I just read an article in USA Today about a 14 year old girl in Springfield, Missouri who mistakenly shot an elk, thinking it was a large white tail deer. Her father immediately called the Conservation Department upon realizing his daughter’s mistake.
Apparently there is no elk season in Missouri, so free ranging elk are protected.
As of yesterday, conservation officials had not finished their investigation or decided whether warnings will be issued.
The young teen’s (Abby) story went viral, with hundreds of people posting comments about her mistake. Her father stated that he was upset by some of the comments that he felt were close to bullying his young daughter. Some people actually suggested she be “locked away”.
Wait…what?
Let’s break this down. A dad and his daughter are spending time together doing something they both enjoy, hunting. She makes a very honest mistake. Research it yourself, there are glaring similarities between the two animals. Her (also honest) father does the right thing by contacting the authorities to report the incident. The dad takes full responsibility. He willingly offered to pay any fines or “ground” his daughter from hunting for the rest of the year or do whatever it takes (within sensibility) to make this right.
Here is a dad building into his 14 year old daughter. They are away from electronic devices and work and school and parties and less than stellar influences. And boom! They get in trouble with the law and have to deal with cyber ignoramuses. That word is so completely appropriate here and I’ll show you why.
According to the urban dictionary: Ignoramus – someone who doesn’t know how the world works and doesn’t care to know.
The history of the word is this. Ignoramus is the title of a farce written by George Ruggle in 1615. The title character (Ignoramus) is a lawyer who fancies himself to be quite shrewd but is actually foolish and ignorant. The word ignoramus in Latin literally means “we do not know.”
With recent INTENTIONAL shootings of HUMANS, are there actually people in this world who think a child should be legally punished for ACCIDENTALLY shooting an ANIMAL?
Oy vey.
In the prophetic words of Gilbert Gnarley: “Wake up Amurrica!” (misspell intentional).