I' m with you, Arthur. That' s just plain negligence on the part of a hunter, not accidents. Accidents are defined as something that is not preventable. Each of those scenerios are preventable.

As a Hunter Education instructor, we cover this area alot in the classes we teach. Several years ago, it was common-place to call such incidents as accidents, and in most cases, there was no prosecution in these cases. However, it has finally dawned on people that it' s rare that one of these incidents can be classified as a true accident. It' s 99.999999% of the time negligence on the part of some person that has caused the situation. And they are prosecuting these cases now based on that fact.

If you' re pulling a loaded rifle up into a stand, or lowering it from the stand, you' re negligent if it goes off. It should never have been loaded. If a gun goes off while crossing a fence, you' re negligent, it never should have been loaded. If you shoot at something that has not been 100% identified, you' re negligent.

Remember when the anti gun crowds used to (still do) say that guns were at fault for all the school shootings, and everything else that occurs? If you believe the above type incidents are accidents, and unpreventable, then you surely believe that guns are at fault in general, not the person using it.