I don't like this quote...

"Under existing law, the use of laser sights, spotlights and headlights is strictly prohibited in all Texas hunting. The practice can have the effect of making animals stand still as the light shines on them." from the above linked article.

Neither of those statements are true. Not all hunting is illegal with lights, nor does a laser or a light automatically make an animal stand still.

As for the idea of helping a blind man hunt, maybe that's a good idea. Needs more time and thought in my opinion, not opposed to the concept of helping the blind, my dad is legally blind by DL standards, just want to think about it.

Quote:

---

I don't like this quote...

---

The fact that it's inaccurate may have something to do with it.

This is an issue that I have really mixed feelings about. What I am fixing to say may offend some of you, and I am sorry if it does.

In my opinion, 95% of the lure, or dynamics of hunting, is visual. I do not know what the definitions of "Legally Blind" are, but I have a really hard time understanding what it would mean to a blind person, to actually shoot something.

I guess I am just not mature enough to understand that they could actually feel or appreciate the action of killing something, with out actually being able to see what they had done. Someone else would be doing the sighting of the rifle and all the hunter would do is pull the trigger or push a button to fire the rifle. At least in fishing, they are holding the rod and fighting the fish, and they can feel those aspects of the activity. In hunting, they would not be holding the gun, or if they were, they would be maneuvering it around with a lot of help. In fishing they wouldn't be casting for themselves, but they could hold the rod and feel when they got a bite.

I am not saying I am opposed to the idea, I just think it needs more thought and discussion before a law is passed.

Just my opinion, if I have offended anyone I do apologise, but that is the way I feel about this subject.

The Elcan scope has an output feature, so that someone next to the shooter can see a monitor of what the shooter is seeing, they can use that and not need the laser, problem solved without using the government!!!

being as the older I get more things go wrong and I have lived my whole life blind in one eye, why shouldnt a tax payer get to kill a deer or any other game animal also.

Just remember being a tax payer has alot of limitations, like no free medical care.........
I also think if the guide can describe the situation in enough detail that the blind person can feel the excitement that a sited hunter feels, they see it the "minds eye"- similar to listening to a football game on the radio. Plus once they can feel what they harvested ( if totally blind) and get the same rush/excitement a sited hunter gets I'm all for it.

The real issue here is allowing blind hunters the opportunity to experience hunting. I'm blessed. My children have their sight. However, if they didn't have sight and wanted to go deer hunting, I'd do whatever I could to make it happen.

Post deleted by DoNisUglyFat

Again, DoN, you missed the concept of the post and took it to whole different level. He was talking about feeling something, not just holding on to it; the experience of it. Big difference. Quit looking for a reason to flame someone.

Let's stay ON TOPIC!

You want politically incorrect? I'll give you politically incorrect. I think blind individuals should be given the legal "right" to hunt right after they are given the legal "right" to drive to the lease! I mean, c'mon... there are already too many "accidents" caused by stupid people who can see perfectly well (anybody remember that politician out in the Hill Country?), without opening the doors to folks who are touching off a round based purely upon what someone else tells them.

If they do manage to pass this ill-advised piece of legislation, I just hope I'm never in the field when Stevie Wonder starts shooting. I think this is going too damn far on the "laws to make folks feel good" side.

I want to throw another point in here before this gets locked down. I think it is one issue if the person could see it in "The Minds Eye", to do that, it seems to me, that they would have actually had to experience it, BEFORE they became blind. Again, I am still having problems on this issue. A person blind from birth, while they may not be able to cast the line, can feel the bite and set the hook and fight a fish, they can feel the fish after they catch it. In fact in a way, I feel a blind person would actually be a better fisherman in some aspects, simply because of the increased sensitivity in their tactile senses of feel and touch. They would probably be able to better feel subtle bites that most of us would miss, because we would be looking for the visual clues.

But for a person that never did see a deer or a coyote or the vegetation in a pasture, what kind of real impressions will they get from pulling a trigger/pushing a button, and then having everything described to them, except they have no memories of what any of those things actually looked like.

A person that is "Legally" blind, can have corrective lenses fitted, that while they might not be able to legally drive, they could still see well enough to shoot a deer at 50 yards or so with proper sighting equipment, or even if they were going to be doing as is proposed, they have the memories and they can mentally visualize what is going on from what they are being told. A person that never had that opportunity, totally blind from birth or early adolecenses does not have those memories.

I don't think this issue needs to be turned into a fight on here, but I do think we all out to look at all of the angles. To me losing my eyesight would be the hardest thing I would have to try and live with, but even though I might never be able to see a deer again with my own eyes, if some one told me a deer ran across the road, I could see the animal in my minds eye, and with just a little more information I could visualize the whole picture. But without those baseline memories, there would be nothing there for the minds eye to grasp. Just my opinion.

again a great opinion CHC WOW AND RONKAYe

I personally would love to be involved in this type of hunt. Not only would it be one heck of a challenge for both myself and the hunter, it would also be very gratifying and fulfilling on many levels, for all involved.

Just a thought about something that will eventually happen (if it hasn't already)... If a blind hunter inadvertently shoots another person, who would be legally responsible for the act, the blind hunter or the sighted guide? Beyond legality, I can only imagine how the blind person would feel. Bet he wouldn't be too anxious to hunt again.

would you be anxious to hunt again if you shot someone??
I would think it would be safer than half of the hunters here.Assuming the guide is a trained professional there should never be any more of a chance of them shooting someone than you......I think you will eventually shoot someone if you keep hunting NOw does that make sence to you???

Quote:

---

Just a thought about something that will eventually happen (if it hasn't already).

---

Actually i believe you would have a safer situation than if it was just one sighted hunter. Why do you think it would be less safe?

CHC you say someone who has never seen a deer due to loss of sight from birth will never be able to grasp the situation after killing a deer.Let me ask you a question if someone called you and asked you to pick a person up at the airport and you had never met them and had no picture of this person but they had described them to you.Would you hold up a poster with their name on it like a "Blind Man" or would you go off of the description and look for this person based on what they described?You would have a good guess about the persons apearance by the description wouldn't you?

Interesting, especially when this is already being done in other states, and so far no accidents. They can't claim the same for single sighted hunters.
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153--31956--,00.html

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/cs/disabled.htm

http://www.oregon.gov/Blind/guide20.shtml

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsi...56923&rfi=6

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/huntersguide/license.asp

I have stated my opinion on this subject and I am not ashamed of my opinion nor am I backing down from it. You nor anyone else has to agree with it or like it, however I am entitled to it, as are you yours.

I am not sure if we are missing the point now Does everyone realize that the Blind people in question are already hunting this is just a better system for them to do so.I for one have not heard any thing about "Blind People" shooting anyone yet but I hear of sighted people doing it daily.

i understand i just don't care