Oh shit, my gun just went off
I’m not sure what he was expecting the gun to do. You never point at anything or anyone you don’t intend to destroy. Treat every gun as if it has a hair-trigger.
Reminder that guns don’t just “go off” and anyone that suggests this should be disregarded as the nincompoop they very clearly are.
guns certainly do “just go off”
That’s why you secure them, unload them, store them safely.
Pointing a gun at something should be treated with the same severity as pointing it at something and pulling the trigger. Yes, police included.
This is the inevitable outcome of the combination of the proliferation of guns in the US + the over-the-top fearmongering of certain high-profile personalities (specifically on the right). It was never going to end any other way.
Scare people into thinking everyone is out to get them and tell them they have to arm themselves, and you get tragedies like this: the guy that shot a teenaged girl through his front door when she was looking for help. This kid shot in the face looking for a place to take pictures.
People like Tucker Carlson and all similar scaremongers (too many to name) are partly to blame for this. I’m old enough to remember the red scare, where average people thought communists were hiding in every suburban neighbourhood, and also the satanic panic – this is all that but on steroids.
Everyone isn’t out to get you. They never were. But people are becoming millionaires by riling people into killing each other *for no reason *, and unlike back then, now everyone is armed and convinced to shoot first like every place is the fucking OK Corral.
e: and to add a layer of irony, yes, Wild West high-noon shootouts are the same kind of myth-sayings as boiling frogs – pretty much all old west towns required you to surrender your guns to the sheriff on entry. Things were actually safer back then.
As someone who grew up near those wild west towns and have a lot of roots out here, yeah it’s a myth, most people I knew growing up didn’t even hunt, and most hunters I knew owned two guns tops and it WASN’T their personality, inviting you over to eat venison was their personality.
It’s not even a Wild West town, it’s conifer. It’s a rich person Mecca. Anyone that has a gun up there is most likely just using it to scare off wolves or bears, but not actually hunting (source, my in-laws live there).
Or come help me butcher this boar and I’ll let you take home a couple pounds of sausage.
I spent a lot of my childhood in Arizona, and we did field trips in school to ‘ghost towns’ (e: the old west towns), Montezuma’s Castle (back when you could actually walk through it before vandals ruined it for everyone), and Pueblo ruins with indigenous living history reenactors.
I never even saw a modern gun in person until I was 16. It just wasn’t a thing. And yet we managed to survive.
Yeah, grandmother grew up in a family that had been poor farmers outwest, and midwest for a long time. They had like 10 guns, but that is because there was one rifle per person over the age of 12, plus a couple shotguns. Not for like having a shoot-out, but for killing problematic predators. Only my great grandfather had a hand gun, and he only had that because it was a gift from someone he did a bunch of work for. He rarely took it out of the box.
Confiscate the fucking town councilman’s guns, prosecute the dumbass for attempted murder and hopefully the teen will sue the living shit out of him.
The teen is recovering.
In case you were wondering
Guy released from jail for $5000, after shooting teen in face for trespassing. Let that sink in.
The worst part is, having lived in Colorado, none of this story was surprising in the least.
Thank you
Brent Metz is accused of shooting a 17-year-old in the face after the teenager trespassed on a property to find a homeowner and inquire about taking homecoming photos there. (Jackson County Sheriffs Office)
Trespassing? So walking to someones door looking for the owner of the house is now Trespassing? Wtf
Not a lawyer. By the letter of the law, yes.
They had to jump the fence - presumably the gate was secured - in order to get to the house. Further, they walked around the property looking for the owner. This looks to anyone without more knowledge, very much like trespassing.
Just my 2 cents, I’m not trying to defend or accuse anyone.
It doesn’t look like trespassing, it was trespassing, and particularly suspicious at that. If he’d shot him after they hopped the fence it’d be one thing, but that’s not what happened. He shot the kid after they’d gotten back in the car and left the property.
Not trying to but you literally did
Now hold on mate, just listing facts is not the same as an endorsement of a conclusion. The same can be said about NOT listing facts. All the information available should be presented to allow for informed opinions.
No
2 cents has different value around the world. To me yours currently is worth a lot.
“oh shit my gun just went off”
fucking hilarious how effortless it is for them to alternate between “guns don’t kill people” and “oh shit it wasn’t me–the gun did it!!!”
but seriously-- if you live anywhere near bumfuck tumptown hickville, for fucks sake tell your kids not to go up on anyone’s property. i live in one of these areas, and the government couldn’t hire anyone to go door to door doing census count for that one reason. they. will. fucking. kill you
When i was young, the US were famous for how friendly the people were and that you could just knock on any door and they’d help you. The “conservatives” have really done a number on you guys.
I mean, that was only ever true if you were a very specific hue on the color spectrum.
But also
likemarry women, and go to church with the other smiling people.
Ya, I’m not sure that has ever been true as a blanket statement.
Maybe Canada, but the US is ruining them too
It seems like that’s more of a way for him to avoid responsibility for it than anything else.
South Park called it in its first fucking season.
Nothing they say is in good faith, ever. It’s all about exploiting the situation.
We need to admit that some of the people fanatical about guns… really want to kill someone with one.
