<p>"SOMERVILLE, N.J. - A New Jersey judge says a quadriplegic blocked from buying a gun to go hunting has the right to bear arms even though he will have to use a wheelchair mount to use the firearm.</p>
<p>Manville’s police chief had rejected James Cap’s application last year, citing safety concerns. The borough attorney says the safety issues could only be resolved by a judge.</p>
<p>A judge ruled Tuesday that the 46-year-old is eligible for a firearms ID, which is required to buy a gun. The judge addressed the safety issues by requiring Cap to have qualified people assist him with weapons…"</p>
<p>I don’t have any problem with the ruling as long as they make certain the gun can’t accidentally go off, but how is he going to sneak through the woods in a wheelchair to stalk wild animals? If it’s motorized the animals are going to hear him coming and whether it’s motorized or not there’s a good chance that it’s going to get stuck or flip over on rocks/branches/mud/etc. </p>
<p>It also seems very impractical to build ramps everywhere to allow wheelchair access, and put handles on doors instead of knobs so that people without hands can open the doors. We have made huge strides in accommodating people with disabilities. I would be more concerned about the blind guy buying his gun… or driving his car.</p>
<p>Now that you’ve posted it, you know what’s going to happen, right?! It’s sure to be in the papers within six months; I can see the headlines already!</p>
<p>It sounds like a really interesting mechanical engineering problem to me. You could make a heck of a robotic mouth-operated gun mount and sight it electronically so that the eyepiece can be put in front of the operator’s eye. That way it’s no more dangerous than a real gun.</p>
<p>This isn’t really about gun rights. This is about disabled people being allowed to have the same access to things that non-disabled people have. If they’re able to figure out a safe way to live their lives according to what their definition of “normal” is, then so long as it’s legal for everyone else, it really should be legal for them.</p>
<p>I agree that disabled people should have legal access to objects/places/things/jobs in our society. But we’re talking about hunting. He isn’t going to have equal access because being in a wheelchair will make it incredibly hard to manuever through wild areas and sneak up on animals.</p>
<p>Naturally it sounds like you have never deer hunted. Deer hunting involves hours of sitting quietly waiting to see a deer. I guess he won’t have a problem not moving once his wheelchair is in place. You go to a spot (a stand) and wait. There is initial noise for all when settling in. Then you hope the deer come to you. You can also “drive the deer” a group of hunters walks through the woods hoping to drive the deer towards another group of hunters. I think there is much more opportunity for accidental shootings with able bodied stupid hunters than this person in a wheel chair who will probably have more safety measures in place that most.</p>