Gunnuttery category archive

Celebrate, politely.

In case you missed it, a woman watching a fireworks display from the balcony of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club was hit by a wayward bullet Monday night.

That makes at least four times in the past year that a Hillsborough or Pinellas County resident has been hit by a falling bullet in the name of celebration. That would include two bullets in a head or face, one in a wrist and one in a back since Jan. 1, 2012.

(snip)

I suppose you could argue that harsher laws are in order, but I’m not sure how much impact that would have.

“It would probably be a deterrent to some people,” said Bruce Bartlett, chief assistant state attorney for the Pinellas-Pasco district. “But the kind of people shooting guns on New Year’s probably aren’t smart enough to figure that out.”

Recognize diversity, politely.

The victim and his girlfriend were headed toward their car early Wednesday in the Walmart parking lot at 1575 Land O’Lakes Boulevard when a man approached them. He asked the victim if he was Muslim or from the Middle East. The victim said no. But the man shot him twice at close range with a gas-propelled pellet gun while saying “N – – – – – with a white girl.”

The attacker fired more than 20 pellets, deputies said.

Part of white privilege is that what white folks do is considered the norm.

For example, you can find many articles agonizing over “inner city” (that means “Not White”) crime. How many do you see about “white crime”?

White is “normal,” so crimes by white are unnoticed, unexamined, unremarkable, un-remarked on, ipso facto individual acts that are in no way related to whiteness, even as Not White crimes are considered somehow inherent to being Not White.

In an interview with historian Ann Little, Chauncey Devega cuts through the veil crap to explore the history of white America’s preoccupation with guns.

Follow the link, read the entire post, and listen to the podcast:

As I explored in a series of posts, the central question regarding the Gun Right is how these mass shootings do not lead to any serious exploration of the intersection(s) of Whiteness, White Masculinity, and mass gun violence. White men commit an overwhelming amount of the mass shootings in the United States. Yet, except for a few outliers, there is no sustained effort to engage the obvious puzzle: if white men are killing people, often by the dozens–in murders where they are the offenders at twice their rate in the general population–why are so many in the news media afraid and hostile to basic questions about “white crime?”

Mourn your losses, politely.

The police claim he shot his pet snake and have charged him with cruelty to animals, but he says that the snake died a natural death.

“I couldn’t bury him or the other animals would get him,” Ericcson told NBC Charlotte, the Observer’s news partner. “I had to shoot it to get the gas out of him, then I was going to burn him.”

Ericcson said the snake was his pet for about 17 years. “I’ve had that snake since he was so small he could just wrap around your wrist,” he said. “Me and my wife can’t have kids, so the animals are our kids.”

Ericcson claimed he was so distraught over the snake’s death, he shot up the large cabinet that contained his Dale Earnhardt collection.

Words fail me.

Therapists agree that it’s important to be polite to yourself.

A man in northwestern Arizona was sent to the hospital after accidentally shooting himself in the foot, authorities said.

(snip)

When he was kneeling down for a shot, he accidentally discharged a shotgun, hitting himself in the foot, the sheriff’s office said.

Bringing the term, “shooting himself in the foot,” to life

All snark aside, some persons are too stupid to touch firearms.

Via Juanita Jean.

All that politeness is starting to get silly.

Belle Rose is quantifying the courtesy:

There was one in Harrisonburg a few days ago. And as of today, at least 283 across the United States of America since the Newtown massacre on December 14, 2012. That averages nearly 19 per day. We’re talking about gun deaths. Afghanistan is safer.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Brothers in arms.

Authorities say a Wilmington (NC–ed.) man who thought he was shooting an intruder ended up killing his own brother.

Inculcate politeness from an early age.

A one-year-old from Bessemer City (NC–ed.) was in the hospital Friday night, receiving treatment for a gunshot wound in his arm.

Having armed policemen on site would no doubt have prevented this:

According to police, a suspect was being processed on domestic violence charges when a struggle ensued. The suspect then somehow obtained a weapon and opened fire.

One officer was hit twice in the abdomen, below his bullet proof vest. Two other officers, a male and female, suffered graze wounds.

The gunman was shot and killed inside the station.

As Suzy said, “Oh. Wait.”

Via Political Prof.

In the Kansas City Star, John Lantos carries NRA logic rationale bullshit to its ultimate conclusion: For school safety, arm the kids.

Some might object that kindergarteners are too young to use weapons safely and responsibly. The evidence suggests the opposite. Fewer the 1% of murders are committed by 5 year olds.

Schools should be required to teach five year olds to use Glocks and Berettas responsibly. After all, they’re going to need them when they grow up. Responsible handgun use is more useful than learning about myths like evolution or global warming.

But the most powerful argument for arming our five year olds is this: they are armed anyway. Every year, more than 500 children in the United States fatally shoot themselves with guns that they obtain in their own homes every year.

Practicing politeness.

Two men who were likely drunk and most definitely armed decided to have a little target practice early Friday morning on a soup can in a Belltown alley.

Bad idea.

Police arrested both men, who had concealed weapons permits, and sent them to jail. Police also confiscated their guns: a.38-caliber revolver and a 9mm Glock.

In related news, the Booman calls the roll.

Dick Polman points that that, second amendment, schmecond amendment.

It’s all about the Benjamins. A nugget:

Because this is all about money. In terms of annual business, the American gun industry is worth $12 billion. The NRA’s budget annual budget is $250 million; it depends not just on membership dues, but on lavish industry contributions. For instance, the gun-making firm Sturm Ruger just finished a one-year sweetheart deal with the NRA; it gave the NRA a dollar for every gun sold, and the NRA’s take totaled $1.2 million. And the gun retailers get in on the act, too. The CEO of Cabela’s, a hunting and outdoor gear chain, recently gave the NRA $1 million in cash.

In other words, the NRA exists to do the industry’s bidding. The NRA can talk all day (and it certainly does) about the Second Amendment and about its stalwart defense of Freedom, but its real job is to keep the industry fat and happy and profitable – by ensuring that it sells more and more guns. What’s good for the gun industry is good for the NRA, and vice versa.

Strip away the rhetoric, and that’s what you have.

They should get a room already.

I go away for one day, one damn day, to take my aunt some cheese straws for Christmas, and return to a new list of innocents dead of the politeness of an armed society.

These were actually lured into a trap and picked off like pigeons.

The NRA’s city on a hill is Dodge City. The hill, Boot Hill.

Via Bartcop.

Via Bartcop.

A story about the Sandy Hook shootings quotes a local resident on the shooter’s mother (for some reason, that sentence below was in the print edition of my local rag, but omitted from the online version):

“She was from gun culture. Live free or die. That was truly her upbringing,” said Ford, who often met the New Hampshire native and other friends at a regular Tuesday gathering at My Place, a local restaurant.

Indeed.