None of us knows what Namibian law is regarding shooter negligence, so I think we can set that subject aside. This is all about personal opinion, not an attempt to accurately summarize Namibian law.

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Was Dick Cheney negligent when he shot his friend in the face while bird hunting? I think so.

If we are hunting and my bullet hits you, it's my fault. My negligence. End of story.

One of the reasons I say this is that we are always supposed to have our gun pointed in a safe direction, no matter what. And when hunting in a group, muzzle awareness and awareness of where members of the group are becomes even more important.

Probably everyone here has had accidental discharges. I have had two. The first was with my first deer rifle, a Rem 600 in 6mm Rem. Like Rem 700s, it started to fire as the bolt was closed. The first time this happened I was 10 years old and loading the gun to go deer hunting. I had the gun pointed into a wood pile when it went off. The second time it happened, I was shooting at pigeons with a Beretta .410 shotgun. It was a break top shotgun. I opened the gun, reloaded, and closed the gun. When I closed it, the gun went off. It was a sear problem. The shell discharged harmlessly into the cow pasture in front of me.

As for shooting a cat off a person, I have not done anything like that or even close to that. I hope I never shoot anyone accidentally, but if I do I will consider it my own fault. The law might not find me criminally culpable, and it may not find me civilly liable, but I still screwed up.