Gunnuttery category archive

At Psychology Today Blogs, Marc Bekoff tries to understand trophy hunting and trophy hunters and concludes it’s all about the kill.

Juanita Jean translates.

Be polite at the picture show.

Law enforcement authorities in Salina are investigating an accidental shooting Friday night at the Starplex Theater in the Mall on South 9th Street.

“A man’s gun went off and I believe the theater was evacuated,” said Police Sergeant Gary Hanus.

Because guns in theatres are always a good idea . . . .

The hunt for politeness goes on. Indeed, the woods teem with responsible gun owners.

A teen is dead after she was shot in an apparent hunting accident Thursday afternoon in Anderson County, officials said. . . .

Robert McCollough with the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said the teen’s foster father accidentally shot her in the chest with a high power rifle, McCullough said.

The hunt for politeness forges on.

Davis had been wearing a .44 magnum revolver in a shoulder holster prior to the shooting. He was with a group of family and friends that had finished hunting for the day and were in the process of clearing their weapons, the sheriff said. “The victim was on the back steps to the residence taking his shoes off when the others heard a shot,” Alexander said. “They went out to find his revolver on the ground and him, shot in the chest.”

Why a pistol on a hunting outing? They’re only good for one kind of game.*

__________________

*Long pig, in case you wondered.

There can be no such thing as too much politeness.

Officers responded to the 900 block of McCulloch Boulevard South at 10:57 a.m. Tuesday in reference to an accidental shooting. Police say Rod Iverson, a 70-year-old part-time Havasu resident, was cleaning multiple guns in his garage when a .9-mm handgun discharged into his abdomen.

Pythia Peay tries to understand the gun complex (no, not the interlocking network of manufacturers, marketeers NRA, retailers, and ammosexuals gun owners; the mental condition). I’m not sure how much of her reasoning holds together, but I do think it’s worth a look. Here’s a bit:

Psychologists today understand that when individuals act against their own better interests, unconscious processes in the form of a complex are most likely at work. These same unconscious processes can also operate in a nation’s psyche: that force field made up of symbols and historical memories accumulated by a people over time.

Certainly by that definition, America could be said to have a “gun complex.” As each senseless shooting blurs into the next (Umpqua Community College was the 294th mass shooting event in 2015 (link is external)) and still the country cannot come together to find a way to prevent guns from falling into the hands of the mentally ill, enact stronger background checks and sensible legislation that will keep assault weapons off our streets—protective measures that a majority of Americans would like to see (link is external)—then the American body politic is in the grip of a stubborn cultural complex.

Jurors ordered a Wisconsin gun store to pay nearly $6 million on Tuesday in a lawsuit filed by two Milwaukee police officers who were shot and seriously wounded by a gun purchased at the store.

The ruling came in a negligence lawsuit filed by the officers against Badger Guns, a shop in suburban Milwaukee that authorities have linked to hundreds of firearms found at crime scenes. The lawsuit said the shop ignored several warning signs that the gun used to shoot the officers was being sold to a so-called straw buyer who was illegally purchasing the weapon for someone else.

Criswell predicts that the merchant will appeal, fully equipped with lawyers provided by the Gun Manufacturers’ Marketing Association NRA.

Demonstrate politeness to the children:

Police say a central Vermont man has been charged after he accidentally shot himself while babysitting a pair of children.

Vermont State Police are investigating after the 26-year-old babysitter discharged the weapon Saturday night near the children — ages 1 and 2 — in Bridgewater, located 17 miles east of Rutland.

Be polite to animals.

Police have charged an 18-year-old man with shooting at a horse that was pulling a buggy carrying an Amish family in Somerset County.

State police said Caleb Gotjen of Garrett, Somerset County, fired at the horse as it was hauling a buggy carrying Marie and Marvin Yoder and their 1-year-old daughter on Oct. 4 in Summit.

And, in more news of the polite . . . .

Yet another expedition in the hunt for politeness:

Deputies say the (10-year old–ed.) boy was sitting on the floorboard of a four-wheeler when a hunting companion pulled alongside the vehicle.

They say the man got off his four-wheeler and was removing his rifle when it went off, hitting the boy.A medical flight crew pronounced the boy dead at the scene.

Demonstrate politeness at the community sporting event.

Gunshots were fired in the West Charlotte High parking lot Friday just after a homecoming football game against Vance High School, but Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say no one was shot, WBTV, the Observer’s news partner, reported.

In related news, I was talking to a friend about all those shootings that occur while gun nuts are “cleaning” their ammosexual devices. He suggests that they are not cleaning their ammosex toys at all. Rather, they are fondling them to climax practicing quick draws and are too embarrassed to say so.

Via Job’s Anger.

Play politely during your overnight stay.

“Two adults [were] handling a firearm accidentally [one] shot the other in the arm,” said police Sgt. David Lefont.The person first claimed to have been shot at a Texaco gas station. Police later said the accidental shooting happened in a room at the La Quinta at 1910 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard.

Via Job’s Anger.

Take politeness with you on a family outing.

The sheriff said the men had three loaded weapons on a picnic table Friday afternoon and were discussing one when the younger boy picked up one of the guns and it fired. The older boy was struck in the head and died at the scene. No one else was hurt.

Shawn Huber tries to understand the lure of firearms. Here’s a nugget.

What we get out of guns doesn’t get enough airtime, but it comes to my mind every time there’s another mass shooting like the one in Oregon, followed by another fruitless national fight. Years after I left what President Barack Obama once famously called the “guns and religion” belt of Pennsylvania, an astute Los Angeles psychologist put it to me this way: Yes, the right to carry a gun is a civil liberty, constitutionally protected. But whatever their other uses, firearms also are a lot like liquor and pornography and tobacco.

“Guns,” he said bluntly, “are a vice.”

Unlike speech, or assembly, or voting or other liberties in the Constitution, guns are for killing. That gives people, even nice people, a sense of power, a rush.

The hunt for politeness marches on.

Luke Burns, 16, an Exeter Union High School student, was hunting with family and friends just before 8 a.m. near Horse Meadow when he wandered in front of hunters. He was hidden behind some brush when another hunter fired and struck the boy in the torso.

And, in more news of the polite . . . .

. . . and a polite society is a clean society.

Deputies say 21-year-old Riley Cottrell was cleaning his gun when it accidentally discharged, hitting him in the leg. He was treated by medics on the scene but then taken by CareFlight to Miami Valley Hospital.

Maybe it’s just me, but I used to make sure my rifle was unloaded before ramming the cleaning wad down the barrel.