David Keyes is publisher of the Bee.

Either hunter orange should be mandatory for hunters in Idaho or there needs to be an IQ test for anyone who applies for a hunting license.

There is no reason enjoying the great outdoors in North Idaho should be a death sentence or a shooting gallery but it has been this year.

Steven Seppala, 43, of Ponderay was shot and killed at close ranger in October while hunting in the St. Joe National Forest. Even though he wasn't wearing hunter orange, the fact the shooting took place at close range means the shooter had a pretty good idea he or she had hit something with two legs and not four.

The killer has not come forward.

There has to be a special place in hell for someone who would shoot another human being and leave a person to die. This shooter, who could be a Bonner County resident, has not come forward.

Post Falls resident Bruce Jensen was shot in his right hip on Sunday. A friend accidentally shot another hunter in the foot. A horse was recently shot and killed along the St. Joe River by a hunter who mistook it for an elk.

Mandatory orange would go a long way in keeping trigger-happy hunters from making a fatal judgment call.

All of the age-old arguments about hunter orange being a control issue by the government are muted by death.

One sure way for hunting to be legalized out of existence is to continue to have these hunting fatalities and accidents. Even an average attorney could put together a class action suit barring hunting that would put the National Rifle Association back on its heels.

The shootout in the Wisconsin woods this week that left six people dead doesn't help the cause.

Most people don't want that. The right to bear arms is guaranteed in the Constitution. Instead, common sense needs to be used by anybody who hunts.

I still remember a few of the rules from hunter safety class when I was 10: Be sure of your target, be sure of what is in front of and behind your target and respect your weapon.

If those simple rules had been followed, a North Idaho family would be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with their Dad today.

Idaho lawmakers should work with the Idaho Fish and Game to make hunter orange mandatory as well as keep those so-called hunters with room temperature IQs out of the woods before another tragedy occurs.

David Keyes is publisher of the Bee.