It was killing season again, and in Colorado it might
have been safer to romp through the woods in blaze orange than to
stay near a hunting camp. A 16-year-old girl in the Uncompahgre
National Forest hopped off her four-wheeler while unloading her
rifle Oct. 21, only to shoot her father in the leg. He bled to
death before help arrived. A week earlier, John Dotson was resting
in his hunting camp in western Colorado when a bullet whizzed
through a wooden fence post and lodged in his chest. He fired three
shots in the air as a plea for help; no one answered in time to
save him.
The most dangerous place to be during
hunting season is in or near a vehicle where people illegally carry
loaded guns, says Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman Todd
Malmsbury. Some fatalities don’t require guns, however. A hunter
near Gunnison, Colo., on Oct. 13, backed his Ford pickup over his
tent, killing a companion sleeping inside. The death continues to
be investigated.
Despite the grim stories, the
Colorado woods are getting safer. The average annual number of
hunting fatalities in Colorado has dropped from as many as 13 in
the 1960s to an average of 1.4 during the 1990s, says Malmsbury. He
attributes the drop to Colorado legislation that requires hunters
born after 1949 to take a hunter safety course before receiving a
license.
Utah has seen only one fatality this
year and one horse killing. In Garfield County, Utah, a hunter
sneaked into the camp of two men who were stalking “his’ elk, and
slashed the tires of their pickups. In retaliation, they shot his
horse.
* Heather
Abel
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Watch out for guns.
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