[MR] Re: Follow up report on the combat arrow that hit IstvanToth

[gormofberra at direcway.com]

The report from the responsible Marshall indicates that the archer was shooting at a combatant on the bridge, who dodged the shot, and that the unarmored combatant was not visible from the archer's perspective when the shot was fired.

Furthermore, the injured fighter was breaking the Rules by removing a mandatory piece of armor while still on the field.  He was not off to the sidelines, nor off the back of the field (according to reports, he was at least 60' away from the nearest sideline).  He was still in a combat zone, but chose to remove his helm.  He paid the price for his violation of the rules put in place to increase his safety.

You cannot blame the archer for assuming that everyone on the field would be armored correctly...it's required by the rules.

Combat Archery was not responsible for his injury.  The archer who made the shot had no way to know that someone would be standing there unarmored.  The Marshalls involved should have called hold and removed the fighter when he popped his helm off (but I'll bet they didn't see him, as they were probably focusing on the actual combat on the bridge).  We should take some lessons from this and increase our focus on making sure the dead actually clear the field before removing armor.

In Service,

Gorm of Berra



----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Mowbray <syrrichard at yahoo.com>
Date: Monday, July 28, 2003 10:40 pm
Subject: Re: [MR] Re: Follow up report on the combat arrow that hit IstvanToth

> I have a question, where is the archer who shot a man who had his
> helmet off and was standing 50' from the combat on the other side 
> of a
> 100' bridge? Let's hear it for the total lack of judgement on this
> person's part!
> 
> With my weapon in hand, within striking range of my oponent, I have
> never been tempted to let-go a shot at someone who DIDN'T HAVE A 
> HELMETON! I think we should publish this "combatant"'s name and 
> ask them a
> few pointed questions.