Originally Posted by Todd_Bradford
I'm 42 years old and I have never heard of an "in the field" hunting accident in my home state of Alabama that involved an accidental discharge. Nope in every single case that I have ever heard of the weapon was fired intentionally. So pardon me if I find this whole debate a bit overblown.


Todd_Bradford -

I'll take you at your word that you've never heard of a case in your state of Alabama where someone was shot when a firearm was fired unintentionally. That does not mean, however, that such occurrences do not happen. In fact, they do.

Here are some examples from the 'Alabama Hunter Education and Hunting Incident Statistics' for 2005-2006. You can access the source data here:
http://www.outdooralabama.com/hunting/education/instructor/2005Accident.pdf

In summary, the 2005-2006 season was the safest on record up to that time but firearms accidents still happened, both fatal and non-fatal. Here is the number of firearms accidents going back to the 1973-74 season:


Code
Year      Fatal   Non-fatal
==============================
1973-74     19      25
1974-75      5      20
1975-76      5      25
1976-77     11      25
1977-78      9      22
1978-79      6      17
1979-80      7      27
1980-81      7      35
1981-82      9      34
1982-83      6      33
1983-84      8      39
1984-85     15      37
1985-86     11      31
1986-87      6      34
1987-88      3      34
1988-89      6      37
1989-90      3      36
1990-91      3      29
1991-92      5      24
1992-93      7      31
1993-94      5      22
1994-95      7      24
1995-96      4      26
1996-97      3      19
1997-98      2      22
1998-99      1      15
1999-00      1      15
2000-01      4      13
2001-02      3      18
2002-03      4      23
2003-04      2      11
2004-05      2      7
2005-06      3      5



From 1992 through 2006 the firearms incidents look like this:

Code
Shooter Swinging on Game                                 38
Mistaken For Game                                        70
Victim Out of Sight of Shooter                           41
Victim in Line of Fire                                   12
Ricochet                                                  2
Total Intentionally fired incidents                     163

Removing/Placing Firearm In/Out Vehicle                  16
Unloading Firearm                                         6
Clubbing Game                                             1
Gun Fell From Insecure Rest                              11
Improper Crossing of Fence/Obstacle                       5
Mechanical Failure                                        4
Improper Handling                                        24
Riding With Loaded Firearm                                5
Shooter Stumbled and Fell                                16
Gun/Trigger Caught on an Object                          17
Unknown Cause                                             6
Climbing/Descending Tree                                  2
Total non-intentionally fired incidents                 113


Unknown Self-Inflicted                                    6
Unknown Two-Party                                         4
Other                                                     7
Total Unknown/Other incidents                            17


In 2005-2006, the non-fatal incidents involved the following:

Code
Trigger caught on object                                        2
Removing firearm from vehicle                                   1
Gun discharged in ATV accident                                  1
Accidental discharge-debris hit victim in head                  1
Accidental discharge in vehicle                                 1



Since 1974 you have at least 113 incidents in Alabama where the firearm was probably NOT fired intentionally.

I submit that a practice of not loading the chamber until needed would have eliminated many of these shooting incidents, both fatal and non-fatal.

Again, I am not against hunting with a loaded chamber and in fact often do so. All I am saying is that it does increase the risk of accident as NO ONE has ever been shot by a firearm with an empty chamber.



Last edited by Coyote_Hunter; 02/27/08.
Coyote Hunter - NRA Patriot Life, NRA Whittington Center Life, GOA, DAD - and I VOTE!

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