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GunnyL
02-12-06, 09:19 PM
Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter

By LYNN BREZOSKY and NEDRA PICKLER

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets.

Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney from Austin, was in stable condition in the intensive care unit of a Corpus Christi hospital on Sunday, according to Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Health System.

The incident occurred Saturday at a ranch in south Texas where the vice president and two companions were hunting quail. It was not reported publicly by the vice president's office for nearly 24 hours, and then only after the incident was reported locally by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

Katharine Armstrong, the ranch's owner, said Sunday that Cheney was using a 28-guage shotgun and that Whittington was about 30 yards away when he was hit in the cheek, neck and chest.


Each of the hunters were wearing bright orange vests at the time, Armstrong told reporters at the ranch about 60 miles southwest of Corpus Christi. She said Whittington was ``alert and doing fine.''


Armstrong in an interview with The Associated Press said emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington before an ambulance - routinely on call because of the vice president's presence - took him to the hospital.


Cheney's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president met with Whittington and his wife at the hospital on Sunday. Cheney ``was pleased to see that he's doing fine and in good spirits,'' she said.


Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail.


Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another spot and discovered a second covey.


Whittington ``came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself,'' Armstrong said.


``The vice president didn't see him,'' she continued. ``The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good.''


Whittington has been a private practice attorney in Austin since 1950 and has long been active in Texas Republican politics. He's been appointed to several state boards, including when then-Gov. George W. Bush named him to the Texas Funeral Service Commission.


McBride did not comment about why the vice president's office did not tell reporters about the accident until the next day. She referred the question to Armstrong, who could not be reached again Sunday evening.


Armstrong, owner of the Armstrong Ranch where the accident occurred, said Whittington was bleeding and Cheney was very apologetic.


``It broke the skin,'' she said of the shotgun pellets. ``It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that.''


``Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been,'' she said. ``The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came.''


Cheney is an avid hunter who makes annual hunting trips to South Dakota to hunt pheasants. He also travels frequently to Arkansas to hunt ducks.


Armstrong said Cheney is a longtime friend who comes to the ranch to hunt about once a year and is ``a very safe sportsman.'' She said Whittington is a regular, too, but she thought it was the first time the two men hunted together.


``This is something that happens from time to time. You now, I've been peppered pretty well myself,'' said Armstrong.


The 50,000-acre Armstrong ranch has been in the influential south Texas family since the turn of the last century. Katharine is the daughter of Tobin Armstrong, a politically connected rancher who has been a guest at the White House and spent 48 years as director of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. He died in October. Cheney was among the dignitaries who attended his funeral.


Nedra Pickler reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in Dallas contributed to this report.

greensideout
02-13-06, 09:59 PM
Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter

By LYNN BREZOSKY and NEDRA PICKLER

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP)

Cheney is an avid hunter who makes annual hunting trips to South Dakota to hunt pheasants. He also travels frequently to Arkansas to hunt ducks.


It's nice of them to warn us! :D

Nagalfar
02-13-06, 11:00 PM
Some one load up another lawyer... PULL!

hrscowboy
02-14-06, 01:03 AM
I wonder if cheney failed young hunter safety it sure looks like it too me..

Ed Palmer
02-14-06, 05:52 AM
Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter

Cheney is an avid hunter who makes annual hunting trips to South Dakota to hunt pheasants. He also travels frequently to Arkansas to hunt ducks.
.


KEY WORD HERE CHENEY FORGOT TO SAY DUUUUUCK!
AND NO HE FAILED HIS SAFE HUNTER CLASS HELL HE EVEN FAILED THE DRAFT

Old Marine
02-14-06, 07:40 AM
Good thing it was a shotgun, otherwise he would have missed the Orange Quail.

thedrifter
02-14-06, 08:32 AM
Cheney’s Got a Gun <br />
Written by Matthew Holmes <br />
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 <br />
<br />
If only he’d shot Dick Durbin, Vice President Cheney could have called it a turkey shoot and been correct. Or, in an...

thedrifter
02-14-06, 09:01 AM
Elementary -- and Appalling
By Lawrence Henry
Published 2/14/2006 12:08:48 AM

Elementary reporting. I get a call telling me that Vice President Dick Cheney has accidentally shot a hunting companion, I start asking questions.

How did it happen? Where was the vice president standing in relation to the man he shot? How far away? Were other shots fired at the same time, or did the vice president alone fire?

How many people were in the hunting party? How many people saw it happen? Did the party include any professional helpers, i.e., guides or beaters? Were they hunting with dogs? Let's have the names of the people in the hunting party, please.

What gauge shotgun was Mr. Cheney carrying? How was it loaded? How much powder did the shells contain, and
how many beebees of what weight? You use different loads for different birds. His friend Mr. Whittington is lucky they weren't hunting goose.

Was Mr. Cheney using his own shotgun? Or had he rented or borrowed one? Or just bought a new one?

And from there, you dig into: What medications does Mr. Cheney take? Can any of them affect judgment or vision?

Certainly it is possible that a good print reporter has reported the story this way. But not TV and not radio. The big media seem obsessed with why they weren't told sooner about the accident.

BEFORE I WENT HUNTING FOR THE FIRST TIME, my Dad took me to the National Rifle Association's gun safety course. Later that year, we drove with a neighbor to my grandparents' place in South Dakota, in the middle of prime pheasant country and hunted for two long weekends in a row.

At that time and place, we hunted pretty humbly. We drove the country roads slowly, watching the brushy ditches. When we saw a cluster of pheasant heads we let the car ease to a stop some distance by, and quickly and carefully got out, leaving our doors open to keep the noise down. We grabbed our guns from the trunk, spread out, and walked back, keeping in line abreast formation, hoping to spook the birds into flight over a field.

No dogs, no beaters, plenty of game. Under local etiquette, if we flushed pheasants from a ditch and downed them over a field, we could go on the field to get them. If, however, we actually wanted to stalk a field, we had to ask the farmer-owner's permission, which was usually granted.

Above all, you actually had to flush the birds. You could, of course, have killed more pheasants by shooting them on the ground, where they sometimes tried to play possum and hide. Sometimes the pheasants refused to fly, and ran along the ditches. You didn't shoot at them there, either.

Throughout our hunting days, we sometimes joined up with other small parties, particularly if we had been given permission to walk a cornfield. One time, a young stranger walked up ahead of us and to the right. We shortly heard a report. Pellets flickered the stubble near our legs. The young stranger had spotted a bird to his left and had taken a potshot at it on the ground, in our direction.

"Let's get out of here," my Dad said, and we turned the other way and left. Fast.

MAYBE YOU EXPECT DIFFERENT things on gentleman hunting estates. But the first rule of gun handling is never to point at anything you don't want to shoot. That means your gun muzzle should never cross another person at any time.

That means that, when hunting birds, you should always carry your gun with the muzzle pointed downrange ... and up.

That Vice President Cheney did not observe this elementary precaution, that he apparently turned and fired a shot level with the ground, I find appalling.

It is not my job to call for his resignation. But I can certainly call his behavior and judgment into question.

Lawrence Henry writes from North Andover, Massachusetts.

Ellie

yellowwing
02-14-06, 09:37 AM
I guess the Vice Presdient had "other priorities" than hunter safety classes. :D

Seriously, folks, its a damn good thing it wasn't the other way around on who got hurt. The Protective Detail would not have given Mr. Whittington the benefit of the doubt, only a barrage of .40 copper jackets!