Farm Group Seeks Hunter Safety Training For Game Preserves

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) -- The Maryland Farm Bureau is asking the state Department of Natural Resources for greater safety measures at private hunting preserves after a guide was fatally shot on the Eastern Shore.

The Cumberland Times-News reported Wednesday that farm bureau President Charles Fry asked DNR Secretary Mark Belton in a letter last month to require shooters on private preserves to have passed hunter safety courses generally required for other Maryland hunters.

Spokesman Stephen Schatz says the department currently has no plans for new restrictions on game preserves.

Natural Resources Police say Marvin Coppage was accidentally shot during a bird hunt at Schrader's Outdoors near Henderson Oct. 10. Investigators say one of two 14-year-old boys probably fired the fatal shot. Only one of them had taken a hunter safety course, in Virginia.

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