After a football injury at the age of sixteen, Jamie Cap became paralyzed from the neck down. Now, thirty years later, he controls a shotgun attached to his wheelchair with a breathing tube. Getting legal permission was a substantial struggle, but now he's been cleared by a court to start shooting:
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Cap, 46, recently won a 2 1/2-year legal battle to allow him to use, with the help of a partner, a 12-gauge shotgun fitted with a battery-powered machine that is operated by a breathing tube.
He described firing that first shot last week with a combination of wistfulness and enthusiasm another person might use to describe rekindling a decades-old romance.
"I don't know if there are words," he said. "I'm so happy. When you find you can do something again after 30 years, you can't put a price on that. Some people think it's nothing, but try being paralyzed for 30 years and then come talk to me."[...]
Cap might not have embarked on his bureaucratic odyssey had he not found Indiana-based Be Adaptive Equipment during a random Internet search. The company, which has made wheelchair mounts for shotguns since 2002, sells about 20 per year, according to owners Brian and Renee Kyler. Cap's model cost about $1,600; a new 12-gauge shotgun starts at about $250.
For a quadriplegic, firing a shotgun requires help from a companion. In Cap's case, a friend sets up the contraption, safety on, on Cap's wheelchair and Cap aims the shotgun by moving the toggle switch with his mouth. Once his partner releases the safety, Cap fires by sipping on the breathing tube.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iwNIXAzcY0_6A_w2WsbGZZav-2rAD9CFNQ1O0 via Geekologie | Photo: AP
This person is shooting at targets but here comes JM hallucinating little animals and exercising his typing balls to beat up the reputation of someone in a wheelchair who so far is only hitting targets.
Guess who is harming the defenseless now? It is YOU JM.
How does it feel to become what you despise?
It would be pretty difficult for him to get outdoors in a real hunting environment. Although I abhor hunting, I still think it's good he got a little taste of freedom. They can't all be painters.
I read the article, and the article refers to him as a hunter more than once. The only reference to a target is in the first paragraph when the reporter is describing what I would assume was a demonstration for the interview.
And okay so this guy "can shoot". ...Have you read how much help he still needs for each shot...? He doesn't hold a gun, he doesnt operate the gun himself- the only thing he does is aiming and in some way pulling the trigger. The holding of the gun, the loading, the releasing of the safety and then all the maintenance and so on is all done by an assistant. And aside from that- try to go out in the field silently and stealthy on a hunting trip with that whole contraption and assistance... So this regained ability hardly will make a fierce hunter or a mean killer of him. In that light- I say let him have his fun.
I'd to think that equipment/commotion will likely scare off any critters, and even if they do come around, wonder what his chances are of success?