Figures Show Cheney Hunting Accident Is Rare

National Review’s John Podhoretz stirred things at the Corner today when he said that the Cheney hunting accident was a “a very big deal,” and that it was “disturbing as well that there was a news blackout that lasted nearly a day about this serious incident.”

Podhoretz quickly came under fire from readers, most of whom claimed that Cheney didn’t need to make the incident public quickly because hunting accidents happen all the time:

E-mails are flying fast and furious, most of them criticizing me for living in a “concrete jungle” and not understanding that, hey, hunting accidents are very common, every hunter has been peppered with buckshot, the accident was probably Whittington’s fault, and that this is all a media frenzy and the last thing the Vice President need do is apologize or say anything.

Apparently Podhoretz has a lot of uninformed readers. From Editor & Publisher:

Doug Pike, an outdoors reporter at the Houston Chronicle…said his reporting since Sunday found that Texas had only 2.7 hunting accidents per 100,000 hunting licenses sold in 2005. “That is the lowest since 1966 when they started keeping records,” he said. “It is uncommon.”

It’s worth noting that Katharine Armstrong, who was with Cheney when the accident occured, has the same basic line. “This is something that happens from time to time. You know, I’ve been peppered pretty well myself,” she said. Sounds like someone’s been on too many hunting trips with Dick Cheney.