VICKSBURG - If a hunter is eaten by a bear before June 30 in Mississippi, you can expect to hear about it on TV and read about it in newspapers.
If a hunter is eaten by a bear on or after July 1 in Mississippi, it may be an official state secret.
Absurd?
Well, yes.
But here's what a line in House Bill 929 as passed by the House and amended and passed by the Senate adds to Section 49-4-31 of the Mississippi code effective at midnight on the last day of June:
"Hunting accident/incident reports shall not be a public record, nor made available for public distribution."
Now if a trucker stops at a state rest area and is eaten by a bear, that would be public information. If a fisherman is eaten by an alligator, the public could be trusted with that information.
It's only anything adverse that happens to a hunter that the report would become top secret - and no, this legislation has nothing to do with bird shot misfired in Texas last month by Vice President Dick Cheney.
The stated purpose of H.B. 929, introduced by state Rep. Eric Robinson, R-Quitman, is quite different. As chairman of the House Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks committee, Robinson wanted to authorize conservation officers to require or obtain drug or alcohol tests in the aftermath of injury or death of a person engaged in hunting resulting from use of a bow or firearm.
That makes sense.
Certainly it's good public policy for the state to determine, just as it would after a car wreck or plane crash, whether alcohol or other drugs may have been a factor.
The "seal the records" edict is lagniappe.
And, sadly, it's the same kind of lagniappe that appears in many bills that breeze through the Legislature every year.
It reflects a presumption that government can be trusted with information, but the public can't be.
And it flies in the face of the very fact that compiling accident records has as a very real purpose informing the public of risks.
For example, hunter safety courses are now required for all new licensees. Anyone attending such a course will be taught how not to traverse a barbed-wire fence while carrying a rifle. Why is this important? Because hunters have been killed or injured because they forgot about safety while climbing over or through barbed-wire fences - and reports were written and shared.
This year, lawmakers passed a statute that will make failure to wear a seat belt while driving or riding in a car a citable traffic violation. Why? Because National Safety Council and other reports - compiled from public records - show crash survivability rises among those who buckle up.
Only one rubric has been offered as a reason why hunting accident/incident reports must be sealed. It is that scurrilous lawyers - and our Legislature despises scurrilous lawyers - might troll through state records looking for gun manufacturers to sue.
This is the same fantasy that Insurance Commissioner George Dale said led to a plea a few years ago to seal consumer complaints filed against insurance companies. He resisted, in part, because those complaints are useful to independent firms that rank policies - so the public can know which are the best value.
The trolling lawyer ruse is bogus for other reasons. Mississippi law now fully exempts any gun seller from a civil suit for any lawful sale and, further, fully exempts gun manufacturers unless their product is defective. (If a trigger is pulled or bumped, accidentally or on purpose, and a bullet comes out, that's not a defect. That's what guns do.)
But note that in wording of the House- and Senate-passed versions, the secrecy provision applies not just to those involving weapons - but all reports, including foraging bears.
The House and Senate versions did contain slight differences. That means the legislation could go to conference, so there's an outside chance that the nonsensical line could be eliminated.
It should be. It cancels nearly 200 years of state history during which it was considered smart to let people know about and learn from the mishaps of others. It also makes Mississippi a laughingstock compared to other states that gather and actually publicize such information to empower citizens.
No one wants anyone to be eaten by a bear. But if it happens, why would it no longer be a good thing to tell people?
