Posted on 12/18/2001 9:07:24 AM PST by spunkets
Edited on 09/03/2002 4:49:48 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
STANLEY, Wis. -- The bullet, aimed at what looked like a white-tailed deer, struck its target with chilling precision. But as hunter Mike Berseth and his two buddies crossed a ravine and approached the lifeless figure, the thrill of the kill turned to shock and horror.
Lying on a gravel road was not a deer, but Berseth's 47-year-old neighbor, Debbie Prasnicki, who had been walking her two dogs near wooded Otter Lake on that chilly Saturday afternoon. She was wearing a white stocking cap when Berseth's bullet pierced her temple.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Regarding the deaths and gunshots. There were four deaths in 2000 that were from my area. Three were turkey hunting related. 2 of those were when a freind/relative and a father/son shot the other one's head off at < 10yds. Thought they was a turkey.(duh) The other one involved a dad showing his kids and the neighbor's kid a new rifle, in the house. Gun went off and killed the neighbor's kid.
These incidents are also going to end up in child health statistics. The real issues here are thoughtful action and responsibility. Maybe some has to do with stupidity, but most of these incidents would never happen, if thought replaced impulse.
I'd have no problem finding them guilty of negligent homicide.
How many people died in traffic crashes in Wisconsin during the hunting season.
I have no idea, but the number won't effect the fact that this idiot shot without identifying his target!
You sound like a gun control advocate to me.
Sorry chum, I'm a gun owner, hunter, and NRA member. Everytime I take a shot, I'm 100% sure of my target AND my backstop.
You do gooders make me sick when you concentrate on only one segment of social irresponsibility.
Man, you are so far off the mark, it's truly sad. I believe responsiblities come with our rights. I don't want cases such as this used to ban guns or hunting, only to punish irresponsible hunters.
What's your solution for every irresponsible manner in which people die at the hands of others?
If you kill someone because you weren't paying attention, you are responsible for that person's death. Kill one of my family members and a prison sentence will be the least of your worries.
Get a life. You've got too much time on your hands.
Maybe you should spend less time jumping to conclusions and spend more time thinking.
I would. I'm tired of hunters taking the rap because of the irresponsible actions of some inexperienced morons.
I recently passed up a beautiful shot at a grouse I'd just flushed because I saw a flash of white just beyond it. I lowered the shotgun and refocused my eyes to see what it was and spotted a house about 200 yards out. It would have been a safe shot but I don't regret passing on the shot to be on the safe side.
Good for you!
You do gooders make me sick when you concentrate on only one segment of social irresponsibility. Man, you are so far off the mark, it's truly sad. I believe responsiblities come with our rights. I don't want cases such as this used to ban guns or hunting, only to punish irresponsible hunters.
Go back and read the article and see if you truly believe that the aim of this reporterette was to spread the news only about irresponsible hunters/gun owners. Did you happen to catch all of the usual sob phrases? And before you flame me for that - of course I feel sorry for the people who were shot irresponsibly. The reporterettes agenda is much deeper than that and you'd better not slough off these kinds of articles so casually. If you use the same kind of casual thinking about articles from papers like the Tribune, what will you think about the articles they start writing about deaths caused by overeating? Are you aware of what articles about the dangers of smoking have created? Did you ever smoke in the presence of anyone else? Or drive after having had a cocktail while out to dinner on a Saturday night. Did you ever commit an irresponsible act?
What's your solution for every irresponsible manner in which people die at the hands of others? If you kill someone because you weren't paying attention, you are responsible for that person's death. Kill one of my family members and a prison sentence will be the least of your worries.
I think I felt a threat whiz by me! (sarcasm off.)
I wonder what you'd do to yourself if you ever committed an act of irresponsibility which caused the death of your wife, daughter, mother, or God forbid all of them at once. But of course, you wouldn't do that, would you? At least certainly not on purpose. And, that, dear Former Lib, is precisely my point.
Get it straight folks. I don't condone irresponsibility in any human activity and since "accidents" are by and large acts of irresponsibility, I am realistic enough to recognize that someday I might, God forbid, commit an irresponsible act. Like maybe getting involved in arguments which can't be won by the blind trying to lead the blind. (Can we all just take a look in the mirror and relate to that?)
Wow, I knew there were a lot of gun owners in the US, but was sorta staggered by your numbers.
No wonder the gun-grabbin' goobermint wants to disarm the citizenry. I don't know how many law enforcement officers and military personnel are in those two states, but it seems that just the active "hunters" [use that word advisedly based upon this story] outnumber all of them put together. Just imagine if push came to shove and just the number of active "hunters" took up their arms against the goobermint forces! Jeeeez... talk about outnumbering them! And that doesn't take into consideration all the non-hunter gun owners, many [if not most, I hope] feel pretty strongly about their 2nd amendment rights. Paints a real picture of why there are such vehement gun grabbing schemes around every corner!
