As one who has and hopes again someday to hunt, I deplore the idea of "Buck Day" AND the damnedfools who degrade name of "hunter." I would, in fact, rejoice in their self-imposed demise except that they usually leave survivors behind to mourn.

My old friend, Dave, is a judge in a county in Western Illinois that is known for its deer herds -- and less than 2% of the county is public land. You want to hunt, you either pay or know someone (we know someone).

A few years ago a fella from Chicago came down and fired a 12 gauge slug through the wall of a house, narrowly missing a baby. Hangin' Dave wasn't pleased, 'cause Hangin' Dave is a genuine rifleman of the old school and takes a very, very dim view of safety violations, hunting law violations, and foolishness in general.

The upshot was that when the Chicago guy appeared in court with hsi Chicago attorney, he plead guilty -- his attorney said that he'd be fined a couple hundred dollars and that would end it.

Well, no. Dave fined him $10,000, gave him 180 hours of community service, made him bear the costs of repairs to the house, told him that he WOULD attend hunting safety courses AND pass with a perfect score, forfeit whatever he had with him hunting at the time (including a brand new pickup truck), and forfeit his hunting privileges for five years. I assume that the guy got a new attorney -- and Dave's sentence stuck on appeal!

Good.

j0hn, a million people a year do not die in gun incidents in the US. The people here aren't any stupider than those in the UK or anywhere else, for that matter.