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July 28, 2016
National Hunter Incident Report Clearinghouse Data
International Hunter Education Association-USA is a non-profit organization that supports hunter education programs across America. Its members include the 50 state hunter education administrators, volunteer instructors, industry partners and closely affiliated organizations such as the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports and NSSF.
One of IHEA-USA’s core functions and services provided is the hosting and maintenance of the National Hunter Incident Report Clearinghouse (HIC). The HIC maintains hunting incident records from across North America dating back to the 1960s and contains information key to identifying and reducing or eliminating hunting-related incidents.
IHEA-USA, with the help of a grant from NSSF, recently completed a full audit and upgrade of the HIC. “NSSF’s funding provided IHEA-USA with the means to swiftly perform some much needed maintenance and clean up,” said John McKay, IHEA-USA Interim Executive Director. “The HIC is a key piece of the overall hunter education puzzle. Accurate information, in a user-friendly, searchable database, is vital to helping the hunter-ed community determine what caused an incident, identify and/or monitor trends and develop curriculum to address and educate if necessary.”
While HIC access is generally restricted to state administrators and not available for use by the public, IHEA-USA has extended limited user privileges to NSSF and similar organizations in the shooting sports. “It is our hope and goal that HIC information be put to good use by NSSF and others,” McKay said. “We all have a vested interest in the continuation of our hunting heritage and the safe use and enjoyment of firearms. IHEA-USA is proud and happy to do our small part helping provide answers on how we best do that.”
“NSSF appreciates the work IHEA-USA has put into developing and maintaining the HIC. They have made it extremely easy for states to input data,” said NSSF Director of Industry Research Jim Curcuruto. “We are consistently asked ‘How safe is hunting?’ by many different media outlets, and an up-to-date HIC is imperative to help us answer such questions accurately.”
Please be sure to enter all your hunting related incidents in the HIC. Contact IHEA-USA for your log-in credentials or if you have any questions.
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