Dick Cheney Shooting: Trivializing Negligence
by Charles Coughlin
Over and over the news reports have said that Dick Cheney had “peppered” his hunting buddy repeating terminology put out by the likes of Karl Rove, Scott McClellan and all the other neocon spinmeisters. “Peppered.” That’s quite a euphemism for shooting someone in the face, neck and chest with shotgun pellets.
Normally, the term “peppered” is used for very minor wounds suffered typically by hunters who get hit by BB-size shot that has traveled a few hundred yards and slowed down considerably. (Round shot tends to slow down much faster than a bullet-shaped projectile over a hundred yards distance.) Cheney’s friend was hit from a distance of only 30 yards, which is dangerously short. The accident took place in February and presumably the victim was wearing a jacket and possibly a cap, but still a large number of pellets went into his body.
The “pepper campaign” appeared to come to a screeching halt as news reports came out that the shooting victim, Harry Whittington, had suffered a heart attack due to a shotgun pellet “in or near” his heart. One news article reports “The 78-year-old lawyer wounded by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident suffered a mild heart attack Tuesday after a shotgun pellet in his chest traveled to his heart… The shot was either touching or embedded in the heart muscle near the top chambers, called the atria, officials said…”
Early announcements of the accident blamed Whittington for “not announcing himself” when he went off into the brush to recover a bird. Now this is just ridiculous. Whittington had just shot a bird and people in the hunting party should have seen him walking off into the brush to recover it. A few pundits have wondered how Cheney’s Secret Service agents could miss a 78 year old man coming up from behind with a gun. Is the grass really tall enough to completely hide Mr. Whittington from plain sight?
Early reports suggested about 50 pellets went into Mr. Whittington. One news article notes “Hospital officials said they were not concerned about the six to 200 other pieces of birdshot that might still be lodged in Whittington’s body. Cheney was using 7 1/2 shot from a 28-gauge shotgun. Shotgun pellets are typically made of steel or lead; the pellets in 7 1/2 shot are just under a tenth of an inch in diameter.”
First of all, the low number of “six” pellets is ridiculous, unless they have dug out about 50 pellets. Virtually all the early reports said a large number of pellets went into the victim. Another early news report said that many of the pellets would be left inside Mr. Whittington, suggesting that the pellets were sufficiently deep and near vital organs and arteries that it would be dangerous to try to remove them.
One individual has already done an experiment with a human silhouette target at 30 yards and a 28 gauge shotgun using birdshot. He found that about 200 pellets went into the target. If the pellets are lead, 200 pellets could slowly poison Mr. Whittington causing all sorts of serious health problems.
Harry Whittington is 78 years old. Some elderly people have died from the shock of a car accident that a young person would easily survive. One eyewitness said “It knocked him silly” suggesting that Whittington took a good blow to the head from the pellets and probably suffered a concussion. Combined with the trauma and damage caused by 50 to 200 pellets penetrating his skin and lodging themselves throughout his body, it may take a week or two before it’s even certain that Mr. Whittington will survive this injury. Another heart attack or a stroke is a strong possibility.
So the neocons were all set to pass this incident off as a minor event. The victim was only “peppered” with a few shotgun pellets that barely broke the skin. And the victim was really the one at fault for not yelling his position to Mr. Cheney at all times since Cheney was apparently not paying attention.
Now imagine a sixteen year old who thoughtlessly swings his shotgun around and blasts his grandpa on a hunting trip. Would that sixteen year old have an army of flacks making excuses for him or would he be in a world of trouble for a stupid, reckless act that could easily kill someone?