Seattlest Pix 09Nov20
Friendly Folk-Pop for the Kids: Hey Marseilles at Vera This Saturday
Seattlest Pix 09Nov21
Excavator Rampage in Stanwood
Can't Miss It: Weekend Edition Nov 20-22
This is an actual bear. Photo courtesy of Seattlest Flickr Photog, ECity Blues
In yet another story that gets more disturbing with every detail, we learn that the underage hunter accused of killing a hiker after he mistook her for a bear was 14 years old. And, contrary to previous reports that said the young hunter was with an adult, he was actually only with his 16-year-old brother. According to KING 5's report, the two boys from Concrete, Wash., were dropped off by their grandfather earlier in the day to do some hunting on Sauk Mountain. Both are licensed to hunt bears, and supposedly the 14-year-old has been licensed since he was nine. Which begs the question: nine-year-olds can register to hunt with firearms? Surely there has to be a parental or adult supervision clause with that license. Or have we just decided it's fine to arm pre-teens if it's for hunting?
For an experienced bear hunter, the 14-year-old sure showed very little knowledge or expertise on the species he was hunting. The hiker he killed was in an open meadow, surrounded by no trees, and wearing a bright blue rain poncho when she was shot. Tragically, despite being unable to tell a clothed human from a brown bear, the kid was a good shot; Pam Almli was killed by a single bullet from over 120 yards away.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
So he has good enough eyes to kill his target from 120 yards but not good enough eyes to tell the difference between a human and bear?
Sounds shady...
Furthermore, why are teens hunting alone in the vicinity of hikers?
I hope the victim's family sues his ass, teenage mistake or not, there's no room for sloppy hunting.
my thought exactly john.
I hope this doesn't turn out to be one of those "we wanted to know what it felt like to kill a person" stories, where two little boys tried to come up with some lame excuse to cover their asses.
It looks like Wyoming has more stringent age requirements than Washington when it comes to hunting. We don't have a minimum age--to get a license if you're under 12 you just have to have attended a hunter education course. Weirdly, instructors can require kids attend the *course* with a parent--but then they can go hunting alone.
you know it's bad when Wyoming has stricter gun / hunting laws than you.
i'm with john. if he can see well enough from 120 yards to give shoot to kill with a single bullet, surely he could tell the difference between a big furry bear and a little lady in a blue jacket. i'm fairly confident i could tell the difference between those two things from that far, even without my glasses. and i haven't taken any classes on the matter.
Wyoming respects guns and hunting. They don't just pay some false sense of duty to the second amendment.
Remember, guns don't kill people-- really stupid idiots with guns kill people.
"Wyoming respects guns and hunting. They don't just pay some false sense of duty to the second amendment."
Troy, I'm not goading you into a gun control debate: I'm just genuinely curious as to what this means.
This story, disturbing as it is, does NOT 'beg the question'
See here for a good explanation:
http://begthequestion.info/
In short - "Begging the question" is a form of logical fallacy in which a statement or claim is assumed to be true without evidence other than the statement or claim itself.
Your pedantic friend,
bilco
Thanks bilco for pointing out this example of BTQ abuse. I was about to do so myself.
An example of "Begging the Question" is this argument.
Item 3 assumes that God exists, which is the very thing it is trying to prove.
As for this story, I hope there's a very thorough investigation. I'm surprised that there's hunting going on that close to a popular hiking trail. Should I start wearing an orange vest when I go hiking now?
Ruffhauser -- I think Troy's comment was meant to suggest that Wyoming hasn't politicized gun rights in the same way other states have, so they can pass reasonable regulations about gun use.
One thing about Wyoming, they don't like being shot by little kids.
This is true. Wyoming hates when they gets shot by middle school kids. But then again, who doesn't?
Jeremy nailed it. What was meant is many gun control laws are more lip service than actual service. They exist to create the illusion of control, instead of promoting and maintaining responsible gun use and ownership.
Hunting is a part of many folks' values. I personally never got it, but I do enjoy playing Buck Hunter at Shorty's. But let's make sure people can actual use the weapon responsibly. I'm fine with hunters having guns, as long as they know not to shoot blue parkas. I'm fine with drivers having cars, as long as they know how to operate them.
We all know that test is ridiculously easy to pass. Guns may be a right decreed from our Founding Fathers, but correct training use is a responsibility decreed by the fact you're part of a society.
OK. I would add that there are over 20,000 federal gun control laws. I doubt we need more. Some enforcement of the existing laws would be a start.
Um, 20,000? Really? What constitutes a "law" in that count? Are you counting, like, every provision of the Brady Bill? You've really got to offer some perspective on a number like that.
So if you're 13 and you want a gun/hunting license--no Hunter Education Course Needed 'eh?
Genius.
Yes, this smells fishy to me, too. If we have to wait until 16 to operate the lethal weapon most of us have contact with, ie, a car, and have training to operate it, I don't think that is too much to ask for guns and hunting. IMHO, teenagers should be accompanied by real adults until they are 18, and not allowed to hunt at all until they are 16. The days when little Billy went out and shot breakfast passed long ago. And it was unlikely there were hikers in blue parkas in the area.
In Wyoming ANYONE born before 1968 MUST take and pass a required hunter safety program..
Any persons under 16 MUST be accompanied by an adult over 18 years old..
Here in Wyoming we have very few hunting accidents.