U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney wounded a fellow shooter of quail in an accident. Well, I guess it shows what a gulf now exists between the U.S. government and our own. I cannot imagine a single senior Labour politician who would spend time out shooting. (Imagine John Prescott doing it. Actually, don’t). The story reminds me of another deputy leader, the late William Whitelaw (a decorated soldier in the Normandy WW2 campaign), who managed to fire some buckshot at someone during a grouse shooting meeting in the Scottish highlands.
Many politicians in the past have enjoyed the pastime of shooting game. Many MPs were landed gentry, who could not wait to get out of smelly London in the summer months and, once the game season started in August, would blast away at hapless birds, bagging them in prodigious quantities. And several paid the price. Robert Peel, Prime Minister in the 1840s, suffered a nasty buzzing in one of his ears after a gun went off too close. Salisbury and Churchill shot game, as did Macmillan and Alec Douglas Home. Across the big pond there was no greater hunter of game, of course, than Teddy Roosevelt.
All that tradition is fading out. I cannot imagine Tory leader David Cameron shooting game (imagine how that would jar with his trendy image) although his ancestors probably nailed whole flocks of pheasants in their time.
Anyway, the lesson of all this is that if you find yourself in the company of a politician holding a shotgun, stand well behind.
I might not be able to resist the temptations that would bring if I was also holding a shotgun!
I doubt Willie was shooting grouse with buckshot. No 6 I should imagine.
On CNN some ‘field reporter’ tried to show the ‘power’ of the shotguns to give the people at home an idea of how dangerous the shotgun was.
Plus – He did show them that the shot was bird, not buck, and gave them a visual idea of the difference in size.
Plus – He mentioned that with the shot a tighter pattern is more dangerous.
Minus – He fired a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with birdshot, instead of the 28 gauge Cheney was using. Thus he likely increased the load of shot by anywhere from 12 to 66%. That or he increased the velocity of the shot.
Minus – He ‘demonstrated’ the power of the shot by hitting a paper target at 15 yards. Cheney hit Whittington at 30 yards, and even though he is 78 and a lawyer, Mr. Whittington is not made of paper. He also did not show the target, to make clear what the pattern was, not did the reporter mention how much the pattern would open at twice the range.
So the ‘demonstration’ demonstrated little useful information, besides the fact that with 36 hours to prep a story, CNN accurately represent the caliber of weapon, ammunition, range or effect of a shooting.
I understand that CNN knows about as much about guns as I do the mating the practices of duck-billed platypi, but if their intellectual inferiors from the South, like myself, can manage to determine the details of the accident using the Internet in less than 10 minutes, why can’t reporters or producers?
Also, I love how Anderson Cooper thought this display provided useful information to the audience about the event.
Is it lawyer season already?
Yes but Cheney forgot to buy a permit. I have only one thing to add. . .
PULL !!!
The Telegraph thinks Cheyney was out “hunting” game birds. That’s what Americans do, isn’t it? They hunt.
So he shot a lawyer in the mouth ? I sense the invisible Karmic hand at work. At least he didn’t shoot the dog in the ass.
Cheney was cited for not having the proper stamp on his hunting license. It’s always season on lawyers, no stamp required, and he doesn’t need a geezer stamp until the blue-hairs come back from Florida.