Happy Gun Appreciation Day!
Let's spend a little time to appreciate guns. Because this is the very first Gun Appreciation Day! I'm not sure why we've never had a Gun Appreciation Day before, but now that we have one let's celebrate with a review of the last month's interesting stories about guns! Yay!
For completeness, because I'm sure Gun Appreciation Day was generated in response to the massacre of 20 six year olds and their teachers and other school personnel in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, we'll go back to the day before that event, to something sort of local to me, and review events over the last month or so.
An old man in Rochester, Minnesota heard someone on his patio, so he grabbed his 9 mm and pumped a couple of rounds through the door. It was his granddaughter sneaking around outside. She was shot in the throat, lived, but was in serious condition for a while. Yesterday, the local officials charged him.
On December 14th, as you know, 26 people at an elementary school, mostly six or seven year olds, were executed by a guy who borrowed his mom's guns. He killed himself.
Ryder Rozier shot himself in the head with a loaded pistol he found in the night stand. This was in Oklahoma, so it's OK, no laws were violated.
Three days later, in Columbia, South Carolina, 62-year-old Jerry Marsh killed himself while dismantling his Glock. This was done at the Shooter's Choice gun store and range. In Guthrie Oklahoma, the very next day, Ryder Rozier, three years old, got a hold of his uncle's handgun, loaded and unlocked in a bedroom nightstand. The little boy shot himself in the head and died. That is legal in Oklahoma, apparently. You can leave the gun around loaded and unlocked, it's OK, so nobody did anything wrong.
On the 19th, two 20-something year olds went to a gun show in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. One of them bought a 9mm handgun, loaded it, and the gun went off. He shot himself through the hand, and shot his friend in the ass, all with one bullet! Apparently, that's OK, no charges were filed. You can do that in Kentucky.
A few days after Christmas, Robert Furey, of North Carolina, told the cops that he shot his teenage neighbor with a high powered rifle. He had heard someone coming in the house so he started shooting. 15 year old Nick Exley was killed on the spot. Furey later changed his story to "it went off by accident when I was showing him the gun." But don't get the wrong impression. It isn't necessarily the case that everyone who is a killer is also a liar! Maybe just this one guy.
On December 31st, Attorney Guy Dotson of Tennessee shot himself while cleaning his handgun. It was a through and trough. Dotson specializes in weapons related law:
Guy R. Dotson Jr. and M. Andy Brunelle have more than two decades of combined experience with a broad range of gun charge cases. From arrest to outcome, you can count on them for thorough research and investigation, and preparation of your case as if it is going to trial. We skillfully negotiate with prosecutors and persuasively present your story to a judge and jury if necessary.
I have not heard if he survived. Anybody know?
Happy New Year! On January 2, two people were killed in Vermont while appreciating guns. Louis Miller was holding his handgun when it went off. He wasn't drunk, but may have been buzzed. Buzzed gunplay is drunk gunplay, people! Anyway, he's dead. Also, Jacob Lehouillier of Vermont was killed by his brother while he was cleaning a shotgun. The very next day, in neighboring Massachusetts, two guys were playing "quick draw" to see which was quicker, a knife and a gun. One of them (the one with the gun) proceeded to shoot the other, who was hospitalized in serious condition. That apparently is not legal in Massachusetts, so charges were filed. The very next day, on January 4th, 8 year old Easton Brueger was killed by his daddy who was cleaning his gun when it went off. Easton did not die quickly.
On January 7th, 10 year old Aaliyah Boyer, of Pennsylvania, died. The was struck in the head by a bullet discharged for celebratory reasons. No one knows who shot the gun randomly into the air. The very next day, Al Dastmalchi, of North Carolina blasted his brother, George, thinking him to be an intruder. In an unrelated event, police had been called to the home earlier that night to deal with a domestic disturbance, at which time George was taken to the hospital to sober up, and later released. This shooting was totally legal in North Carolina so no charges will be filed. Stand your ground! Kill your drunk brother! The very next day, a four year old boy was shot by Brian Bruno, of Kansas, while playing around with a handgun. The boy was not killed. Bruno had pulled the trigger thinking the handgun to be unloaded. He is being charged. The very next day one 12 year old in Alabama killed another 12 year old boy with a 20 gauge he had gotten for Christmas.
