The culture that is Italy?

by  Tyler Cowen in

It is not just birds, rabbits and wild boar who meet a sticky end in the Italian hunting season.

According to statistics published today, 35 people have also been killed in the past four months, and another 74 injured. Italy's anti-hunting league, the LAC, said all but one were hunters killed accidentally by their shooting companions.

But the 35th victim was a mushroom collector shot dead near Arezzo in Tuscany. Of the injured, 13 were also non-hunters, mostly people out for a walk in the woods or cycling down a country lane.

The annual bloodletting is a result of the unusual freedom allowed to shooting parties under Italian law. They can go on to private property and fire anywhere not within 50m of a road or 150m of a house.

Here is more.

Comments

Rahul

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I hope tort's are strong in Italy....

anonymous

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Accidental killings of fellow hunters are almost never prosecuted, and thus can provide an almost perfect cover for not-so-accidental killings. It's likelier that motive and opportunity will intersect when opportunity is universal.

Emma tieffenbach

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"They can go on to private property and fire anywhere.."

The same is true about most lands near Marseilles (south of France). Yet the following questions suggest themselves:

Have the owners agree to let the hunters trespass their property and fire ? In case they have not, is a land everyone (or only official hunters) can step in and fire still a private property ? What kind of exclusive uses, if any, remains to its owners that would make it so ? An agricultural use ? A leisure use ? Tell me.

Someone from the oth

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Andrew, I guess they are a little, how should we say, myopic?

Robin

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Italty vs. US Deaths.

I went to http://www.ihea.com/news-and-events/incident-repo... and looked up the most recent data for the US. I counted 65 deaths in the US in 2007 out of a population of 300 million for an entire year. Italy has had 35 deaths in a population of 60 million in only a 4 month span. It appears to me that Italy has a much higher incidence of shooting deaths.

Miguel Madeira

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"Your description of the right to go onto any private property to hunt strikes me as odd. Can hunters really go onto property where they do not have permission?"

In Portugal, they can (ou could until very recently - today, i most land you nedd permission, but NOT from the owner of the land; instead you need permission from the local hunters association).

j

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in Italy they can hunt in a privete property, unless there is a wire fencing 1,20 meters high. That means that if you can afford to pay an average of 3000$ to install it, you are quite safe, otherwise hunters are allowed to kill you and your cats. You are even not allowed to write that hunting is prohibited on your land, only the State can do it. But you still pay property taxes for that land that you thought was yours. Sad.

Justin

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In a country that has a large black market economy, I have to say I'm with the guy that stated opportunity and motive all that jazz. Seems almost too easy.

Cyrus

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I can't see the broad scope of land on which hunting is permitted as a causal factor. Surely what matters is the number of shots fired and the density of accidental passers-by. Restricting the land on which hunters may hunt may or may not decrease the first factor, and it does increase the latter.

j

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@cyrus: what also matters is how many not hunters or pets they kill (I don't care if hunters kill each other, they are aware of the risk). Restricting the land should reduce innocent killings and the number of hunters.

Tom

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Just ask them to go shoot a German or two, and see what happens.

Doug

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Doh! Dislexia. their shooting companions, not shooting their companions...

TomHynes

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Two Italians were out deer hunting and one accidentally shot the other. He carried his friend miles to the car, then raced to the hospital. The doctor said "I admire what you went through to try to save your friend. However, he probably would have lived if you hadn't gutted him first."

EU

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In my (European) country all wild animals are country's/government property. So, only licensed hunters are allowed to hunt animals (numbers are decided by government) and they are allowed to hunt on every private property.

But I must say this model works very good for us as we have very healthy and thriving wildlife populations comparing to neighbour countries.

Candadai Tirumalai

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I read of a man who a hundred years ago lost an eye because of the carelessness of a fellow-hunter in Scotland. He was a celebrated cricket batsman; his skill was seriously impaired ever after.

I lived in Pennsylvania hunting country for many years, where the town virtually shut down for the season. There were accidents and injuries but so far as I know no deaths.

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