News stories about these things always seem to frame it too much like an honest mistake. Like these are just tragic accidents that are gonna happen sometimes when people are engaged in a dangerous activity like hunting. That's the tone.

Mistake a person for a deer? Sure. That can happen. Mistake a person for a deer's vital organs? Absolutely not. These people are taking pot shots. They are probably wounding and wasting more deer than they tag. They're reckless, cruel, and wasteful slobs and these sorts of things aren't accidents, they're what happens when people are criminally reckless.

"Accidentally shot a person I mistook for a deer" is worse than simple manslaughter in my opinion. You pick up a gun and you lose the right to claim negligence rather than intent as a mitigating factor in the outcome of your actions.

They need to start throwing the book at people for this stuff.