Reply #99: Normal?

[sybylla]

I suspect it is when retrieving the small pellets would cause more damage than the pellets themselves did. Bird shot is now required to be lead-free so it won't likely be in place long enough to do harm to a 78-year-old man. If it were steel shot, you'd think they could use magnets to retrieve the pellets, but perhaps they went too deep.

As for the tragedy aspect, hundreds of millions of hunters spend time outdoors with a gun every year and a huge majority pride themselves on safety. As a percentage of hunters, very few hunting accidents happen each year. As for tragedy, it is a favorite word of the media and they use it for a wide range of generally non-tragic situations to inspire an emotional reaction. The only tragedy here is that an investigation into what happened was squashed and political fuckwads in DC are trying to blame the victim.