Letting the shooter go with no punishment, because he will have to live with what he did, is equivalent to letting a drunk driver who injured/ crippled someone go with no punishment, because he will have to live with what he did. Both were negligent, and both injured people, even though neither intended to injure that person.

Fair punishment would be a total ban on possessing a firearm and hunting for life and a minimum of $100k to the victim. That's actually getting off easy for ruining the rest of a young adults life.

Pretty simple rule...if you aren't 100% sure of what you're shooting at you don't pull the trigger. I cant believe people do this every year. 100% lack of common sense and has been said, No different than climbing behind a steering wheel when drunk and the punishment should be exactly the same when there's injury involved. You don't even have to be in an accident when impaired to pay a higher price than this kid and his father will.

The person who was actually shot disagrees with all you guys with had pitchforks , tar and feathers and swaths and burning stake ready to go .
Interestingly though , he actually is of the complete opposite school of thought .

Cat

It would be interesting to see how he feels after a few years if he doesn't get the use of his arm back.

I thought the shooter is 14 years old...? not a heck of a lot you can charge him with. Can a 14 year old hold a cougar license..?

The point he was stressing on his Facebook posts - which you and others have obviously chosen to ignore was that he did not want a bunch of bashing and condemning .
Well done on respecting his wishes .:thinking-006:
Cat

A 12 year old can hold a big game license, so yes a 14 year old can as well. And a 14 year old can be charged with a crime in Canada. He could be charged with criminal negligence, and the father could also be charged, as the PAL holder responsible for the firearm.

Just because the victim doesn't blame the shooter, doesn't mean that the shooter/father should not be prosecuted for his actions.

Family of murder victims often forgive the perpetrator too Cat. They still have to do their time.

I’ve said for years that our hunting licences should have an element of insurance included in them. Usually it’s around $30-$50 to get liability insurance for various clubs, if the licenses included it this guy could have his needs looked after. And the kid would also have liability insurance.

Not many years ago, a few miles from here, a middle aged experienced hunter shot and killed his hunting partner.
Stupid mistake, yes, criminal negligence, certainly. And he was judged accordingly by the courts.

What he will never be judged for is thinking it would never happen to him.

Had he believed it could happen to him he would most likely have done things differently, and his friend would most likely still be alive.

It's one thing for a middle aged man to get complacent and cause such an accident.

But I don't see how a 14 year old could have the world experience to know how easy it can happen.

Therefore I will not judge this young man. Instead I wish him well and hope he can live with this.

A 2800FPS projectile sent at unconfirmed target is my issue..this easily could have been me & I do not have
the traits of the victim being nice & letting it go as I figure out how to put my shirt and pants on 5yrs later
due to mobility issues.

Lot of domestic cases of violence where the victim that called 911 ends up completely disagreeing
with the school of thought on how the police deal with the situation.

Moral:
Know where your bullets are going, and take accountability if a 14yr old is running the show.

So the shooter has been compare to a murderer, and jus the victim us being associated with a victim of domestic and you name the comment about an unconfirmed target ??
The target was confirmed as what the kid thought they saw, this was not attempted mirder and the guy who got shot was anything BUT a victim of domestic violence !
Quit trying to win an argument with idiotic comparisons because it doesn't work .
Thus was a try if accident , it was not premeditated or malicious and believe it or not the guy who was shot knows what the situation is with him and the shooter .
Get over yourselves, this forum has become nothing but a mob looking to lynch someone for anything , you can't even bring yourselves to respect the victim's wishes .
Cat

"..A great many accidental deaths by firearms do not involve hunters. .non-hunters are also sometimes
killed or injured. It can be said that this is a sport that does pose some danger to an entire community, not just
to the willing participants.."

https://www.thoughtco.com/hunting-accident-rates-127877
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Know your bullet targets folks,
Be safe, even if it saves just one life, were all in this together,
let it be your new normal.

The shooter intentionally aimed the rifle at the victim, without taking the time to verify his target. Then he intentionally pulled the trigger , with the intent to kill what he was aiming at, even though he had not properly identified his target. The father, who was supervising the shooter allowed this to happen.
A person was badly injured, and perhaps will be crippled for life. Not only that, but the actions of the shooter cost the taxpayers a great deal in the form of the expenses to get him to treatment, the initial treatment, and the follow up treatments that are yet to come.
So given the consequences of the shooter pulling that trigger, this should not be a matter of the victim forgiving the shooter, and leaving it at that.
If the shooter had been a drunk driver that caused the same consequences, most people would want to prosecute those responsible to the full extent of the law, so why is this any different? Both are negligence with no intent to injure someone, but the consequences are the same.

that's what I am saying too...respect his wishes and be nice....this fella seems to be the only one being sensible and he is the one that got shot...go figure eh.

