Thread: Suggestions for decreasing "hunting" related incidents

Posted elsewhere as well, but relevant here too...

Ok, so rather than add to the huge volume of posts on the incidents along the lines of:

• he is an idiot, lock him up
• this will never happen to me
• target id, target id, target id....
• car accidents kill more people every year so everything is ok...
• etc

Let's talk about some REAL WORLD, practical changes that might start to make a difference

Mountain Safety Council / Police

• stop instructors from "assisting" people to pass the safety test. you are not doing anyone a favour...
• update the test to be less "written" focused. what struck me when i did the test was how someone who does not have good reading/writing skills would struggle, as well as people who do not have English as their first language.
• create videos that show practical scenarios where another hunter/tramper could be mistaken for a deer
• compulsory safety re-certification, with video, discussion/review of recent incidents

Clubs / Deerstalkers

• make unsafe practices socially unacceptable
• zero tolerance for safety infringements on a range, first time you get get a sit-down discussion about the problem, and get sent home. second time get banned from the range for x weeks/months etc
• start and end EVERY single club activity (meeting, shoot, social) with a safety chat (same as in the workplace)
• spend part of the club/association fees on safety programs / training etc.
• statements like "he is not a real hunter, spotlighting is not hunting" etc have ZERO effect. the general public could not care less, to them anyone shooting at animals (or people) in the bush, whether it is at night, during daylight, safe/unsafe = hunter. unless the hunting community itself sorts out this problem, these people will step in for you and change the laws...very simple.

Gunshops

• these guys can have a huge impact. if you make a serious show of checking unloaded etc, and following exactly the same process each and every time, it starts the safety cycle off on the right foot.

Hunting parties / mates

• have a discussion about safety practices each and every time you go out. your mate may have picked up some bad habits somewhere else, or want to try something different that day, and it has the potential to make the difference between going home or not.

Yourself

• insist of safety practices from anyone you come into contact with when it comes to firearms
• keep your finger OUTSIDE the trigger guard. it's real hard (but not impossible) to shoot something/someone with your finger outside the trigger guard.
• be man enough to speak up and be the "safety police" or un-cool guy.
• when you read about an incident, try to figure out which of the seven rules got violated... "guy was 100% sure he shot at eye of a deer" = target id, not PART of the deer, or shape of the deer or sound or colour, the WHOLE deer, alive ...
• if you think that these accidents / incidents will never happen to you , think again...you are deluding yourself