I’m a reasonably experienced fisherman. But my experience with hunting and guns came to an end with a rather unfortunate and painful incident with a pellet gun in the Sierra 
Nevada mountains almost twenty-five years ago. So it’s hard for me to judge what happened with Veep Cheney’s shotgun goof.
The only account we have is from Bush-Cheney fundraiser Katharine Armstrong, who owns the ranch where the incident took place. I’m going to reprint what she said happened. And I’d like to hear from hunters whether they think the story adds up …
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.”
…
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.”
…
“This is something that happens from time to time. You now, I’ve been peppered pretty well myself,” said Armstrong.
Now, just to be clear where we’re going here. I don’t think any bad act took place here or anything nefarious. What I suspect is that this was some pretty big screw up by the vice-president — not the first by any means nor the most serious, but as far as I know the first with a shotgun. And the White House is passing it off as the result of reckless behavior on the part of the guy who got shot. In addition, they’re putting out word that getting hit by a spray of shotgun fire isn’t a big deal.
At a minimum it seems a tad ungentlemanly to put out word through your media operation that the guy you just shot was at fault for getting shot.
So, if you’re familiar with this stuff, let me know. Does it add up?
