VP Cheney accidentally shoots someone while hunting

[Brent]

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a hunting trip in Texas, The Associated Press reports.

http://www.cnn.com

[conestogo_flood]

Knew it! Accidentally... lol.

[canegrl04]

WHOA. Holy Crap


He'll get his chops busted over this for along time to come.I hope the person is okay

[Miss Mary]

Leno, Letterman, Jon Stewart, et all, are going to have a hey day with this story.

I am relieved to learn the man will be okay. Cheney must feel horrible!

Mary

[senorpepr]

It was a lawyer he shot... how poetic?!

Of course... it's a good thing the lawyer is all right.

[Miss Mary]

More joke material for the late night show hosts! A lawyer....that is poetic!

Wonder if he wants to sue the VP? LOL

[canegrl04]

I can see the late night talk show hosts salivating now. And SNL is busy working on a parody skit. Since the guy seems to be okay,I think it will probably be very funny

[Miss Mary]

Oh yeah, forgot SNL! You know the writers are going nuts with this story.....what would be real funny is if SNL could get the real Cheney in on a skit. Now that would make for a very funny skit....the real shooter!

Mary

[kevin]

I'm sure the man won't sue the VP, they seem to be good friends and the damage wasn't too bad, plus Cheney has the money to compensate very easily.

[Pburgh]

What a shame that the accidental injury and pain of a person is the only thing we have to laugh about.

[kevin]

Three Stooges.

[Miss Mary]

I was joking about the lawsuit. A local news anchor started the story off like this - if you haven't heard, VP Dick Cheney is having a bad weekend......

Mary

[azsnowman]

This is NOT acceptable.........there IS "NO" excuse WHAT SO EVER for an "accidental" shooting I just went thru 16 HOURS of an extensive advanced weapons training and I hope to HADES he IS prosecuted.......as I said there IS no such thing as an ACCIDENTAL shooting!

Dennis

[feederband]

To think I thought this was a joke....Great story..,

[coriolis]

You're supposed to be sure of your target. I'm sure that there'll be an investigation. Did he mistake the other guy for the game? Was he aiming at a legitimate target and didn't even see the guy? I don't hunt myself, but am immersed in a culture that does. There's a lot of precautions, safety measures, etc. to be taken. I would imagine that they were on private land, and it sounds like this guy was part of the group. That makes it even more inexcusable.

Yes the comedians will get a lot of mileage out of this - especially if he got it in the rear or something.

[Skywatch_NC]

Just think of the headline if Dan Quayle had been in the hunting party and got hit by some buckshot like say in the buttocks:

Quayle accidentally shot while on quail hunt!

Eric

[CajunMama]

This is NOT acceptable.........there IS "NO" excuse WHAT SO EVER for an "accidental" shooting I just went thru 16 HOURS of an extensive advanced weapons training and I hope to HADES he IS prosecuted.......as I said there IS no such thing as an ACCIDENTAL shooting!

Dennis

It seems that both parties were in error, not just Mr. Cheney.
From the article that brent linked to:

Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail.
Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another spot and discovered a second covey.
Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong said.
"The vice president didn't see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by God, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."

[Stephanie]

You're supposed to be sure of your target. I'm sure that there'll be an investigation. Did he mistake the other guy for the game? Was he aiming at a legitimate target and didn't even see the guy? I don't hunt myself, but am immersed in a culture that does. There's a lot of precautions, safety measures, etc. to be taken. I would imagine that they were on private land, and it sounds like this guy was part of the group. That makes it even more inexcusable.

Yes the comedians will get a lot of mileage out of this - especially if he got it in the rear or something.

It said that they were all wearing orange vests and that the victim was only 30 yards away. The victim was hit in the face, neck and chest I think.

I think it's time for someone to put this hobby to bed. I'm sure that he does feel horrible and it was an accident but I don't think that he should be out hunting again.

[brunota2003]

Katharine Armstrong, the ranch's owner, said Sunday that Cheney was using a 28-guage shotgun and that Whittington was about 30 yards away when he was hit in the cheek, neck and chest.

Did anyone even bother to look at the gun he was shooting??? A shotgun puts out a spray of pellets, and, depending on the type of sites this particular gun has, if your looking down the sites of it at the bird, you could very easily not see him, then the gun gets fired and the pellets spread like its cool, so, yes I believe it was an accident and that very possibly the sites blocked his vision...just my $0.02 though...

EDIT: they misspelled gauge in the article to...

[HurryKane]

Now I've got that song in my head: Bang bang, my Cheney shot me dowwwwwwwnnnn.....