‘Irrevocable Decisions’ deals powerfully with hunter safety

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The lights were dimmed, a button pushed, and a hush fell over the crowded TV studio at Bangor’s New England School of Communications.

The occasion: The preview screening of “Irrevocable Decisions,” a cooperative effort of NESCOM and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife.

Twenty-three minutes later, both NESCOM and DIF&W officials agreed that they were proud of the effort put forth by students and game wardens.

They should be.

In 23 short minutes, the video does some things the state-mandated hunter safety courses simply haven’t, no matter how hard volunteer instructors try.

It makes you stop.

It makes you feel sick … and sad … and angry.

Most importantly, it makes you think.

And in the near future, it’ll be another tool that the state’s hunter safety instructors can use to get their points across.

“It’s difficult to watch,” Warden Maj. Gregg Sanborn said. “Sometimes, when you get done watching a film, you’ll hear applause. There wasn’t a lot of sound in this room when it was done because it’s a heavy, moving piece.”

“Irrevocable Decisions” is a documentary of sorts, with wardens serving to re-create a 2004 hunting incident that left 21-year-old Jimmy Griffin of Levant dead.

But the most powerful moments of the film have nothing to do with the re-creation of actual events. They have to do with the real lives that were affected by one faulty decision to pull the trigger.

Nicole Griffin, Jimmy’s young widow, is interviewed.

So are his cousins, Alfred Griffin and Scott Griffin.

As is the shooter, Adam Nason of Newport.

Nason was convicted of Class A manslaughter and served 30 days in jail. He also received probation and was ordered to perform community service. Participating in the video production was considered community service, Warden Dan Scott said.

Paul Jacques, the deputy commissioner of the DIF&W, said he was very pleased with the result of the project.

“I think this film will become the kingpin of every hunter safety course that’s taught from this day forward, and I’ve been a hunter safety instructor for almost 20 years,” Jacques said.

“I want this at every hunter course that’s taught from this day forward. I want this at conservation camps, I want this at every place we can educate people what happens when you drop your guard when hunting. And I’m talking 10 years old to 90.”

The film is not subtle, nor should it be.

It is gut-wrenchingly powerful, and DIF&W staffers are certain it will have an impact on future hunters.

“The difficult thing is it’s going to be hard to measure the impact, because if this prevents an incident, you’re never going to know about it,” Scott said. “If it prevents 50 incidents, you’re never going to know about it.”

Thom Johnston, the president of NESCOM, said the students who took part in the project walked a fine line … and succeeded.

“I think it portrays the balance that the Warden Service wanted to have between hunting and safety,” Johnston said. “I think it easily could have tipped over into appearing to be anti-hunting. It could easily have tipped over into being kind of an apologetic piece, but it’s not. It think it hits just the right point.”

Sanborn screened a prototype of the video last week at a hunter safety class and learned it had the impact he thought it would.

“No one wiggled throughout this film. There was no shuffling [of] feet. Everybody just watched,” Sanborn said. “At the end, some of the students had to excuse themselves and go out because they were crying.”

The 9-1-1 tape from one of the hunters is also played, and viewers can hear the desperation mount as Jimmy Griffin’s cousins try to revive him.

Scott said the Warden Service envisioned the project as a chance to “make something good come out of these hunting incidents.”

And Scott said a key component of the incident – of most hunting incidents – shouldn’t be missed.

“[Usually people who make tragic mistakes in the woods] are just regular people like us that go out and have a good time hunting,” Scott said. “And at some point, some circumstances come together, and along with maybe a little bit of carelessness or recklessness, and it causes really a major tragic event.”

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.