I'll set this up by saying the group is ACTUALLY CALLED the "Central Ohio Coonhunters Association."

[Robb]

...and just let the rest of this tale speak for itself.

Cathy Schmelzer couldn’t believe it when she read in the newspaper that Terry J. Dunlap Sr. — a firearms instructor — had accidentally shot someone.

“Oh no, he’s done it again!” she said she thought to herself. Schmelzer, 50, was Cathy Hessler, a 14-year-old Pickerington girl, when she was accidentally shot in 1977 by Dunlap during a Halloween hayride.

At the time, Dunlap was a Pickerington police department auxiliary lieutenant. According to a Dispatch account back then, Dunlap said he had fired his .38-caliber handgun into the air to create, in his words, a “scary effect” while taking his daughter and her friends for a “haunted hayride” on his rural property in Fairfield County.

Dunlap said he thought the gun was loaded with blanks. But a bullet ricocheted and hit Cathy Hessler in her right leg. The bullet was removed at Mount Carmel East hospital. No criminal or departmental actions were taken against Dunlap because the shooting was deemed accidental....

Read More: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/public/2013/08/21/accidental-shooting-was-not-first-for-firearms-instructor.html

Highlights of the rest of the story, which cannot be well told in four paragraphs:

• As I said, "Central Ohio Coonhunters Association." You can't make this up.

• The woman who was shot in 1977, hearing Dunlap was now instructing: "You've got to be kidding me!"

• The guy who got shot this week him and is keeping Dunlap in his prayers. To wit: "Up until he shot me accidentally, (the class) was very informative, very well laid out, I learned a lot. Then again, I was accidentally shot."

Finally, do not miss the comment section. Trust me.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. I'll just make a single comment: there are a lot of raccoon hunts in

central Ohio and southern Ohio as well. They train dogs to 'tree' the raccoons and to bay until the 'hunters' get there.

[SoCalDem]

14. and they seem to get such gleeful enjoyment (wink-wink-nod-nod) as they explain

it's about hunting RACcoons...It's just so damned hard to add those THREE extra letters(one whole syllable)..Just more perverse code-speak..

[Brigid]

2. "Even Barney Fife only got one bullet."

[Robb]

5. I told you.

Gold. Solid. Gold.

[RZM]

3. I don't get the obsession with the name

It's an outdoor hunting/sportsman organization that's been around for 45 years.

People hunt raccoons in Ohio. I imagine it started with a group of such people. Also, FWIW, their headquarters is located on Coonpath Rd.

Should they call themselves the Central Ohio Investment Bankers instead?

[Bluzmann57]

4. Most likely the groups name doesn't mean what you think it does

There is a road in a rural part of our county called "Coon Hunter's Road". It means that several years ago, raccoons were hunted in that area. For that matter, they still are. I'm thinking that may be what the groups name signifies.

[Robb]

7. Yes, I understand there are raccoons involved. nt

[pintobean]

9. So, you think the OP subject line is funny?

[RZM]

10. So then that would be a logical name, right? N/T

[Robb]

12. I regret any insult I may have effected to the Coonhunters and their proud traditions

On behalf of the Western Tightsqueeze Frognabbers and the Onacock Wolverine Displacement Society, I wish to make it known I believe there is nothing even remotely amusing here.

[FSogol]

6. My favorite is the guy who says (paraphrasing), "Let's not argue about who shot who. I'm sure

everyone is very sorry...."

[KamaAina]

8. I think the repukes have found their VP candidate.

He's even from Ohio!

[NoPasaran]

11. To paraphrase Freud

Sometimes a coon is just a coon.

[Blue_In_AK]

13. When I was a little girl,

I and most of my relatives lived on farms in Southwestern Ohio. All of my uncles were coon hunters. It didn't mean anything derogatory, just that they hunted raccoons -- and squirrels and rabbits, too, which we ate.

Just sayin'.

[beevul]

15. ...