That's what I said early on but there are a few on here that just can't stop, sheesh.
WDF

On what grounds to you conclude that most people think like you do?

Have you ever heard of the Youth Criminal Justice act?
That act suggests that most people do not hold youth such as this to the same standards as adults.

Why are we even discussing possible legal actions in this case, is our justice system not capable of making the appropriate decisions?

If not, does anyone think our thoughts will sway the justices system?
If not, what is the point?

Let's try rewriting one comment to see what it looks like when it reflects what most likely happened.

Kinda changes things don't it?

Based on the way things have been going, with our catch and release legal system, it's obvious that our legal system is not capable of making the appropriate decisions.

As to my statement about prosecuting to the full extent of the law, anyone that has read the previous threads on impaired driving, would realize that the overwhelming majority of posters, want even more severe punishment for impaired drivers, than our laws allow.

And what are our laws pertaining to the use of firearms in Canada? In the case of someone not holding a PAL, they must be under the direct supervision of a PAL holder. What do you suppose direct supervision means? Every explanation I have received from an instructor or police officer, took that to mean, in a position to be able to take immediate control of the firearm, as in arms reach.

Maybe you hadn't noticed, this is not an impaired driving case.

But the statement that you quoted referred directly to impaired driving.

I would bet 8mths from now, he will have a different outlook, this event is not event 6weeks old.
The victim hasn't even lived through his new normal yet.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My final concluding thought on the matter:

To all the future Gerald Stanley's out there, read this thread, there's a loop hole in it for you.

And a P.S.
Don't air your laundry on media platforms if an opinion on it must be censored.
Please keep such airings to thyself, I would rather not know about it.

Yes, I was quoting you.

So far you are the only one to bring up impaired driving so once again, this is not an impaired driving case.

But the situation between this an injury caused by impaired driving has a lot in common. In both cases negligence causes an unintentional injury to another person. The consequences are are same, so each is as serious as the other, so they should be treated equally.

I know your game and I know I shouldn't respond but I've got nothing to loose so here goes.

There are no similarities. But you know that.

Impaired driving is never unintentional.
Impaired driving is never a case of mistaken identity.
Impaired driving is never due to inexperience.

All of which are a part of why this shooting happened.

Now I'm done.

So are saying that the 14 year old didn't intentionally aim the rifle at the victim? Or was squeezing the trigger not intentional? Are you trying to tell us that he didn't intend to kill something when he fired the rifle?
Mistaking one human for another is mistaken identity, but since a human and a cougar look so different, it was more a case of negligence than mistaken identity.

As for impaired driving never being a result of inexperience, that is very wrong. A person not used to drinking alcohol is probably the most likely person to not realize that they are over the legal limit. And since their body is not used to dealing with alcohol, they are most likely to function in a manner that isn't normal or rational, and cause an accident.

Woo Hoo! No more responsibility! YMMV
 

All you have to do is claim "it was an accident", and you can get a free pass when you shoot another person? :sHa_sarcasticlol:
Maybe they should issue a license for people that look like game animals? That would cause quite a stir in the Furry community.

Seriously, the most important lesson in this story is that the 7MM is inferior to the 30 caliber. :fighting0021:

Hope the victim heals up OK.

I suspect this kid is forever scarred because of this mistake. His victim will be too. If the guy who was shot is going down the I forgive you route, who am I to say different. I don't have to wonder how I would feel if it was my son who did this. Devastated, guilty and on and on. In due time, the laws broken will come into play and some kind of punishment will come.


I do know of one man, who when he was a young kid growing up on the farm, was playing around with his bro in the kitchen and the farm .22. He pulled the trigger and it was loaded, the bullet went through walls of the house before it ended up killing his mom while she slept. He died an old man, I knew him first, good friends of my parents, they never knew of this incident. I met his brother through a job many years later. His brother told me what happened way back when and he said he carried great guilt up to his death, he wept like a baby when he allowed himself to remember what he did to his mom.


Unless this 14 yr old is a cold blood killer in waiting, I bet the coming criminal punishment will pale compared to what he feels and will feel for a long time about his mistake. I hope they both can find a way to live with the results of this tragedy.