Home > This isnt cheneys first hunting incident
February 13, 2006 — Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot fellow hunter, 78-year old Austin attorney Harry Whittington, while quail hunting on the south Texas ranch of Anne Armstrong, a former U.S. ambassador to Britain and an adviser to Presidents Nixon, Reagan and Bush I. The incident occurred during the late afternoon of February 11 but the news was not revealed until February 12 after being confirmed by the White House after the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported the story. The White House sat on the story for 24 hours. Local police were not informed about the incident.
Whittington was hit in the face, neck, and chest with bird shot from Cheney’s shotgun resulting in bleeding wounds. Mrs. Armstrong later told the AP that Whittington failed to signal Cheney that he was approaching him from behind as Cheney turned to fire at a covey of quail. Whittington is listed in stable condition at a Corpus Christi hospital.
WMR has learned that this incident is not the first involving Cheney and hunting accidents. According to informed sources on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, two years ago Cheney was shooting at ducks from a duck blind in Trappe, a Maryland Eastern shore town where former Secretary of State James Baker III maintains a residence. The sources reveal that Cheney nearly accidentally shot half of his hunting party and Secret Service detail. Eyewitnesses to the Maryland duck hunting incident claim that Cheney is "trigger happy" and a "maniac with a gun."
Cheney has since purchased a vacation home in St. Michael’s on the Eastern Shore where he often hunts on weekends and extended stays.
SIDEBAR: Did Cheney violate Texas law? According to a March 14, 2005 article by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, "law violations are common in accident scenarios . . . The primary reason for Texas hunting accidents remains swinging on game outside a safe zone of fire. This happens when a person points a firearm at another hunter while following a moving target, such as a flying game bird. Hunter education teaches people to set up safe zones of fire where a gun can be safely pointed whether the target is moving or stationary. Careless firearm handling remains another primary factor in many accidents . . . Most accidents violated a cardinal rule of hunter safety, were situated in or around a vehicle or stand, and occurred toward dusk and involved fatigue as a factor.
Dove hunting had close to twice the number of accidents (11) as the next highest accident category for 2004, deer hunting (6). This is because hunting birds on the wing involves the greatest risk of swinging on game outside the safe zone of fire."
"Mr. President, the shots came from that bald headed guy in the corn field over there wearing the orange and black coat."
Forum posts
14 February 2006, 17:31
Just one look at Cheney’s face will tell you that he loves the idea of shooting at anything that can’t shoot back. If Whittington had a bird in his hand (which he had apparently been retrieving), there is no way he could have shot back. Personally, I would like to have Cheney on the wrong end of a shotgun, just to see how he reacted to looking down the double 12-bore.
14 February 2006, 19:40
Apparently Cheney did not have the appropriate $7 Texas hunting license.
While the Vice President and his entourage were able to blackout the shooting for 24 hours, apparently they figured they’d better have a license, as proving whether or not the Vice President had one wouldn’t be so difficult to find out, unlike the facts of the shooting.
Without public police reports on the incident, events could have unfolded any number of ways and the public wouldn’t know. It was only after 24 hours that a local paper reported the shooting.
Would any of us normal citizens get a 24-hour press blackout if we shot someone in the face? Cheney, like others in the Bush cabal, think they are above the law.
Irresponsible hunting goes hand-in-hand with unlicensed hunting. Without licensure, inadequately trained and prepared hunters are more likely to hurt other hunters. Cheney’s absence of a license shows a disregard for the responsibilities of proper hunting. A shoot-first attitude is negligence.
An absense of respect for the value of government procedures may have led to the shooting. Could we expect those responsible for Katrina, prisoner torture, and illegal eavesdropping to abide by the law where they are personally concerned? In this case neglect of and disrespect for licensing law may have created an atmosphere where manslaughter could have easily occured.
And who’s to say the shooting happened the way it did? A delaying blackout is just the first of any number of distortions/manipulations of the press for which the Vice President is famous. Why stop with Iraq? Perception management has always been for domestic political purposes. In this case Cheney avoided catching flack on the Sunday news shows by burying a story of how he, unlicensed, shot someone.
16 February 2006, 21:00
In Germany since the end of the Nazi terror, many times the murderers have been the children of the people they killed. Sometimes, the children are the ones who, reared to not respect the due process of law, upon noticing their own parent doing a lot of horror, or even trying to justify past evil works, just decide to "take them out". Sad, but it has happened.
How many children and grandchildren does Cheney have?