HUNTING SAFETY --  A 35-year-old eastern Idaho man who lost his right lung and most of the use of his right arm after being mistakenly shot during hunting season last fall is in the news for stating publically that he’s frustrated the shooter is facing only a misdemeanor.

The Associated Press reports that Korby Hansen of Rexburg says his medical bills are close to $400,000 and that he expects those to increase after being hit with a 12-gauge shotgun slug fired by 57-year-old Mark Later of Rigby in October.  The two men were hunting whitetails in Madison County when the accident occurred near the end of legal shooting hours

Later faces a misdemeanor charge of injuring another by careless handling and discharge of a firearm. Hansen wants Later charged with felony aggravated battery, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Reading past reports on this accident, it’s staggering to consider how preventable it was.

Hansen was wearing camouflage in a firearms hunting area.

Later, who was hunting with another party, said he took a shot a late-day movement he thought was a deer.

Wearing hunter orange clothing, as is required in most states such as Montana, would have almost certainly prevented this accident.

And if it didn’t, Hansen would have had a better case to ask for an even stronger charge – attempted murder.