzy on this one has nothing to do with hunting, guns, or the accident. They just want to find some additional way to attack the Bush administration and decided this would be a good one. That idiot Dana Milbank showing up on TV in his "costume" shows where the truth lies here.
5. Don't shoot people unless they really deserve it.
"This is my rifle, this is my gun...this one's for fighting, this one's for fun!"
The Vice President today invited Senate colleagues Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, and a few others to join him this weekend for "a hunting adventure"...
They're all jackasses with big-penis envy.
