Blind hunters in Texas to use laser sights

Fri Apr 6, 3:10 PM ET
CHICAGO (AFP) - Texas legislators have made it easier for blind hunters to capture their prey.

A bill passed by the state house Thursday will allow legally blind hunters to use laser sight devices when hunting with a sighted companion.

Scores of blind hunters already prowl the Texas backcountry outfitted with scopes that let their friends help them aim.

"It shocks a lot of people," said Chase Bearden, who does public outreach for the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities and testified in favor of the bill.

"It's not just a sighted sport -- you're using all your senses."

Bearden said he knows of about 30 or 40 groups of legally blind hunters just in the Austin, Texas area.

Some of them are life-long hunters whose eyesight deteriorated as they got older but can still see shapes and movements. Others are completely blind but rely on their other senses to help them track deer, turkey and other prey.

Once they have the prey lined up a friend will lean over their shoulder, look through a custom scope and help them refine their aim.

But those scopes don't make for a very clean shot or a particularly satisfying experience, Bearden said in a telephone interview.

"By using the laser sight, the sighted hunter doesn't have to lean over your shoulder," he said, explaining that with the laser, the sighted companion can see where the gun is aimed and quietly advise the blind hunter to move it in the correct direction.

"It allows the blind hunter to do more. It's safer and it's a cleaner shot."

Hunting with any type of light was previously forbidden in Texas but there have never been any restrictions on giving hunting licenses to the blind.

The new bill will allow legally blind hunters to use laser sights when accompanied by a licensed and sighted hunter over the age of 13. It must still pass the state senate.


Take from the article what you will. :weeping: :ak47: :wtf:

BNF said:

Fri Apr 6, 3:10 PM ET
CHICAGO (AFP) - Texas legislators have made it easier for blind hunters to capture their prey.

A bill passed by the state house Thursday will allow legally blind hunters to use laser sight devices when hunting with a sighted companion.

Scores of blind hunters already prowl the Texas backcountry outfitted with scopes that let their friends help them aim.

"It shocks a lot of people," said Chase Bearden, who does public outreach for the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities and testified in favor of the bill.

"It's not just a sighted sport -- you're using all your senses."

Bearden said he knows of about 30 or 40 groups of legally blind hunters just in the Austin, Texas area.

Some of them are life-long hunters whose eyesight deteriorated as they got older but can still see shapes and movements. Others are completely blind but rely on their other senses to help them track deer, turkey and other prey.

Once they have the prey lined up a friend will lean over their shoulder, look through a custom scope and help them refine their aim.

But those scopes don't make for a very clean shot or a particularly satisfying experience, Bearden said in a telephone interview.

"By using the laser sight, the sighted hunter doesn't have to lean over your shoulder," he said, explaining that with the laser, the sighted companion can see where the gun is aimed and quietly advise the blind hunter to move it in the correct direction.

"It allows the blind hunter to do more. It's safer and it's a cleaner shot."

Hunting with any type of light was previously forbidden in Texas but there have never been any restrictions on giving hunting licenses to the blind.

The new bill will allow legally blind hunters to use laser sights when accompanied by a licensed and sighted hunter over the age of 13. It must still pass the state senate.


Take from the article what you will.

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Don't even get me started ... I'm almost embarrassed to be from here. :eek: :o

If your eyesight has deteriorated to the point that you can't see to hunt, then ... DON'T HUNT. (ERRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH ... I feel a migraine coming on.)

I had to hurry and get that story posted while you we still on...

LMAO

I understand the whole intent of the bill, but damn ... :dunno:

I cannot believe that this State's leaders are pro-actively looking into its dubious merits. It boggles my mind.

I can only imagine some ol' half-blind, plastered and drunk fart straight out of Grumpy Old Men or Deliverance out in the field with his wasted cronies blastin' away at whatever moves. I cringe at the thought.

I like to hunt and I'm a very strident believer in gun-owners and hunter's rights, but this is too, too much. It borders on the ridiculous and insane.

Thank God I'm not from Texas!

They allow people to hunt over here that are blind with somebody looking over the shoulder to help them aim with a modified scope. It's not like they are trying to hit something a mile and a half away or spraying bullets everywhere. Usually the ranges are extremely close. Most of the time they hit at what they aim or at least come close. They are usually out in the middle of nowhere and it's also not like they hunt in the middle of a city either so I don't see anything wrong with it other than making it more convenient for them when they do it, let alone finding it that mind boggling or dubious.

