By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Dwayne Labrecque knows a thing or two about hunting. A licensed guide, he has been hunting all varieties of game most of his life.

And like most people in Maine, he learned the golden rule as a child before ever handling a gun: You always make sure of your target before you pull the trigger.

“It’s plain and simple. It’s common sense,” Labrecque said Monday. “The vice president was not using common sense.”

According to The Associated Press, Vice President Dick Cheney was hunting quail on Katharine Armstrong’s ranch in Southern Texas with Austin attorney Harry Whittington, 78, late Saturday afternoon. Armstrong told the AP that Whittington went to retrieve a bird he shot while Cheney and a third unidentified hunter walked to another spot and discovered a second covey of quail.

Whittington “came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn’t signal them or indicate to them or announce himself,” Armstrong said. The covey flushed, the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and fired his 28-gauge shotgun, she said. Whittington was in the line of fire and got peppered in the face with birdshot. Both men were wearing bright orange vests, she said.

Labrecque cried foul at the description of how the shooting occurred.

“That’s not the way it works,” he said. “They’re supposed to be walking in a line. The shooting lanes are at 10 o’clock on the left side and 2 o’clock on the right. Cheney was shooting out of his zone. It’s a total disregard for laws and safety.”

Aaron Cady, a duck hunter from West Gardiner, said Cheney didn’t follow basic hunting rules.

“It’s the very first thing they teach you. You need to identify what you’re shooting at before you pull the trigger,” he said. “Unless the victim was sitting there in a bird costume and he jumped out of the bushes,” Cheney was at least guilty of negligent hunting practices.

“It’s an unfortunate accident and accidents do happen. I think it happens more than it gets reported,” Cady said.

Tom Roth, a former Auburn police lieutenant and an outdoors writer, agrees that the fault in an accidental shooting ultimately lies with the person holding the gun.

“As a hunter, one of the first things we are taught to do is be sure of the direction of the muzzle of our gun and to know what is behind our intended target,” Roth said.

But as a veteran of quail hunts, he also knows the birds are among the most difficult to hunt. They fly from hiding in an explosion of wings and the birds scatter in all directions.

According to Roth, it is likely that Whittington was coming up behind the hunting party and trying to be courteous of their position.

“Perhaps he should have announced himself,” Roth said, “but probably did not for fear of spooking the birds.”

So far, there has been no indication that the shooting was being investigated for evidence of wrongdoing. No charges were filed and none were expected.

Labrecque believes such inaction gives the wrong message to hunters who are told over and over again that they are responsible for their guns.

“I think he should be prosecuted,” Labrecque said. “There’s a lot more to it that’s not being said. If this was an average Joe, he would be prosecuted.”