The birdshot and the damage done

If you're unclear on the kind of damage that a 28-gauge shotgun can do, the paper that first reported on Dick Cheney's shooting of Harry Whittington has some visual help for you. A photographer for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times has simulated the accident by firing his own 28-gauge shotgun, loaded with birdshot, at a paper target 30 yards away -- the same distance that is said to have separated Cheney from Whittington when the vice president pulled the trigger. The result is up for viewing here.