A 50-year-old Minnesota man is recovering from gunshot wounds sustained from a child while deer hunting during the state's youth hunting season.
On the morning of October 22, the Hubbard County Sheriff's Office received a call about a hunting accident. Deputies rushed to the scene and found Gary Peters bleeding after being shot in the derriere.
Peters and the child, age 10, had returned to the man's truck, where Peters instructed the child on how to unload his hunting rifle.
"While trying to unload the bolt-action Ruger .270 caliber rifle, the youth squeezed the trigger while [the man] was standing in the line of fire," the press release stated.
The bullet struck the man and went through both his buttocks. He was taken to an area hospital by ambulance and then airlifted to a hospital in Fargo, North Dakota, "due to the seriousness of his injuries."
Teaching kids how to hunt is a delicate process, since the risk for accidents is obviously higher—as evidenced by the fact that Peters wasn't the only Minnesota hunter accidentally shot by a child on Sunday morning.
A 45-year-old man in Becker Township, northwest of the Twin Cities, was hunting with his 12-year-old daughter in a deer stand. The girl had just shot a deer when she accidentally fired off another round, shooting her dad in the leg. Another family member applied a tourniquet to the man before first responders arrived to take him to North Memorial Health for treatment.
Both victims' current conditions are unknown as of press time.
The shootings underscore the importance of teaching safe gun handling to any child who accompanies adults on a hunt.
Both occurred during the Minnesota youth hunting season, which opened on October 19 and ran through October 22. Children ages 10 to 17 were able to participate with a valid firearm deer license, and children 12 years and older must also have obtained a firearms safety certificate or apprentice hunter validation. The firearms safety certification process includes four class sessions to learn the safe handling of firearms and a field day with scenario-based training.
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