So I’m reading idiot who can’t read a situation and who is super scared, also has shit trigger discipline and as a result a kid was injured and possibly damaged for life… we really need to at the very least make training a requirement, even just a written exam would help…
You can’t train out the stupid.
I’ve taken regular gun safety classes. They’re less stringent than a driver’s ed class. It’s like taking the driver safety class after you’ve gotten a ticket. Yeah, yeah…let’s just get through this shit so I can get back to whatever.
we really need to at the very least make training a requirement, even just a written exam would help…
Cue gun nuts, “…shall not be infringed!”
Cue anyone sane: “Well-regulated.”
I live in a state with an online training requirement and it’s a joke. The employees at sporting goods stores actually encouraged me to quickly click through to the end and print the results.
As someone who supports firearm ownership, I also believe it should require a background check, a thorough psychological evaluation, and equally thorough, in-person safety training and testing, all repeated periodically in order to maintain ownership.
All he had to go off was a vehicle with 2 teenagers inside and the call from his girlfriend that there were trespassers on the property. Depending on what exactly was said on the call and what happened between him blocking the vehicle in and the shot, he might just have shit trigger discipline and his girlfriend is the one who is super scared of anyone she sees on their security cameras. He is still an idiot for trying to block their vehicle in any case though.
Well, there ya go. All the proof you need that there’s clearly no gun problem in America.
/s
EDIT: I’d love for the cowards downvoting this to step up and be heard. Come on, speak your mind.
I was going to say that “stand your ground” laws shouldn’t exist when so many people are terrified of shadows.
But that’s it isn’t it? If they’re terrified of shadows then a gun and a power fantasy is the answer.
This isn’t even stand your ground or castle doctrine or anything. The homeowner wasn’t even home and they were outside the front gate when shot. That’s the craziest part to me, absolutely no one was in danger until the dude showed up.
By the same government encouraging their armament. “Give them guns” and also “they’re coming for YOU so be afraid!”
That’s the conclusion of ‘bowling for columbine’.
And yet the GOP (mostly) either don’t give a fuck, have no moral courage, or are bought and paid for by the firearm industry. And then they use fear to keep their base glued to their propaganda machine and voting them into power on a loop.
Meanwhile the DNC keep trying to compromise as if both sides were still using the same playbook (which they ain’t) and have thus drifted so far to the right that they’re basically Republican lite. So much so that when progressives try to yank them back to their roots, the Republicrats resist and call the progressives “too extreme”.
Gawd I hate this quagmire.
And yet the GOP (mostly) either don’t give a fuck, have no moral courage, or are bought and paid for by the firearm industry.
D: all of the above
What progressives?
Jumping right out of the truck immediately laying down covering fire regardless of the situation?
Yep. That’s a republican.
Yea… let me tell you about how shocked I was to read that the shooter was driving a truck.
I mean. I used to have to drive a truck for work…
“Joe’s Pool Maintenance & Murder Services, since 1985”
Oh s—, my gun just went off
Weird, I’d been told they don’t do that.
I guarantee there was a lack of trigger discipline at play
It’s way more than just trigger discipline. There’s the traditional rules of course:
- Never point your gun at something you do not intend to kill
- Be sure of your target and what’s beyond
- Trigger discipline
But there’s also reasonable shit beyond the 5 basic rules:
- Don’t willingly put yourself in a situation where use of a gun may be warranted.
- Property isn’t worth killing over, especially in situations where you had to go out of your way to put yourself in perceived danger to protect it.
- Don’t block in the person you are trying to convince to leave.
- People with guns commit more acts of violence than those who don’t. Owning a gun is an irresponsible choice. There are more and there are less responsible gun owners, but owning a gun puts you and those around at a greater risk of violence. When all you have is a hammer …
lists 3 rules
“beyond the 5 basic rules”
Uh
There are 5 basic rules for guns:
- Treat every gun as if it were loaded.
- Always point your gun in a safe direction.
- Never point your gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot.
- Be sure of your target and what’s beyond.
What I posted was a subset of the five then alluded to the full list.
Thanks :)
“Guns don’t kill people.” But only because this boy survived.
Generally they don’t. There are a few certain models, like the Sig P320, that have some kind of deficiency where it can go off if bumped in just the right way. It’s very, very rare, but it still happens much more often than others (due to it being a design defect and not a manufacturing defect, I believe).
Clearly no gun problem in America
No
It wasn’t even his house; it was his girlfriend’s. She thought they were trespassers, she called him for help (she also called the sheriff) and he showed up pointing a gun.
They also were in their car outside the gate to the property. TECHNICALLY that gate may be inside the property line, but that’s still totally egregious.
Is it not legal to be on someone’s property, you know, like a postman or… If you want to ask someone a question?
Trespassing is special I think.
Like, we have trespassing laws here in Europe as well, but I have never heard of anyone taking these as serious as some Americans seem to do. Worst thing to happen if someone is found to trespass would be a monetary fine.
You also have “freedom to roam” laws. Or at least in the UK.
Even in the US, no reasonable person would think someone going up to the door would be trespassing. But these kids did more than that, they hopped the fence and walked around the house. That could definitely be trespassing.
That said, it’s absolutely no excuse to shoot them. At most you say “hey get off my lawn”.
Exactly. Tell them to leave and in the worst case some landowner might threaten to punch them.
Land of the free*.
*Some exceptions might apply.
