This is sad.

Now, I'm not trying to make the father sound bad, but
I've seen a turkey and I've seen a 9 year old boy....and
I don't see how this happened.

FOXNews.com - Father Kills Son in Hunting Accident After Mistaking Him for Turkey - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

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Wow, that has to be the most devastating thing a parent could go through. I can't imagine being responsible for the death of my own child. I would lose my mind.

That poor family.

Today's Dear Abby is a discussion about a father wanting to take his 4 year old son hunting. That father should read this article.

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I agree it is very sad and something that the father will have to live with for the rest of his life. It is also very senseless and could have been avoided with some common sense.

As for how could this happen, several ways come to mind, with the first being a hunter who reacted by aiming and pulling the trigger before he knew what he was shooting at. We call it "trigger happy". When we ran our 2 boys through hunter safety and even when I took it as a kid, the one thing the instructor couldn't stress enough was to make sure you had an absolute visual on your target. Don't get "trigger happy" at whatever is moving in the bushes.

Also don't assume you know where the rest of your hunting party is at. Just because you told them to fan out to the left or to the right or even stay behind you doesn't mean that everyone will still be there. Especially if you are hunting in thick brush or cover. And depending on where you are hunting there could be hunters from other groups in the area. Thus, again, always have a visual on your target.

And it is very important that everyone wear more than enough hunter orange. Each state is different in how much you should wear, but the reason for it is so that you aren't mistaken for an animal by wearing camaflauge. Tis better to look like an orange pumpkin than a tree. Safer too. Sadly too many hunters ignore this one especially on private land where they know they are the only person or group.

When these 3 rules alone aren't followed, accidents happen and as the news reports, accidents with deadly circumstances. THough the article doesn't say anything about the circumstances surrounding this, you can almost bet at least one of these safety issues was ignored, if not all 3.

I see nothing wrong with taking a 4 year old hunting, though depends on what the hunt is for. Obviously at that age, the kid isn't going to be in tune with walking lots of ground and would do better with sitting in a blind of some sort.

When I was small I use to go dove hunting all the time with my dad. I was his "bird dog". We would sit at this pond of water and wait for the dove to come in to get a drink. My dad would pop them off and I would run to retrieve them. But I was taught to stay seated, no getting up at all until my dad said ok. Even if he had just hit a dove, I wouldn't move until he said anything as there might be another one he wanted to take aim at. After several times out, I learned that ok wasn't coming until my dad set the gun back down between his legs with the barrel pointed to the ground. As I got older I went on to hunt other things with him including deer. I have a lot of great memories of it all, but above everything, safety always remained top priority. And my dad wasn't afraid to yell a little if I or any one else within the group, or even other hunters, were acting in a manner in which was inconsistant with safety. I'm sure some of the reason was my dad was law enforcement and he knew guns were not toys, but what he practiced was only common sense if you want to avoid tragedy. After every hunting trip I knew I was going to get to shoot the gun, and for me that was a real treat, but again, safety came first and my target was not at ground level, unless my dad knew absolutely that there was nothing behind my target. If there were trees, forget it. Instead he always chose some target high up in a tree so that if I missed (and I always did when I was small) it wasn't going to be a person I hit.

Today I am married to a hunter and have 2 teen sons who are also very avid hunters. There is nothing wrong with hunting with kids, but they have to be taught the common sense rules from the beginning and it has to be drilled into their heads that this is real life, not video games. There are no do-overs if you screw up. Hunting isn't the problem, nor is the gun the problem. It is the know it all idiot behind the gun that causes the problems. Too many people are guilty of stupidity in the name of "oh that will never happen to me" or assuming that because nothing bad has happened before it won't happen this time either. (And we all know what the meaning behind assume is when broken down......ass-u-me!)

Here in NE it is now mandatory that all hunters born after 1975 be required to have completed a hunter safety course before doing any hunting once they reach the age of 16. And they have to carry a card with their license stating they have successfully completed this program. Anyone born before this time has been grandfathered in and can but is not required to complete the program. Sadly, the mishaps that seem to take place happen with the older hunters who aren't required to take this course. Maybe it should be changed to include all hunters, reguardless of when you were born, with refreshers mandated every so many years. I took the course in jr. high, as did my DH, even though it wasn't required at the time. Then when my DS came of age DH went with our oldest and I took it again with our youngest DS. Neither DH nor I are required to have it, however it was refreshing to take the course again even though I haven't hunted since getting married, nor have any plans of returning to it.

Just like everything else in this world, safety and common sense have to rule. If not.......well the end result will probably be another child killed and a father who has to live with the consequenses of doing it.

So sad, my prayers are with this family.