How young is too young to hunt? I don’t know, but a seven-year-old and a ten-year-old out hunting with only one adult seems like not enough adult supervision. The details are few and most sites are just carrying the AP article, but they agree on this: a ten-year-old boy shot and killed his younger brother in Nelson County, Virginia. For some reason the seven-year-old was hunting with his brother and father armed with a pellet gun. Here is the statement from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries . . .
Nelson County
Single Hunting Fatality involving Two Juveniles
At approximately 4 p.m. today, November 27, 2010, on private property in the Wingina/Warminister area of Nelson County, two juveniles were involved in a single fatal hunting incident. A father took his 7-year-old and 10-year-old sons hunting. The 7-year-old shot at a deer with a pellet gun. He did not strike the deer. The 10-year-old went to shoot with a 410 shotgun and as he raised the firearm the 7-year-old ran into the line of fire and was struck in the back by a single shot. The child was transported to UVA Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. No names are being released since the incident involved juveniles. Conservation Police Officers with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries are still at the scene and investigating the incident.
If you take your children hunting, I would suggest going individually until they are old enough to not go running off into the woods. As gogbee from Saturday’s QOTD said “I can’t control the actions of other people. Only my own, and I wasn’t looking to see if someone would be dumb enough to walk in front of [a] gun barrel.” When you are supervising minors around firearms, especially very young minors, you have to control their actions, their movements, the weapon, the ammunition, everything.
