A good candidate for the Darwin Award!

Charles Darwin’s do not have to be introduced to anyone. Born in 1809, he is a naturalist who formulated the scientific theory of evolution by natural selection, and published his discovery in a monograph entitled „On the Origin of Species.”

His name is also called an annual awards, and in fact anti-award given for some very special achievements. The winners are chosen by internet users, and Darwin’s prizes are awarded for exceptional stupidity, which results in death of the candidate or deprivation of the ability to beget offspring. It is worth mentioning that the fact of having children does not disqualify the candidate for the prize.

And although I think that this is the last prize that any of us would like to get, however new candidates appear each year. According to the news on the fakty.interia.pl portal, some German colleague was very close to receiving the nomination. Scroll down to the next part.

Everything happened in 2016, when a man was shot with his own weapon by his dog. Yes, you read it correctly – by the dog. Sounds absurdly? Unfortunately, this is not an April Fool’s joke, because the thing is very real, and the Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm Starost in Bavaria, decided to take away the man’s license for weapons and hunting licenses. The whole arguing with inappropriate behavior „because it must be assumed that in the future it will carelessly deal with weapons and ammunition”

According to the German law, the law states that a hunter is not allowed to carry a loaded weapon in the car. For us, this rule is nothing new, because as every hunter knows in accordance with the rules of hunting weapons in the vehicle should be unloaded or be in a case. Bearing in mind that many provisions in the regulations are a reaction to actual events that may have occurred in the past, I think sometimes it is worth considering several times not only by pulling the trigger, but also about how we move with weapons in the hunting unit.

From where, for example, a rule appeared that when crossing terrain obstacles, entering and exiting the hunter’s box and during breaks in hunting during which the weapon is not put down, the hunter must remove the ammo from the ammo chambers. This is nothing more than a reaction to some very sad accidents that could have resulted in someone’s death or disability. Even many years ago, some publications on the safety of hunting were created. One of them is, for example, the study by Jan Sztolcman, editor-in-chief of Łowiec Polski in the years 1897-1926, entitled „How to avoid accidents with weapons”.

Sztolcman was already discussing issues related to the movement with weapon I mentioned before. He wrote that when moving with a gun, the shooter often does not pay attention to what is under his feet, and the finger often rests in the vicinity of the trigger. Particular attention is paid to the fact that during the hunts, please pay particular attention to the area where we are going. Interestingly, Sztolcman was also familiar with the problem of vehicle safety. Scroll down to the next part.

It is true that these were not the cars we all use today. He wrote, however, that „when we get on a cart or sleigh, let’s double check, whether we have not left the ammo in the barrel. Many cases of shooting or killing happened just while driving with the gun. „

Despite the fact that these descriptions were created about 100 years ago, it is enough to replace the word of a cart or sleigh with a car and everything will be up to date.

Despite the fact that Darwin’s prizes are full of black humor, and the article itself, about the dog who shot his owner has dozens of comments in the style of whether the dog was sober and what judgment should be expected, remember that such cases are a huge human tragedy.

This accident and many others could have been avoided by following the rules or regulations. Maybe for a hunter in Germany, the desire to hunt a boar or a fox was much more valuable than his health or life. The only question is whether it is worth risking, on the other hand, signing up on the pages of history as a Darwin award winner might also a great feat. Quoting the editor – „Barrels up, always!”

Happy hunting!

Picture: Charles Robert Darwin. A copy made by John Collier (1850-1934) in 1883 of his 1881 portrait of Charles Darwin. According to Darwin’s son Erasmus, „The picture is a replica of the one in the rooms in the Linnaean Society and was made by Collier after the original. I took some trouble about it and as a likeness it is an improvement on the original.” Given to the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1896.