Mon, Feb 13 2006

So the Vice President goes hunting with a lawyer...

When I see headlines like these I know it's going to be a lively day in the blogosphere:
Cheney steps up war on lawyers
Texas lawyer finds himself in Cheney's line of fire
Cheney hunts quail and everyone else ducks
Dick Cheney bags a lawyer on a shooting trip
Vice President shoots his lawyer
Guns don't shoot people. Vice Presidents shoot people

What isn't so funny to me is the subtle language being used by certain folks to shift the bulk of the blame to the victim. I keep seeing comments about the fact that Mr. Whittington "never announced himself". Excuse me? When one turns and mistakes a 78-year-old human male in an orange vest for a covey of quail it seems only fair that the shooter take the bulk of the responsibility. And have you ever been nearby when quail rise from the ground? The sound they make is nothing like that of human rustlings.

It does no one favors when people try to cover the fact that Mr. Cheney made a very bad blunder in this case. His judgement was flawed and his itchy trigger finger could have cost Mr. Whittington his life if they had been hunting something larger that required a different sort of weapon to bring it down. The spin doctors should hush and let Mr. Cheney own his mistake. A gun owner must be willing to be responsible for the use he or she makes of their weapon—even if that owner is a Vice President.

posted at: 19:51 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry