Our view: Restrictions are appropriate for young people

Before 1994, Washington required that hunters under 14 be supervised by a parent or guardian. Lawmakers eliminated that condition in a comprehensive bill aimed, believe it or not, at curbing youth violence.

At least twice the Legislature has considered restoring the adult supervision requirement, but those efforts failed.

That history has been on many minds this month after a youthful hunter in Skagit County shot and killed a 54-year-old woman hiker he mistook for a bear. He was accompanied only by his 17-year-old brother, who reportedly peered through the fog and agreed.

The boy, now charged with manslaughter, is 14, so he wouldn’t have been covered by the prior law that was repealed about the time he was born. That doesn’t mean that the Legislature shouldn’t reconsider hunting laws with respect to age.

Washington sets no age requirement to obtain a hunting license, although one must pass a hunter safety course. Neither of those provisions is unusual. Many states allow children to hunt without a license. But half or more of the states require that youthful hunters be under an adult’s supervision.

Not Washington. The hunter safety diploma is all it takes.

There was a time when Washington youth could apply for and get a driver’s license at 16, just by passing the requisite tests and paying the fee. Then driver education classes came along, and in recent years, Washington has limited the number of non-related passengers who can be in a car with a young driver.

Those changes reflect a common-sense recognition that people in their teens still have some maturing to do and they should be eased rather than plunged into the responsibilities associated with operating a motor vehicle.

Or handling a firearm.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife notes that hunters between 10 and 29 account for more hunting-related firearms injuries than all other age groups combined. And on an incident-per-hunter basis the rate is probably higher in the 10 to 19 group.

Officials say the 14-year-old suspect in Skagit County was charged because he violated many hunting standards for target identification. If an experienced adult hunter had been along to remind him of those expectations, two families might have been spared their current grief.

Legislation can’t eliminate accidents in the woods any more than on the highways, but state lawmakers owe hunters and hikers the same precautions that are in place for motorists.