(CNSNews.com) - Sarah and Jim Brady, founders of a leading gun control group, had sharp comments for Vice President Dick Cheney as news of his weekend hunting mishap spread.

Cheney accidentally shot and injured a fellow hunter while quail hunting at a South Texas ranch.

"Now I understand why Dick Cheney keeps asking me to go hunting with him," Jim Brady said in a statement. "I had a friend once who accidentally shot pellets into his dog -- and I thought he was an idiot."

"I've thought Cheney was scary for a long time," Sarah Brady said. "Now I know I was right to be nervous."

Press reports quoted ranch owner Katharine Armstrong as saying that Cheney turned around to shoot at a bird, not knowing that 78-year-old Harry Whittington had walked into range behind Cheney.

"The covey flushed and the vice-president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by God, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good," Armstrong was quoted as saying.

Whittington received pellet wounds to the face, neck and chest and is recovering at a hospital in Corpus Christi. Vice President Cheney visited him on Sunday, before returning to Washington.