SENSELESS MAYHEM IN WISCONSIN WOODS

That's the hed on this editorial on Sunday's weird hunter-on-hunter serial-killing (which I would've blogged here except I thought I already had - I had actually blogged it at MeFi, where most of what I have to say about it can be read). And of course the interesting thing is that the phrase describes perfectly what's normally practiced there and elsewhere during "the season." But I'll admit this incident remains very curious, especially now that the shooter is claiming he was tauntingly shot at first. As this piece says,

[W]hile it is shameful, we don't find it hard to believe that a group of hunters - or others - are capable of spewing a few racial or ethnic slurs in a confrontational situation.

It is harder to believe that a state hunter would fire in the direction of someone - even as warning shot - given the long-ingrained emphasis on hunting safety and the credo that a gun is not to be pointed at anyone. Common sense would dictate as well that you don't do such a thing when the person you are firing at is armed.

Still, it's not beyond the realm of possibility.

Nope, it sure ain't - not when you're talking about people for whom senseless mayhem in Wisconsin woods is their idea of fine family entertainment.