My life has been in grave danger from other hunters in a hunting situation. I have been scoped with a loaded high-power rifle at close range by someone who positively had to know I was a human. Blaze orange, waving arms, and shouts left little doubt that someone 35 yards away was not a deer yet the scoping continued. I have a friend who is paralysed from a load of buckshot fired at him from about the same distance. I got blasted at about 50 yards with a heavy load of dusk shot by someone in a flooded wildlife management field shooting a cripple that was between him and me. A local man was killed by a hunter several years ago while walking through his field during deer season. A guest on my private heavily-posted hunting land was getting ready to aim his rifle at the source of noise and motion he detected in the woods near his stand when three trespassers wearing full camo and carrying what looked like AR-style rifles sneaked out of the brush. There were a few very tense moments until the three were persuaded to lay down their arms and step away from them. The three turned out to be friends of some local kid and the guns were airsoft, but my friend had very legitimate reasons to fear for his safety until the real facts were known. No hostility caused any of these incidents yet they occurred.
We are, indeed, supposed to be the good guys who set a good example. In this case the good example would have been to use the perfectly legal equipment in such a way that no misunderstanding could lead to an unfortunate event.
