James and Sarah Brady Comment on the Vice President's Hunting Mishap
2/12/2006 5:40:00 PM
To: National Desk
Contact: Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 202-289-5792
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -- James and Sarah Brady made comments today related to Vice President Cheney's reportedly accidental shooting yesterday in Texas.
"Now I understand why Dick Cheney keeps asking me to go hunting with him," said Jim Brady. "I had a friend once who accidentally shot pellets into his dog - and I thought he was an idiot."
"I've thought Cheney was scary for a long time," Sarah Brady said. "Now I know I was right to be nervous."
Whittington knew where Cheney was and should have signalled his position if he was the one moving about the field.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 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.
"Any firearms training that Cheney might have received in the military would have been largely irrelevant to quail hunting safety."
Not true, it would have taught him to use a follow up shot to kill the lawyer he was shooting.
Boy, that is sure the truth about wearing Blaze orange in South Texas when quail hunting. The chances are about 99 percent the guy he peppered was not wearing blaze orange.
"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."
If I used the word "common" then I'm mistaken. It happens. It's not unusual; not acceptable. But it happens.Is it really that common for quail hunters to shoot each other?
Untrue, Harley. Cheney pulled the trigger; Cheney had responsibility for his muzzle, target and what lay behind it. Call it an ND, because that's what it was. But it's also inherent in Quail Hunting. Never acceptable; but it's hardly the stuff of national news stories.I have an idea the receiver of the shot was in the wrong location and it will turn out not to be the VP's fault.