Be safe out there!
 

http://www.cbs42.com/news/alabama/ma...ounty_60136573

Another sad reminder to wear your safety orange :(

Anyone shooting another hunter thinking the person is an animal should be charged with manslaughter at a minimum, regardless of whether that person has orange on or not. How can anyone pull the trigger thinking a human is an animal?!!!

According to what I am reading, it is not clear that they mistook the person for an animal, although that is often the case. In the second incident the hunter shot may have been wearing blaze orange. In near dark conditions, blaze orange does not even do you much good. I recall many hunting accidents in WI where someone shot another hunter (in blaze orange) in early morning hours, usually before legal shooting times. For sure there should be criminal charges when one accidentally shoots someone before or after legal shooting hours - simply obeying the law would have prevented the tragic accident.

Accident???

Sorry but the word doesn't apply in the above described situation...

Criminal fits better...

It doesn't matter what time it happens! There is absolutely no reason to mistake a person for an animal. A missed shot at an animal that goes a long way and happens to hit someone may be a little different matter, but you should always know what's behind what you're shooting at too. There is no excuse in an "I thought it was a deer" deal!

Be careful not to judge others, because the same thing can happen to any of us.
No matter how careful any one is, things can go wrong very fast.
Just sayin.

Just say all you want, but there is absolutely no reason to mistake a person for an animal, no way no how and it doesn't matter whether they have on hunter orange or not. A stray bullet is one thing, but shooting a person that you think is an animal is not an accident!!!

No doubt. How many times are you in a stand as darkness closes in and trees or bushes suddenly look like deer during the legal shooting hours? As experienced hunters, we realize that low light requires extra caution, but to the guy that never hunted before, it is another story. I am in no way justifying mistaking a person for a deer, nor am I downplaying the seriousness of it in any way. A way we can all help is to mentor new hunters and stress this over and over. Also, we can help out in the local hunters ed courses.

I agree.
A hunter must not only know what species of game he is shooting at but what sex and if it's a legal target for the license he is carrying. There just isn't a valid excuse for shooting a person mistaken for a game animal.

I once had a bullet crack a rock close to me which I believe passed through a deer and continued on a ways before stopping. The shooter didn't know I was even around. Now THAT would qualify as an accident if I'd been hit.

A misidentified target is just pure negilgence.

I cant tell you how many times I have heard this.. "I got off a couple of good sound shots" ...Most of us have seen millions of people in our lives and thousands of deer and never mistaken one for the other and never will. There is small percentage of crazy's out the with a rifle every hunting season that shoot at branches breaking, ghosts, livestock, ruffling of bushes, hunters using deer calls, etc. There is also the first time hunter that gets real exited by movement and just shoots first and thinks about it later. I think a lot of it is due to lack of hunter education and proper guidance. There might be a little bit of mental illness at play as well. I know I don't go into Walmart and say look at all these deer shopping in here and then go to my hunting spot and wonder what all these people are doing eating grass out of my field. It's a dangerous world out there. I jump a little every time someone shoots close to where i'm sitting. There are people out there that think an orange, upright figure, holding a flashlight, drinking coffee is a trophy deer and those people will always be out there. I can't fathom putting the crosshairs on a man and pulling the trigger ever being an accident but I also can't see all these hunters every year going into the woods with the intention of committing murder either. Some how in there mind maybe it was an accident.