D-rock said:

They allow people to hunt over here that are blind with somebody looking over the shoulder to help them aim with a modified scope. It's not like they are trying to hit something a mile and a half away or spraying bullets everywhere. Usually the ranges are extremely close. Most of the time they hit at what they aim or at least come close. They are usually out in the middle of nowhere and it's also not like they hunt in the middle of a city either so I don't see anything wrong with it other than making it more convenient for them when they do it, let alone finding it that mind boggling or dubious.

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No disrespect intended, malice, or cause to be offended, D-Rock, but ...

You don't live here in Texas, I DO. I hunt - religiously, EVERY season - and I know what kind of people - some good, some bad - hunt each year.

I've been hunting every year since I was fourteen; I'm now 37. I've seen the good, the bad, and the in-between. I've come across poachers, I've come across night-hunters who blind their kill with spotlights (which is against the law), and I've encountered quite a few responsible hunters.

This bill - while well-meaning in its intent and purpose - will only serve to create needless confusion, chaos, and turmoil in an already bogged-down part of this State's legislature and in our parks and wildlife division.

As I stated - and have emphatically stated in the past - I am a hunter. I firmly stand behind and in front of the N.R.A. I belong to the Long Star Bowhunters' Association. I am a hunter's advocate and will always stand up for hunter's rights.

Trust me when I say this ... it's only going to cause needless problems. :hatsoff:

You will ALWAYS have some fucked-up, drunk-off-his-ass redneck who will abuse the system and this bill (if it passes) for his own selfish, fucked up reasons. More than likely, you will find that the people it was INTENDED for won't even benefit from it. And that, my friend, is why I said what I said. Sadly, it's THOSE individuals that will garner notoriety from it and make "us" (the hunters) look like fools for endorsing this bill. Plus, it just gives added ammunition to people like my former friend ('Fly boy) to point their fingers and castigate Texas for being backwards and full of nothing but illiterate, uneducated, unintelligent, and uncivilized assholes.

See where I'm coming from now?

I do understand your position, but on principle short of extraordinary conditions, I don't like the idea that a law that doesn't have any problems in of itself shouldn't be passed because some people out there are idiots and might do stupid things. If that was the case wouldn't they do it anyway? It's not like they care if a law exist or not. In the same reasoning, I could say we should ban all cars or alcohol where I live because some redneck coming out of the bar over here, and there is always more than a few, might screw up, drive drunk, and crash his vehicle into somebody’s house.

As much of a firm believer I am in the 2nd Amendment, if you can't see to aim for yourself, your gun ownership should be for investment and/or collectible purposes only.

I know the rest of the world has it's problems, but America? Good lord. It need's sorting out.

dave_rhino said:

I know the rest of the world has it's problems, but America? Good lord. It need's sorting out.

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Here we go again

Obviously Texas = all of USA.

cheers,

dave_rhino said:

I know the rest of the world has it's problems, but Texas? Good lord. It need's sorting out.

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Better?

Or do you want a list of the rest of the countries problems?

Roughneck said:

Here we go again

Obviously Texas = all of USA.

cheers,

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POTW!!!

:bowdown:

When you are blind, you don't go hunting. I always used a mkIV scope on my m1a1 when I was shooting on long ranges +800m. Same when I was shooting with my model 70 on metallic silhouette targets. I always had a gerat night and day vision. All big part family members who live in the USA in NY and in TX are all NRA lifetime members. I was a member of the NRA for 7 years.
I think there should be a vision check so it would avoid probs. I wouldn't have problems to hunt in the night or shooting in the night at the range because my night vision is excellent. Laser scopes are not the best, from my personal experience and from what I have seen on the ranges or in law enforcement, the most common used scope was the leupold mkIV military with its illuminated reticle. This scope is found on the barret m82a1, on the new accuracy international 50 bmg semi auto sniping rifle and on the m21 and m21 designated marksman rifle. If you want to shoot on long ranges perfectly steiner, zeiss, swarowzski, leupold, unertl or habicht scopes must be your choices.

I thought that maybe this was a 'spare' April fools thread that BNF had kept up his sleeve..

tunsty said:

I thought that maybe this was a 'spare' April fools thread that BNF had kept up his sleeve..

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What's this red dot on my PC screen?

AFA said:

What's this red dot on my PC screen?

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:1orglaugh

AFA said:

What's this red dot on my PC screen?

.



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You don't live near Dick Cheney do you?..

tunsty said:

You don't live near Dick Cheney do you?..

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huhuhuhuhuh!

Is that why my laundry on the line is always ripped to shreds? :jester:

Blind hunters in Texas to use laser sights

There are too many blind anyway, so it is important to thin out the herd during season.