I live out in the country, although in a "populated" area. There's probably 40 acres of woods and trees surrounding me. I hear gunshots pretty much every day. Hopefully, they are just the neighbors.
However, recently one of my young neighbors reported that he had seen a guy loading his hunting stuff into a pickup truck on the road about 20 feet from our mailboxes. It was only bow hunting equipment, but the idiot had to pass 3 No Hunting signs on the property to get to where he was "hunting". The property on both sides of the road is posted with No Hunting signs.
Were he brain dead enough to use a gun rather than a bow, he'd be blasting away with houses and people within 200 yards around him in all directions. Yet he would only see the trees and woods surrounding him. (We don't keep a lot of nice manicured lawns and sidewalks here in our neck of the "woods".) Who is it incumbent upon to use their brains- those of us in or around our homes doing our chores and minding our own business, or the idiot from the 'burbs who thinks he's a "great white hunter" and is "hunting" within a stone's throw (literally) of us?
Most of the people around here are pretty aware of using a gun in a populated area. If they aren't, they are reminded by the stop sign at the end of the road filled with bullet holes- and with at least 3 houses in perfectly plain sight right behind it.
This guy in this article apparently was in a similar rural "populated" area- apparently even his own neighborhood [since his victim was his "neighbor"]. That makes him all the more negligent for knowing it was a populated area and still taking a shot without positively, 100% identifying his target. Doesn't matter if he's "hunting" or is a "hunter". He was negligent. Didn't follow the rules. Killed someone. Hammer him!
'Course, I'm basing this on what was written in the snooze article, and we all know the famous saying, "Believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see".
"Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper."
--Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, 1819
Trouble is, it seems that a significant percentage of them are as likely to hit another person who's taken up arms against the "goobermint forces" as they are to hit a member of the "goobermint forces". People who can't tell a deer a from a person aren't likely to be able to tell the anti-goobermint forces from the goobermint forces, and so won't be of much use in the fight against goobermint tyranny. Those of us who understand the real importance of the right to bear arms (which is NOT so that a bunch of guys can feel macho by running around in the woods killing stuff that moves) should be leading the charge to disarm these idiots by means of peer pressure and persuasion. If we don't, the goobermint will do it for us, only they'll do it by coercion and they won't stop with disarming just the idiots.
Gee, what was your FIRST clue, Sherlock??? I taught weapons for years, and still teach some firearms safety classes- and I could write a whole long book about stupid things I have personally seen done with guns. When I was a teenager, I used to hunt deer in Maine- those woods were full of morons- many of them drunk, all of them too stupid to live. Unfortunately, it was usually someone ELSE who got shot (like a 3-year old who was blasted off her tricycle by one of these mighty hunters). At least this chowderhead blew his own toes off...
Res Ipsa Loquitor
In other words, I know all I NEED to know, by the consequences of his actions. A jury with me on it would not be one he would want to face...
Treat every gun as though it is loaded.
The next, and equally important rule was and is:
Never point your weapon at anything you don't fully intend to kill.
Where are these people learning their safety rules?
Oh heck yes, I noticed that the liberal twit was hitting all of the usual buttons. Neither one of us is surprised that our leftist media will jump on any chance to attack gun ownership.
But that still doesn't excuse being unsafe with a firearm!
I wonder what you'd do to yourself if you ever committed an act of irresponsibility which caused the death of your wife, daughter, mother, or God forbid all of them at once. But of course, you wouldn't do that, would you? At least certainly not on purpose. And, that, dear Former Lib, is precisely my point.
Sorry, but I demand a higher level of responsiblity from anyone who commands lethal force. Yes, people die because of irresponsible behavior everyday. A lot of it can't be legally punished in any reasonable manner.
But this damn fool didn't even make sure of his target before he shot and a woman is dead because of it. That deserves punishment.
Since the combined population of Wisconsin and Minnesota is only a little over 10 million, this is a sizable fraction of the total population. I grew up in Wisconsin (about 40 miles from where the woman was shot and killed) and remember that deer season was similar to a national holiday then/there (the late '50's). I remember that boys were excused from school on the excuse that they had to take care of the chores on the farm while their fathers hunted.
Be careful with that thing, so yall don't poke somebody's eye out.
Say, I hope we all don't have to wear blaze orange to keep from getting poked with that thing.
don't even go there bud .... if you don't KNOW your target you don't pull the trigger .. thats all there is to it.
I have hunted all my life , there is NO way to justify pulling the trigger if you don't know where your bullet will land .
exactly what vital spot on that DEER was he expecting his bullet to strike?
To further muddy the waters, this was a blackpowder rifle season. I don't know about Wisconsin, but most states allow the harvest of either sex deer during blackpowder and archery seasons. Looking for antlers probably would have slowed this guy down enough to save his neighbor's life. I'm not defending his actions(or knocking doe harvests); just an observation.
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