Gilbert Gottfried knows what to say here...

[acroyear]

Slashdot | Texas Lawmaker Wants To Let the Blind Hunt:

IHC Navistar writes with a story from Reuters Oddly Enough. A Texas lawmaker has introduced a measure that would allow blind people to hunt any game that sighted people can currently pursue [CC]. The article notes that the bill may have clear sailing in the hunting-besotted state of Texas. An education outreach person from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department explained it this way: "A blind person can shoot a rifle by mounting an offset pistol scope on the side of the rifle instead of on top. This allows their companion behind them to peer over their shoulder and help them sight it, but the blind person can pull the trigger."

...but I'm gonna say it anyways.

What the FUCK?

Seriously, has there ever been a blind person who felt less of a man not because he was blind specifically, but because he couldn't hold a gun and shoot a living animal simply for the hell of it?  Ever?

Comments

[tully-argyle.livejournal.com]

And yet, there are blind people who seem to enjoy the opportunity to hunt. Perhaps their numbers are enough to have provided the catalyst for the Texan's measure.

I found this related article while web-crawling just yesterday, from Asheville, NC.

Undeterred by disability, hunters head into woods

Here is a large chunk from the middle, discussing all disabled hunters, not just the blind:

Each year, there are 500 events across the country, serving about 50,000 disabled hunters and anglers each year, said Dee Dee Garvin, the South Carolina-based regional Wheelin' Sportsmen coordinator.

"The largest minority group of people in the United States is disabled people (numbering more than 50 million in the country)," Garvin said. "These people deserve a chance just like you and I do, except they just need a little help. And this program puts them at a forefront of what we do."

Okay, I appreciate that there are programs that allow these people, including the blind, access to events like hunting (putting aside my own feelings about hunting. But I still have to join you in the general WTF?

You can be a blind hunter, sure. But why exactly? Just to say you could?

[tully-argyle.livejournal.com]

Pardon my bad html and spelling. Long day.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

You can be a blind hunter, sure. But why exactly? Just to say you could?

On the one hand, I agree about the WTF, but on the other hand, I do empathize. They aren't eager to be blind hunters. They are blind, they want to hunt. Or to say it differently, the blind part isn't optional for them, if they want to hunt, they are pretty much stuck doing it blind. Seems to me like it would be more interesting to those people who are too blind to shoot accurately, but not to blind to manuver in the woods and track animals to some degree.

Some people complain that hunting doesn't seem sporting, look at it this way, the animal has a better chance when the guy shooting at it is blind.

They should just do what I did. Get lasers installed in their eyes to fix their vision and cook animals at a distance.

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

If blind people want to drive, and would enjoy the opportunity, does this mean they should be allowed to?

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

as for that middle section? i'm skeptical.

disabled == 50 million? out of 300 million, that's 1 in 6.

can you walk through your office, your school, the streets of new york city, the mall, whatever, and count the disabled people you see of any form (blind, deaf, physically impaired) and you WON'T see 1 in 6.

i'd love to know where that number came from. they probably are counting as "disabled" a lot more than one would think, like color-blindness.

[motherwell.livejournal.com]

I wonder if Cheney's hunting mishap had something to do with this...

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

If you go to the US Census website, there is a detailed chart with 2005 data on disabilities separated out by both gender and age. I quickly ran the numbers and for the US male population older than 5 and there are 18,641,835 men with at least one disability out of 130,301,787 men total. That roughly comes out to about 15% of the population. (20% is one in five, so the article's assertion of 1 in 6 isn't that far off.)

Disability that counts as disability is more prevalent and easily disguisable than most people realize. My father-in-law has enough hearing loss to get disability benefits from the Army and count as a disabled veteran but to look at him you'd never guess. He even plays the bags pipes. ;-)

My brother-in-law's hearing loss is more pronounced; we're careful where we put him at family meals, so that his good ear is towards everyone, so that he can hear what's going on. Again, you'd never really notice anything, if you didn't know.

Just because there is no easily visible, outward sign of a disability, doesn't mean it isn't there and doesn't mean it doesn't affect the people who have it. Even small amounts of hearing loss or bad vision can affect a person's quality of life.

The definition from the Census Bureau of disability is, "The Census Bureau defines disability as a long-lasting sensory, physical, mental, or emotional condition. This condition can make it difficult for a person to do activities such as walking, climbing stairs, dressing, bathing, learning, or remembering. It can impede a person from being able to go outside the home alone or to work at a job or business, and it includes persons with severe vision or hearing impairments."

In looking over the rest of the notes, it seems as though this is a self selelction, rather than going through medical records but the primary data table, referenced above, does specify it's error rate for each specific group.