Some perspective on this might be in order. This removes much of the personal opinion, and the touchy feely argument where gun safety is concerned. As I wrote, I carry hot sometimes and sometimes I don't not all events and conditions are equal. It's based on what is going on each moment I'm in the field.
HUNTING SAFETY
According to the 1991 figures from the U.S. National Safety Council, here are the annual rates of outdoor recreation-related injuries requiring hospital emergency room treatment in the US:
From the same source (1991 figures of National Safety Council), here is the table of accidental deaths in the US:
Accident cause Mortality rate per 100,000 people ------------------------------------------------------------- Automobiles 18.6 Home accidents 8.6 Falls 5.0 Poisoning 2.6 Fires 1.7 Suffocation 1.3 Hunting (among participants) 0.85 Lightning 0.04 Insect stings 0.02 Hunting (among non-participants) 0.001
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"Many hunters have participated in hunter safety courses. Hunter education is now mandatory in 39 states for at least part of the hunting population. These educational efforts are an important part of hunting today. Despite anti-hunter's claims to the contrary, hunting has become an extremely safe sport relative to many other common activities. The probability of being killed or injured in a hunting accident is lower than when you are attending a sporting event or major concert, playing billiards, or taking a bath.
[Report of International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Hunter Education Study Team. "Hunter Education in the United States and Canada with Recommendations for Improvement." (Fred. G. Evenden, Team Leader). Bethesda, Maryland. 1990 112p.]
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"..the [U.S.] National Safety Council reports for 1988 there were 161 hunting fatalities, 49 of which were self-inflicted. Thanks in part to hunter safety education classes, hunting fatalities have declined by more than 50 percent over the last two decades.
In general, three-quarters of the hunters who have accidents have not taken hunter safety education courses. Participating in hunting today is safer than swimming, bicycling, playing baseball, golf, tennis, touch football, basketball, fishing, horseback riding, and driving to the place where you are going to hunt, if you look at the numbers of injuries per 100,000 people participating in various sports compiled by the National Safety Council. In 1988, ten states reported no hunting fatalities, and Connecticut had no hunting accidents at all. Statistics show that you are more likely to be killed by lightening when outdoors than to be killed in a hunting accident. In a normal season, more hunters die from heart attacks than hunting accidents. According to the California Department of Fish and Game, there is a 0.0015-0.00425 percent chance of being killed or wounded while hunting deer in California. In 1992, despite the presence of nearly half a million deer hunters in the field, no one was killed and only one person was wounded in California. In response to [president of Fund for Animals] Cleveland Amory's charge that hunters are harming "many innocent bystanders", the actual data show that "Hunting accidents involving non hunters are extremely rare. On the average, only one nonhunter is injured by a hunter for every 12 million recreation days of hunting. A nonhunter is 20 times more likely to die from stinging insects than wounding by a hunter. Media tend to sensationalize accidental hunting deaths and injuries, but in comparison with many urban areas where violence has reached epidemic proportions, the woods and marshes during hunting season are extremely safe, especially when you consider that everyone hunting is armed with lethal weapons. In 1992 in California there were no nonhunter injuries or deaths associated with hunting."
www.huntingadventures.net Are you living your life, or just paying bills until you die? When you hit the pearly gates I want to be there just to see the massive pile of dead 5hit at your feet. ( John Peyton)
