In mid-November every
year, men and women (but mostly men) get out of the office, or out of
the city, or off of their tractors, put on long underwear and an orange
jacket, grab a big gun and go try to shoot animals. A lot of them.
There
are about four times as many men with rifles in the state of Michigan
alone, for example, as there were Allied troops storming the beaches of
Normandy in the largest amphibious assault in military history. A
lot of guys with a lot of guns.
Fortunately, hunting is
actually very safe, and getting safer. Over 12 million people
hunt per year, including 10.7 million big game hunters, and there are
consistently less than 100 fatal hunting accidents per year.
That’s less than 1% of 1%.
Furthermore, the number of
accidents, both fatal and non-fatal, has been declining over the last
ten to fifteen years in the advent of wider-spread and better-enforced
hunter education programs and laws requiring hunters to wear blaze
orange. A large proportion of two-hunter accidents resulted from
one hunter mistaking another for game. Naturally, the nearly
universal use of bright “hunter’s orange” has helped decrease such
accidents.
Nonetheless, occasional mishaps do occur.
The vast majority of these mishaps, however, are not fatal or even
dangerous. They are just inconvenient, and perhaps expensive.
That’s where insurance
comes in. With the Sportsmans Travel Protection Plan from AIG, a
hunter is protected from such losses as unforeseen license fees,
equipment damages and equipment loss.
Policies also provide
access to weather reports, roadside assistance, and information on
visa, vaccine and passport requirements. More information is
available at travelguard.com.
Policies vary in price
according to the hunter’s age and the expected expense of the
trip. Hunting odysseys to Alaska or safaris to Africa are of
course more expensive than a jaunt across the state to a cousin’s farm
to shoot turkeys.
For either type of trip, it’s just another way to make a popular pastime that’s been getting safer already even more secure.
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