On January 14th, Alex Shaw, of St. Petersburg, Florida, thought it would be a good idea to give his friends a gun safety lesson. He had bought the gun to protect himself after his father was shot dead by armed intruders last June, the same month Alex's mother died of cancer. Anyway, Alex was telling his friends about how to keep the active chamber empty for safety. In demonstrating this, he put the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger. The chamber was not empty, Alex killed himself.
On the 15th, Antonion Brown of Illinois killed his girlfriend, Sydni Blackwell while messing around with a gun. She did not die quickly. Brown was a convicted felon and thus should not have had a gun. The very next day, in Virginia, Casper Jones, 58 was shot in the head by his 4 year old nephew, one of the many children he apparently cared for many days. He died. So much for that day care option!
On January 17th, an FBI agent was accidentally shot on the range during a training session. He'll live. The next day, Mark Bornino and Daniel Volpone, of Ohio, were target practicing in their back yard without a backstop. Mary Kuruc, who lives about a third of a mile away, got her microwave shot. They were using an AK-47 with high capacity magazines, some other guns, had hundreds of rounds of ammo, and they were drunk.
So, I hope you enjoy the rest of Gun Appreciation Day!
All of the stories above came from a blog that you should put in your RSS reader in order to appreciate guns every day: OHH SHOOT].
UPDATE: Gun Appreciation Day itself is not just a day to appreciate guns, but also, to play with guns, and when we play with guns what do we do? We shoot each other and ourselves by accident! John McKay has a post on the current situation with Gun Appreciation Day Caused Gunshot Wounds, which he says he'll keep updated over the next few days if more information comes in. Check it out: Happy Gun Appreciation Day!
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http://www2.nbc17.com/news/2013/jan/19/2-injured-accidental-shooting-ra…
Greg, I've made no secret that I support guns, but every time someone says they need them for defense, it's stories like these that make me realize how many nuts there really are. I was arguing with one the other day who mentioned a story where child used an ar15 to shoot intruders breaking into the house. He could not understand why the biggest problem in the story was that a 15 and a 12 year old were left home alone with an assault rifle in easy access..... Guess the ups man got lucky he didn't drop anything off at hat house that day.
Thanks! I will in fact i am going to carry my fully loaded USP 9mm open everywhere I go today! i usually only carry my PX4 storm since it is much easier to conceal. Oh and i appreciate that you can dig up some AWESOME facts about family tragedies that happen because of improper training and safety.. oh and the crazies.. but that's OK, why TEACH people how to be responsible gun owners when we can just ban all of the evil guns. Oh yeah and I hope to go shooting my AR-15's later today.. And FYI I have been handling, selling and repairing guns since I was 7 years old. my father owned a gun shop and didn't shoot myself because i KNEW what i was doing since my father cared enough to TEACH me.
Has it become the case that Postal, UPS, FedEX, etc. delivery people are now more worried about gun nuts than they are about dogs? Just wondering. I don't hear about a lot of delivery people getting shot.
Interestinigly, when I get a package delivered to my door, no matter how fast I try to get to the door the delivery guy is always gone. So, if I was going to randomly shoot through the door at a sound outside I'd never get that guy. I might get the 10 year old girl that visits her grandparents though, because she would be not expecting it.
The bitterness and sarcasm within your blog post not withstanding, it is clear that these folks are of the same ilk, as those who: Teach their children to clear out burnt toast from their electric popup toasters by using a fork; those who blow dry their hair directly over a sink full of water; those who prop their aluminum ladders up against the power lines to trim their trees; or leave power tools plugged in while unsupervised children play about their work space. It is unfortunate that some of these same types of people are also gun owners - very irresponsible gun owners. Most of the folks I know who are responsible gun owners referred to the event more appropriately as a "2nd Amendment Support March". Perhaps you can gather statistics on accidental deaths related to irresponsible household or vehicular activities.
