Victim was not wearing orange, but ultimate responsibility is with the shooter
Mississippi’s first fatality of the 2014-15 hunting season serves as a perfect reminder of what can happen when people disregard two basic rules of hunter safety:
* Know your target.
* Orange saves lives.
According to the Franklin County sheriff’s office and local news reports, Rick Kennedy, 63, of Vidalia, La., died Friday after allegedly being shot by friend and fellow deer camp member Danny Richards, 52, of Natchez.
The incident happened around 7:30 a.m. at a private hunting camp in Northwest Franklin County.
According to officials, Richards told investigators that he thought he was shooting at a deer when he shot Kennedy, who was not wearing hunter orange material as required by Mississippi law.
According to early reports, Kennedy had removed his orange vest and left it in his stand before exiting it and walking down to a point by a creek bed.
The two men had entered the area from different directions, investigators said, and apparently did not know the other hunter was nearby. When Kennedy walked down to the creek in thick brush, he entered the shooting field of Richards.
Before we’re too quick to blame the victim for his own demise, which is what early TV and newspaper reports seemed to do by concentrating on his lack of orange attire, let’s take a closer look at the causes.
Orange is smart
No doubt, fluorescent “hunter” orange has had the biggest impact on reducing hunting accidents. A quick study of history proves that.
During the 1972-73 season, 80 Mississippi hunters were shot and 34 of them died. Read that again — 80 shot, 34 deaths, all the result of deer hunting accidents. On one day at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg, three hunters arrived at the emergency room with gunshot wounds; one of them survived.
Shortly after the bloodiest of all deer seasons ended, the 1973 Mississippi Legislature passed a bill requiring deer hunters wear a minimum of an orange hat, which, unfortunately, people didn’t want to do. The last thing they wanted was to be more visible, and being told that deer didn’t see orange as humans do didn’t matter.
The 1973-74 season still saw 75 hunters shot and 15 killed.
As acceptance of the orange hat grew, the numbers started falling. But, at the same time, thanks to intensive deer management by state wildlife officials, the population of deer was rising rapidly and the sport became more popular. More hunters meant more accidents and deaths. In the early 80s, we were averaging about 30 incidents a year of hunters being shot with 15 killed in 1981 and 14 in 1984. That was still way too many.
In 1984, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks lengthened its education program from six to 10 hours, and in 1987 the Legislature made it mandatory for all persons born after Jan. 1, 1972, to pass the class before purchasing a hunting license.
In 1986, the Legislature upped the orange minimum to 500 square inches, about the size of a grown man’s torso and a vest to fit it.
The combination of orange and education has worked, reducing firearm-related accidents significantly over the past 30 years. In the past decade, falls from tree stands have surpassed firearms as the No. 1 cause of injury and death in hunting.
Despite history and common sense telling us orange is effective, many Mississippians have continued to fight the concept or be more conservative in its legal requirements.
Back in the early 90s, officials were forced to add language stating that hunters had to wear the 500 orange inches “in full view” after more than one hunter figured out that he could wear his orange vest under a camo jacket and still be legal in the eyes of the law.
And in recent years, the law has been changed to allow hunters to remove their orange if they are hunting from a stand at least 12 feet off the ground or inside a fully enclosed stand or blind. The hunter must wear the orange in full view when traveling to or from the stand.
Pro-orange safety advocates argued then that hunters could forget to put the orange back on and step outside the blind, becoming vulnerable.
Seems they were right, at least in Kennedy’s case. Remember, his orange vest was found in his stand.
The ultimate responsibility
Now let’s look at the other cause, the shooter’s mistake of not clearly identifying his target. It is one of the basics taught in every hunting or shooting education class, knowing your target long before removing the safety and a finger hits the trigger.
A shooter must accept the responsibility for anything his/her rifle bullet or shotgun pellets hit.
It is the ultimate responsibility in this and every case.
In explaining this argument in discussions of blame in this latest fatality, I have used a simple example.
In a lifetime of major events — Super Bowls, college and pro football games, Mardi Gras, Talladega 500, Indy 500, Jazz Fest, etc. — my eyes have seen millions, many millions, of humans close enough to shoot.
Not one of them looked anything like a deer, not even the ugliest and not even if they were wearing brown clothes and carrying a white bucket.
None. Zero.
There can be no excuse for mistaking a human being for a deer, not when it comes to hunting and pulling a trigger. We have binoculars to help identify, and failing those, we have modern rifle scopes that allow us to see long after the naked eye can’t in darkness. There is plenty of time to use the optics too, since we have to be sure that the deer we are shooting is legal and we have to be absolutely sure that it is safe to shoot. That means making sure all is clear in front of and beyond the target.
In the interest of full disclosure, I believe very strongly in orange. I wear every inch I can, and being a big guy I’ve been described as appearing “as bright as a sunrise” when I walk over a ridge.
Yes, failing to wear hunter orange during an open gun season is a mistake, and in Mississippi it is against the law.
However, it is not a capital offense and should never be punishable by death.
Be the first to comment