Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Full of Holes - The gossip about Cheney's bad shot. By Paul Burka

The story of how Cheney wounded this guy keeps changing. slate.com notes some interesting bullshit:

At what range was Harry Whittington hit? The official story is that the blast from the vice president's shotgun hit Whittington at a distance of 30 yards. Hunters at the Vaughn Building are skeptical. The hunt took place on a cold, windy afternoon. Whittington and his fellow hunters were probably wearing warm clothing—say, a jacket and a flannel shirt. Cheney was using a 28-gauge shotgun, a smaller-diameter firearm with pellets smaller than BBs. Whittington's friends question whether the pellets could have penetrated his layers of clothing and skin at that range. Yet two pellets lodged against his larynx, another was in his liver, and another migrated into the heart muscle, causing the heart attack. The pattern of wounds was between the lower chest and the forehead, a pretty tight zone for shot of 30 yards. If the range was considerably less than 30 yards, then it is likely that Whittington's injuries were worse than the initial statement by Katharine Armstrong indicated. (The blast "knocked him silly," but "he was fine.")

Whose fault was it? If there is anything that Harry's friends at the Vaughn Building are angry about, it is not the shooting itself but the attempt by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan to place the blame on the victim. It's the shooter's duty to know what he is shooting at and where his companions are. A shooting accident is always the fault of the shooter. Always.
This idea that he might have been to blame himself for getting shot...I find this rather dubious. just HOW do you get shot in the face/upper chest by a shotgun at 30 yards (lets just trust the VP's math for a second) when he's shooting at birds? a bird in flight would either be at a higher angle OR if low flying, the man would have been in plain sight of the VP. None of this adds up to me.

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