"80 year old Whittington wandered into Cheney's line of fire" AP Radio on

[glitch]

AAR just now. How's that for framing. Under the bus with you, Whittington!

AAR needs to loose AP Radio News bits, they are always framing news in favor of the Bush administration, IMO.

[Connie_Corleone]

1. They act like the man was senile.

[Swamp Rat]

2. The victim did it!

:eyes:

[Junkdrawer]

3. ...and he made Cheney miss the bird too...

how DARE he...

[Zenlitened]

4. What is this, like the third version of how it happened? Fourth?

Cheney pivoted, cheney didn't pivot. Whittington was backlit by the sun, whittington was in motion.

Yah.

:grr:

[applegrove]

5. That's even worse. When walking with an 80 year - you Look Out for Them.

Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE 80.

Not to mention if you are hunting with them.

[kurth]

6. Perhaps Bush and Cheney can go hunting together!

It's a bonding experience, ya know...

[Ksec]

7. He looked like a 200 lb, 6 ft tall Quail.

[CottonBear]

8. Best explanantions from hunters & doctors at Firedoglake blog:

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2006_02_12_firedoglake_archive.html#113984118736473358
...snip...
And finally, this from reader Uranius Pelican, which is dead on (no pun intended).
At 30 yards, an open choke pattern would spread to have enough distance between pellets (at least 10 inches or a foot with a 28 guage) that it could not do the kind of damage that this guy apparently suffered.

Also 7 or 8 shot is tiny and therefore has less mass and carries less energy at the same veleocity. That means it won't penetrate very far especially at 30 yards after it has been slowed greatly by the air resistance.

Most importantly, bird hunting accidents are almost always caused by one thing. People walking around with their gun off safety - ready to shoot in case a bird flushes. Shotguns are designed so that the safety is accessible to your thumb while your trigger finger is poised on the trigger.

Before I ever enter a field with someone I've never hunted with I stop and say OK, here's the deal, "I will not hunt with anyone here who does not agree to keep their gun on safe at all times until the moment just before they pull the trigger. If you don't want to do that tell me now and I'll go hunt somewhere else."

The story they are telling doesn't make sense to me. My guess is that Cheney's open choke 28 guage gun was being carried off safety and that he dropped it or stumbled and it went off accidentally hitting his partner at about 15 yards range or less. Of course, the story that the victim approached from behind unnannounced and therefore was at fault sounds good to someone who has never hunted quail - but it's a crock.

And finally, only a drunk, an asshole or a drunk asshole would ever shoot their partner or their dog.

And then there is this bit from one of the medical folks in the audience, reader LittleBit:
Speaking as a 20-year veteran of The-Big-ICU-In-Knife-And-Gun-Club-Territory, there is no way in hell that the victim is relatively uninjured.

Shotgun injuries are some of the worst cases I have taken care of, due to the spread-shot nature of the wounds. If the victim got "peppered" in the neck, there are waaaayyyy too many important structures in that small space (oh, like maybe one of the internal or external carotid arteries) for this to be a "no big deal" situation. If any of the pellets nicks a blood vessel, it may travel as far as it can go--I took care of a kid shot in the chest and some pellets eneded up in his ankle, blocking the bloodflow, leading to an amputation. In this situation, add to that the victim's age and potential underlying medical problems--this is huge.

These days, God Almighty doesn't get to stay in the ICU unless it is absolutely imperative that He do so.

This stinks worse than a gangrenous leg....
Don't know about you guys, but that's an awful lot of questions that need to be asked by the press corps, isn't it? More to come.

more...
***********************************************************************

[chimpymustgo]

10. So many questions. Well, dear media - have at it.

Let's hear from the doctors - and the hunters.

[spuddonna]

11. Good stuff!

I totally agree... something stinks here...

I hope the guy - even if he was Bush's MyLittleFuneralGateCrony - is okay...

My 8 yr old son heard about the shooting on the radio this morning and said, "What is wrong with these people?!" lol Insane...

[Ksec]

12. Yep, he was walking around with the safety off

No doubt in my mind and I said this as soon as I heard about this story. Its the only way this could have happened.

[tatertop]

18. that is very interesting information

thank you for sending that our way

[notadmblnd]

9. yeah, thats the ticket ....he wandered

the poor man has aged two years in less than 24 hours. I'd be surprised if he'll have any mental capicity at all by later tonight.

[glitch]

13. They did say nearly 80, which I should've said too. But why not say 78?

Nearly 80 doesn't take less time to say than 78. It's intentional framing to imply Whittington was wandering around as if senile. And as Applegrove says above, that's actually worse. If that were the case they should've been watching out for him.
But of course it wasn't the case, AP just spinning for their bosses, again.
Why AAR carries them, I do not know.

[LincolnMcGrath]

14. My local AAR affiliate uses CNN radio news.

:puke:

[Gman]

15. Bullshit. Cheney was careless or has bad vision

I grew up hunting quail and dove in South Texas. They're laying the blame on this guy when Cheney was careless. You ALWAYS make sure what is BEHIND what you are shooting at. If you ASSUME there's going to be nothing there, this is what happens.

[Garbo 2004]

16. Coming up behind a person doesn't put one in the line of fire unless

you're behind a careless idiot with a gun who turns around and starts blasting away without ensuring that it is safe to do so.

Even if Whittington had wandered in front of Cheney, the shooter still is obligated to not take the shot until he's ascertained it's safe to do so.

Either way, Cheney is at fault. Unless the VP's office is going to claim not only that Whittington was carelessly doddering around but also was an agile sprinter who managed to get in the field of fire just as Cheney took the shot.

[realisticphish]

17. there is no "line of fire"

with a non-automatic shotgun. It's not like cheney had a BAR blazing and this guy leaped in front of him. With a shotgun you aim, and fire. Once. Maybe twice if you can pump fast enough