Fucking Americans! Stupid fucks.
I keep having the same conversation with all the red necks!
Seriously, get rid of your stupid fucking guns. Idiots.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/17/gun-fails-second-amendment-rig…
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2013/01/16/23-steps-toward-reducing-g…
You may not like guns, and choose not to own one. That is your right. You may not believe in God, and that is your choice. However, if someone breaks into your home or ever threatens the life your family, the first thing you are going to do is call someone with a gun. The 2nd thing you will do is pray they get there in time....
I am a single mother of 4. Semi Auto 22 Long Rifle Pistol & Glock 19. I agree education and controlled registration is necessary. An improved health care system and treatment of mental illnesses imperative!
Thank you for extending your warm wishes in celebration of the 1st Gun Appreciation Day and the dark trip through Tragedy Lane. I was wondering ....Do you also have a blog of the great many stories and incidents that occur every day where lives are protected and saved by the hand of a registered gun owner executing his/her 2nd amendment right? If not, maybe you should do a little research on that and perhaps even realize how close minded and uneducated you are.....just sayin.
The number of accidental gun deaths per year in the U.S. is in the hundreds, the vast majority of them adults or adolescents, in a nation of 300 million people. (A couple of decades ago, it was over a thousand; the number has dropped greatly because of gun safety education by and for gun owners.) That makes it a statistically rare event, but still, 365 deaths a year would average one a day, so you could go on and on like this forever. Meanwhile, there is good reason to think that more than one life of a law-abiding citizen is saved per day when people use guns to protect themselves from criminals. Maybe you should also provide a link to some newsfeed that lists media-reported cases where law-abiding Americans have defended themselves with guns. You would get credit for intellectual honesty and Thadd would get something to sigh and shake his head over.
Jane, the number of youths who kill themselves with daddy's gun they found lying around a year is much larger than these accidental deaths. The number of deaths and injuries related to guns is way larger than those of accidents.
Yet, the 365 accidental deaths a year is hardly insignificant.
My sister works for UPS and must worry about some freak shooting her. When I was in the field in Viet Nam, I never thought it would be more dangerous years later at home...with Laosan and Viet Namese gangs having easy access to firepower. This is a Day of Disgrace after the killing of children that Gun Owners Celebrate! And Guns sales are through the roof. Our country has lived up to its Ugly Amercan Image...thank Republicans, NRA, and the rest of the freaks. Normal has again eluded the USA.
There's been some great coverage and investigative journalism over4 the last two weeks at the Daily Show and Colbert Repor on this issue: (for Daily Show episodes, see in particular 1/8 (~ first 2/3 of show?), 1/16, and 1/17) http://www.thedailyshow.com/collection/422810/the-daily-show-covers-gun…
The 1/17 episode in particular reveals apparent contradictory stances of the gun lobby (it seems like they don't want the government to enforce the laws that they say they want the government to enforce; it gave me an idea for a political cartoon - which is too awful to draw, let's just say it's a version of 'stop hitting yourself').
Colbert pointed out some absurdities in the idea of 2nd ammendment protecting us from tyranny (or at least in the way in which this is used to argue against some regulations) - forgot the date, but it was within 1/14-1/17.
PS who exactly is blaming the guns? Did Obama call a semiautomatic into the oval office to shake his finger at it?
... the elaboration on the 1/17 episode - I meant the 1/16 episode.
There's no question there is room for improvement in gun safety, training, and handling. But I wonder if there is a blog that list name of the 32,367 individuals who died in motor vehicle related incidents in 2011? And is there a blog which lists the names of the 10,000+ people in 2011 who vehicle deaths had alcohol as a contributing factor? And yet alcohol is still legal, drinking is still legal. All we hear about alcohol is to enforce the laws on the books, never a word about abolishing alcohol or instituting greater controls on its distribution. We have lots of laws on the books related to violence, with guns or otherwise. Perhaps if those were vigorously enforced?
