A near-annual ritual played itself out with the usual consequences last month in North Idaho when one hunter shot another to death, reportedly thinking that was a deer in his gunsights. A sportsman’s holiday turned never-ending nightmare.

Today in Tekoa, a memorial is scheduled for 30-year-old Casey Lawson, a devoted hunter who was engaged. While his family and fiancee grieve, so, undoubtedly, do the loved ones of Raleigh Paul Turley, the 24-year-old North Idaho resident who has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

After talking to Turley, Benewah County Sheriff Robert Kirts said the suspect told him he thought he saw a flash of white and thought it was a deer. This at about 5 p.m., after hunting should have been over for the day, and in blowing snow to further impair visibility.

Accident? In the sense that Turley didn’t mean to shoot a human, yes. But in the sense that he let his eyes trick him into thinking he saw something that wasn’t there? That’s a harder case to make.

On average, Idaho records one hunting-related fatality a year going back to 1979. And that doesn’t include the still unsolved shooting death of a 43-year-old hunter about a year ago in Shoshone County. But the tally includes no victims who were wearing hunter orange, the bright garb that is required of most states, including Washington, but not Idaho.

That precaution might have saved Lawson’s life, and Idaho lawmakers ought to bring their state in line with the bulk of the nation. In the Benewah County seat, where hunting is notoriously popular, the St. Maries Record Gazette polled its readers and found that 79 percent of them favor such a law.

But hunter orange, while a smart idea, doesn’t mitigate the fundamental cause of the Nov. 20 calamity in Benewah County. Somebody with a state-issued hunting license went into the wild, aimed his firearm at a living target and killed it before making certain what it was – or wasn’t.

While Idaho lawmakers revisit hunter orange, they also need to consider how they can better hold shooters accountable. When someone is killed or wounded under circumstances like those in which Lawson died, regardless of whether the wounds were caused by a firearm or bow and arrow, it should be defined clearly as a felony. Convicted or not, the perpetrator should face lifelong loss of hunting privileges.

If those steps failed to deliver a message to the intended recipient, at least they would take demonstrably risky hunters out of the picture.