Pennsylvania Proud

For the first time since the Pennsylvania Game Commission began tracking such numbers in 1915, a year passed without a hunting-related death in the state.

According to figures released in May by the Commission for the 2012 calendar year, there were 33 nonfatal incidents related to gun handling in hunting and trapping situations, but even that number ties 2007 for the fewest recorded in the state.

"I believe it is something to be celebrated," Phil Luckenbaugh, hunter education specialist with the Game Commission's hunter-trapper division, told the Lancaster (Pa.) News. "We've come to this benchmark. Will it continue? Who knows? But it is a significant steppingstone into the...