Dan Quayle was ridiculed for giving a schoolboy an alternative (but correct--check the dictionary) spelling of "potato." Dick Cheney will no doubt be ridiculed for shooting a fellow quail hunter. According to the Associated Press story, "Katharine Armstrong, the ranch's owner, said Sunday that Cheney was using a 28-guage shotgun and that Whittington was about 30 yards away when he was hit in the cheek, neck and chest."
Assuming that the AP writer who can't spell "gauge" actually reported the correct gauge, Whittington can be very glad that Cheney was shooting a small shotgun (only the diminutive .410 is smaller). Loaded with federally-mandated steel shot, the 28-gauge is barely usable for hunting, holding just over half the shot of a 12-gauge round (a good thing for Whittington!). I'm surprised Cheney was using one, unless he was just trying to give the quail better odds of escape.
Whittington had changed positions without informing the other hunters, did not announce his new location, and was thirty yards away from guys who were hunting quail--which meant that they would almost certainly be swinging their guns in his direction when they flushed a covey. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of hunting quail (and I encourage you to try it), please note that spotting an orange vest at thirty yards out of the corner of your eye, while tracking a quail on the wing as it relates to the end of your shotgun, is a difficult endeavor. Whittington assumed that the other hunters would see him. Bad assumption.
The rest of the hunting party should have made sure they were all aware of the physical position of everyone in the party before shooting at anything, but they assumed that they knew where Whittington was. Another bad assumption.
Will the White House PR crew take advantage of this situation to better educate Americans on firearm and hunting safety? Will they remind us that yes, guns are dangerous, because in order to be useful they have to be dangerous, and should be handled properly? Will they encourage all Americans to educate themselves on gun safety, perhaps recommending some of the excellent materials available from the NRA? Or, will the fear-mongering bed-wetting anti-gun crowd jump on this as yet another proof that guns are evil and should be banned from the universe forever?
Time will tell, my little potatoe.