Don Johnson: What is your definition of the case being “handled properly?”
Rumor control, thorough investigation. leaving no stone unturned. This has become a media-focused case, so I imagine that SCSO and Fish and Wildlife will mind their P’s & Q’s.
Don Johnson: How do you suggest that William Almli “channel his grief appropriately?”
Why do I feel like you are looking for a fight here?
From what I’ve seen the husband is obviously in the anger phase of grieivng. My hope is that he moves through that phase in a healthy manner and doesn’t hang onto it too long. Anger in such a situation brings feelings of a need for vengence. IMO, being reactive will do no one any good.
Don Johnson: I have absolutely nothing against responsible hunters who wish to put food on the table.
Bear hunting in 2007 is “putting food on the table”?
Don Johnson: However, it would appear that a wife, mother, and grandmother is now dead because of kids who obviously retained nothing from their firearms training on when to hold off on pulling the trigger. The 14-year-old wanted to kill something and it seems as though that was his top priority.
It would appear that way, yes. But, since neither of us are involved in the case (I’m assuming you aren’t), appearances could be all wrong. From personal experience, I can tell you that I have stood in the Sauk Mountain trailhead parking lot with four other fully sober adults and watched what we all thought was a bear lumbering down the trail. After about two to three minutes of observation, I pulled out binoculars and could see that the “bear” was actually a human wearing dark clothing. That was on a clear, sunny day. Saturday morning at 10am when the shooting incident occured, the mountain was foggy, cloudy, and it was drizzling.
Appearances in such a location can be deceiving.
Don Johnson: I have heard from people who blame Pamela Almli for not being aware that hunters might be in the area. That is a twisted line of reasoning that shifts the focus away from where it belongs and adds only further grief to the victim’s family.
Agreed - that is stupid thinking. Personally, my feeling is that legal or not, it was stupid of anyone to be hunting and shooting in a direction where people might be. The fact is, teenagers often don’t think of consequences in such instances. It’s possible, I suppose, that if the adult who brought them there had been with them, he might have taken the trail and likelihood of people in the vicinity into consideration.
My hope is that because of this incident, there will be a change in hunting laws regarding the minimum age for hunting unsupervised by an adult and hunting in recreational areas.
Don Johnson: I don’t care how the kids feel.
Hmmm...that’s too bad. But your lack of feeling for the kids *is* a symptom of the kind of society we live in today. Vaccuum-like, uncompassionate, reactive, angry.
Those kids may or may not have to face legal consequences for what has happened, but they will have to live their entire lives with the knowledge that they ended someone else’s life unnecessarily. If the proper care is not taken, one or both of these kids could end up irreparably harmed emotionally and psychologically from this whole incident. I hardly think that if Mrs. Almli had survived she would want to see two young lives ruined for an undeterminate amount of time over something that was completely accidental and unintentional.
Don Johnson: The bottom line is that if you point a firearm at anyone or anything, you had damned well better know what you are doing before you squeeze the trigger. There was clearly negligence on the part of shooter. End of story.
“Clearly”? Now you’re playing judge and jury without knowing all the facts of the case. That kind of thinking is as stupid as the thinking of those who say the deceased is to blame. The truth is, when human lives and emotions and thoughts and actions are involved, nothing is ever so black and white that we can safely say “end of story” so early on.
