From staff reports
HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania hunters had one of their safest years on record in 2016, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
The number of hunting related shooting incidents statewide was the second-lowest ever, and for only the second time on record, a year passed without a single fatality related to gun handling while hunting or trapping in Pennsylvania, according to a newly released report from the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
There were 25 hunting-related shooting incidents statewide during 2016. Only 2015 had a lower number of incidents with 23.
The trend of increasingly safer hunting is something of which Pennsylvania’s hunters – and the Game Commission’s team of volunteer instructors – can be proud, said Game Commission executive director Bryan Burhans.
Decades ago, hundreds of incidents occurred annually, year after year in Pennsylvania, according to Game Commission.
“There’s always work to do when it comes to improving hunter safety, because even one incident is too many,” Burhans said. “But the fact remains that hunting is safer than it’s ever been, and in Pennsylvania, the credit for that can be shared by the legions of hunters who make a habit out of making good decisions and the dedicated instructors who have trained them so well.”
Pennsylvania has compiled data on hunting-related shooting incidents or HRSIs since 1915. HRSIs in Pennsylvania have declined nearly 80 percent since hunter-education training began in 1959. Prior to 2013, there never had been fewer than 33 incidents reported in a year, and 2016 marks the fourth straight year in which fewer than 30 incidents were reported.
In 2016, nine of the 25 incidents with an identified offender resulted from individuals with 10 or fewer years of hunting experience.
