[5]Should hunters be required to wear orange?
Natural Resource News Note:
Should hunters be required to wear orange is the question that the Oregon Fish and Wildife Commission took up last week. The result was to apply an orange requirement for all young hunters in Oregon. Bow hunters and turkey hunters were excluded from the new requirement. Here is what the Corvallis Times Gazzette said [6] of the changes.
“Forty states require gun hunters to wear orange; until Thursday’s vote, Oregon was one of 10 that did not mandate orange for any hunter. Opponents of the proposal say Oregon is second only to Nevada in hunting safety.
Oregon instituted hunter education in 1958 and mandated the classes for minors in 1973. Since 1990, 32 people have died in hunting accidents and 21 accidental shootings happened because the hunter misidentified the target.
The commission could have chosen to require orange for all 190,000 hunters, just the 17,000 minors who hunt, or not require anyone to wear orange.
Orange should be a personal choice, said Duane Dungannon, spokesman for the Oregon Hunters Association.
“The commission needs to get back on task in reversing the declines in our state’s deer and elk herds and the dwindling number of Oregon hunters,” he said, “instead of adding needless new regulations.” Read more [6]