THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 5, 1995 TAG: 9501050549
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Hutchinson
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Just when we thought we had this blaze orange thing all figured out, along comes news to prove otherwise: Hunters are still mistaking one another for game, with disastrous results.
The Associated Press reported recently that hunting fatalities in Virginia had doubled this year, from four to eight. There could be even more; the deer season runs through Saturday.
So now we need to send the General Assembly back to the drawing board to fix something the legislators assumed they had fixed in 1988.
That was when the lawmakers passed Virginia's blaze-orange law. The law requires all hunters, no matter what they're after, to wear at least a vest or cap of the highly visible coloring whenever there is a gun season for whitetail deer open in the county being hunted.
But there are a couple exceptions.
Blaze orange is not required of waterfowl hunters, fox hunters on horseback without firearms, and those participating in hunting-dog field trials.
Nor is it required during Virginia's special muzzleloading seasons.
And that's the problem.
These special seasons, for whitetail deer only, are limited to hunters using black-powder rifles, where powder and slug are packed separately into the firing chamber through the tip of the barrel. Daniel Boone guns, some hunters call them. They can be shot only once before needing to be reloaded, but they are just as deadly as semi-automatic rifles.
Incidentally, 13 hunting fatalities were recorded in Virginia in 1987. With the new law, the total had been four for every season since.
Until this one.
When the blaze-orange law was approved, just a few purists used muzzleloaders. Many wore buckskins, made their own guns and used leather powder horns. Some participated in Civil War re-enactments.
But the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has changed that, partly to bring in much-needed money and partly to control a widely expanding deer herd, now thought to number about 1 million.
The agency began by establishing a special early-year muzzleloading season, requiring an additional $12.50 hunting license. Then it added a special late season in areas west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. As a result, Virginia hunters have taken to muzzleloading like 10-year-olds to computer games.
Muzzleloader license sales have soared since the special ducat first was required in 1990. Sales have gone from 45,158 in 1992 to 76,457 this season.
When blaze orange was being debated in 1987, some black-powder enthusiasts argued successfully for exemption.
They said that since muzzleloaders have less range than modern semi-automatics, they would have to be closer to their targets. And that, they said, would diminish chances that a human would be mistaken for game. Others said they were against blaze orange because they wanted to wear their authentic 19th century clothing.
Anyway, hunting in general and deer-hunting in particular are still amazingly safe sports, considering that Virginia now sells more than 300,000 big-game licenses. Until this year, it had been safer than water skiing, based on the number of participants.
Blaze orange is no guarantee. The vests are not bulletproof, as Virginia game wardens are quick to point out. Nor can carelessness be legislated.
Still, eight hunting deaths are too many, especially if there's a way some could have been avoided.
So look for legislation from the 1995 General Assembly requiring all upland hunters to wear the bright clothing, regardless of the ill-founded objections of Del. Victor Thomas, D-Roanoke.
Thomas, chairman of the powerful House Committee on Conservation and Natural Resources, opposed the bright coloring when it was approved. An avid hunter, he still is opposed to it.
``I always wear blaze orange,'' he said, ``except when I'm hunting turkeys. But for me to say you've got to wear it, . . . we (the legislature) can't be everything to everybody. . . . Doggone it, you have to know what you're shooting at.''
Almost everyone agrees that we have too much government at both state and federal levels. But there are times when certain new laws make sense. This is one of those times.
The blaze-orange law should cover all rifle seasons, regardless of which end of the gun you put the bullet into. by CNB