These are tough times for guns. They have a bad reputation. Some people still believe they kill..! They deserve that special day.
Only in America...
How infuriating.... that this article does not link to any of the stories that it mentions.
As a carpenter, I hit my thumb with a hammer about once a year. I have a nice purple thumbnail right now from a whack about 6 weeks ago. It'll be falling off soon... So obviously, hammers are just as dangerous as guns, and we should regulate & license them before we even think about passing restrictions on guns, amirite?
re Dan - "We have lots of laws on the books related to violence, with guns or otherwise. Perhaps if those were vigorously enforced?" - Unfortunately the gun lobby doesn't seem to want even those laws enforced, even when they say they do (see Daily Show Jan 16 2013). There are laws that impede the enforcement of other laws.
This is quite stupid. Lets offer some facts and alternatives.
Fact: Guns kill
Fact: People who defend the 2nd Ammendment right to own guns don't feel quite so inclined when tragedy becomes personal. Otherwise they are more than happy to call a death a day a statistical insignificance.
Fact: People have been using guns for about 300 years
Fact: People have been learning hand to hand self defense for close to 5000 years.
Fact: The probability of killing someone with your bare hands by accident are stupidly small.
Fact: A personal with some basic self-defense training can defend himself against the average gunman (assuming this gunman is not trained)
Fact: If one nut weren't allowed to carry a gun then others nuts wouldn't feel the need for one. This means the fewer guns around the fewer people there are who might want one for personal safety
Fact: Yours hands do not require a license to use. Or cost money.
Dumb ass a hammer is designed to hit nails into wood... a gun is designed to kill. Ban hammers... bro are you drunk?
You Americans are so retarted anonymous ^^ hit the nail on the head
If I was a crook and wanted Rob a house and expected the owner to be carrying a gun I would bring a gun with me.
But if I was a crook in new Zealand were not many people have guns I wouldn't bring a gun what's the point...
Ok ok so let's say you guys need guns for self defence ok why do you need ak47s and Shit like that. What's wrong with a simple hand gun or rifle are you going to war. Are you scared iraq is gonna rob your house... weirdos
So what was the story on Dick Cheney and the lawyer behind him?
" I am a single mother of 4. Semi Auto 22 Long Rifle Pistol & Glock 19. I
One can but wonder what the godparents had to say about this commendably original set of children's names.
I hope that decades hence we can congratulate them all on long and wonderful lives, especially ancient Pistol.
I don't get it...
Sorry got it
What I do not miss since Howard's gun laws came in: the constant litany of dead children.
no gun ever went of sitting on a shelf or in a night stand! some body pulled the trigger, or somebody left it in a place that it can be found...loaded... that's the people we need to get on the list of banns...
and for all the get rid of gun people... I got news for ya..
! all the bad people will still get them the same damn way they do now.... and it aint on a 3 5 or 7 day wait with a triple background check !!! its in the back ally for 100 bucks same day and nobody evin knows anybodys freakin name... repect hell.. brown paper bag is all ya get...
and if u did bann all guns the ones that are out there now wont just disappear!
so teach everybody, pass em all out to everybody and granny with her handbag 9mm is just as much a threat as billy bad ass with a 38 .
everybody got a gun, ccw , maybe. you take the chance.
if u wana see mine just ask... or kick in my front door at night and ill call 911 for ya.
ambulance or police... up to you..
AND IF U DONT LIKE AMERICA.... GO HOME
Don,
The same applies to you, you must realize. If the United States bands assault rifles, and you don't like it....then feel free to leave. You don't get to pretend that gun control is unpatriotic simply because you don't agree with it.
However, I 100%, totally, absolutely agree with you: if we could ban all of the people who would use guns in homicides and mass murders, before it happened, we should. Of course, we cannot; you don't know that someone is going to commit a murder until they have, you know, committed that murder.
Holy crap, did I say "bands" assault rifles? Wow, I need some sleep. (I guess the government could require all ARs to be bound up with rubber bands or similarly constrained by ropes or something, but...yeah, I totally meant to type "bans").