Is there any real evidence that this pellet traveled through the porting in the barrel and was directed into the person's face rather than being (what I believe more likely) a ricochet? Pellets can ricochet off the house, off of targets, and off of multiple other things. Unless that shot was filmed with a high speed camera and you can identify the pellets leaving the porting I think the only evidence that you have is evidence that somebody was hit in the face with a pellet.
Ported barrels have been around a long time and there are lots of people at my club and other clubs I have shot at that use them - if they were such a menace to public safety they would not be sold.
I doubt that anyone has done a scientifically controlled study. However, there's plenty of anecdotal evidence of nearby competitors being hit with wayward lead. I've seen it with my own eyes twice. Both times the shot came from a gun with ported barrels. It's still possible that the pellet involved bounced back from the bunker, but this is highly unlikely. The bunker involved is buried in the ground. The top surface is plywood. Flyer pellets don't burrow through the ground, bounce off the back wall of the bunker, and rise back up through the ground with enough energy to wound. Nor do they bounce off a downrange sheet of plywood level with the ground and come back in the opposite direction.
I don't doubt that many of you have not seen something similar. It doesn't happen every day. But it does happen all too often. I suspect that steel is much too hard to be peeled off by barrel/choke ports so, if you only hunt/shoot with steel, you likely won't get sued by the guy beside you.
The so-called benefits of porting aren't clear. Recoil reduction is one of those benefits, but it's so marginal that adding a couple of ounces to the weight of the gun would work better. Muzzle flip reduction is another touted benefit. Again, there is no agreement in any community of shooters that this actually works.
I believe that the debate over the pros and cons of ports is fractured for a good reason - that being because not all ports are created equally. Ports can come through the barrel(s) to the left, the right, up or down, and in any degree thereof. Regardless of the orientation of the ports, they can also be at exact right angles to the bore, or skewed more toward the front or more toward the rear.
It's doubtful that all versions of ports are useless and equally doubtful that all implementations are dangerous. But it's a verifiable fact that at least some of them are unacceptably dangerous and most, if not all, are too loud (especially in the field where most don't wear hearing protection).
If a shooter doesn't give a crap about their hunting partners or their fellow competitors, they will reap what they sow. Those who put gun safety ahead of bravado will avoid ports until it is conclusively demonstrated what, if any, porting methodology is safe.
