November 18, 2010
Editorial: Make sure deer hunt is a safe one for all
Safe hunting has not always been the case in Wisconsin. In 1966, the year before hunter education programs began, the rate for all hunting seasons was 43.5 incidents per 100,000 hunters. Last year, for all hunting seasons, including the gun-deer, there were 18 incidents – 17 injuries and one fatality – translating into an incident rate of 4.19.
For the gun-deer hunting season, the incident rate in 2009 was 1.26 for eight incidents.
But four of them were the result of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, which is troubling to Lawhern.