By Jessica Gardner
Times Herald-Record
jgardner@th-record.com
Peter Morris was three feet from taking a bullet in the
head.
A careless hunter fired a bullet into his house, missing
his skull by three feet. It missed his son by six.
….It was a Tuesday in the middle of the afternoon when he
was almost killed. He was standing at the sink in the kitchen washing the
coffee pot. His 8-year-old son was standing behind him, pestering him about
using the phone.
The two family dachshunds were shuffling around nearby.
Then Morris heard it.
Pop. Pop. Pop. BOOM.
The cabinet door swung open near Morris' head and a cloud
of dust took flight. As the particles floated to the counter top and the
floor, his mind raced.
A balloon? A crazy baking explosion? Nope.
Morris stared into the cabinet, taking note of the
destruction.
Pieces of Formica and Sheetrock were scattered about.
Then Morris spied the hole.
It was in the back wall, about the size of a silver
dollar. Through the hole, Morris saw daylight.
The bullet had gone through the back of the cabinet and
into a box of Aunt Jemima pancake mix the family uses on Sundays.
…People come up here and think they're in the woods, but
they're not," Myers [New Windsor Supervisor] said. "It's just outrageous
to me that this county still allows rifle hunting.
…I might be the only one you hear say this, because most
politicians are afraid of the gun lobby," Myers said.
[THE DEC SAYS SHOTGUNS ARE WORSE]
…Injury-related incidents are rare, according to Wendy
Rosenbach of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Of the 61
hunting injuries reported in New York last year, only 11 were because of
rifle. Shotguns were responsible for 45 of them. There wouldn't be any
at
all if people followed the rules, Sparling said.
…Rifle hunting is already prohibited in Dutchess, Rockland
and Putnam counties. Westchester County only allows bow hunting. Hunting
is disallowed altogether in Nassau County. Rifle hunting is prohibited
in
western New York, where much of the land is still rural.
Embedded within the article above:
…The hunter who shot into Tanya Marvinney's Greenville
home wasn't identified.
Marvinney's husband, Ray, was outside sliding the
horizontal garage doors open when he heard a bullet whiz by his head. It hit
the wooden door, about six inches above and three feet away from Ray's head,
then fell to the ground. Ray picked it up and gave it a close inspection. It
was fired from a rifle.
It's not the first time he and Tanya have heard bullets
flying through the trees near their Monhagan Road home.
As more homes are built in the Greenville area, the danger
of serious injury increases, Tanya said, adding, "This isn't a rural
community anymore."
C.A.S.H. would like to suggest the following: All houses
should be painted hunter orange, dogs, cats and people should have to wear
hunter orange at all times during the hunting season. Take in all plastic
ducks and mobile frogs, put in bullet proof glass windows and a concrete
wall surrounding the house. Or, more economically, just live in a hunter
shelter underground (remember the bomb shelters) during the “season.” After
all, less than 3% of the population should be allowed to have fun guzzling
beer and shooting willy nilly with high powered weapons at little animals
outside your door, no?
