For the last couple of months I've been collecting links to stories about guns. I don't go out of my way to find them, these are just stories that happened to find their way into my RSS feed.
From yesterday
Burglar shoots, kills St. Paul resident's dog, steals AR-15 rifle, bars of silver: Guns are supposed to protect him from this sort of thing. Why wasn't this rifle locked up in a safe? Idiotic gun owners are arming thieves. Now a cop might die trying to arrest the burglar because some idiot armed him with a military grade weapon.
Ohio Officer Shoots Through Fence, Killing a Man Who Was Firing a Gun: Is everyone who owns a gun an idiot? Shooting bullets into the air is idiotic -- they come down and hit things. Guns are deadly weapons, not toys. And isn't discharging a weapon in city limits illegal in most jurisdictions? And the cop was just as idiotic, shooting someone without a clear view. The moron firing the gun could have had his kids with him.
An 18-year-old is charged in Mall of America shooting: The shooter claims the other guy threatened him, so he shot the guy and the bullet went through him, bounced off a railing and hit an innocent bystander in the leg. This is the thing that gun nuts just don't get: you're gonna miss your target half the time, or there's gonna be a through-and-through, and some innocent schmuck is gonna get hit.
Two days ago
St. Paul man said 'I just beat him to the draw' and shot tenant from adjoining duplex unit, murder charges say: A guy went to a neighbor's door to threaten him with a gun, and then got shot. Do these guys think this is the Wild West? Nobody wins in a shoot-out. When people say they need a gun "for protection" what they really mean is that they want to intimidate and threaten people with it.
A week ago
California Man on Deadly Mission to White House Is Arrested, Officials Say: The guy was caught in Iowa with an AR15 and body armor on his way to shoot Joe Biden. You gotta ask: do guns make people crazy, or do crazy people buy guns?
Eight days ago
Twin Cities woman pleads guilty to 'straw purchase' of nearly 100 guns for black-market buyers: This is why there are so many guns on the street, and why cops are so trigger happy whenever they stop a car. Seriously, there should be a limit on the number of guns people buy. Anyone buying 62 guns in a month is clearly selling them on the black market.
Two weeks ago
Stray Police Bullet Kills Girl as Officers Fire at Suspect in Los Angeles Store: Cops shot a man beating a woman to death and accidentally hit a girl behind a wall. Moral of the story: bullets hit the wrong target ALL THE TIME. This is one of the few gun-death stories that can legitimately called a tragedy. Most other gun deaths are sadly predictable and due to outright stupidity.
Jury finds Potter guilty of manslaughter in Daunte Wright killing: the above story shows why the jury verdict was correct. Potter was being totally reckless: she could have shot her partner or the passenger in the car, or some other innocent bystander, because BULLETS HIT THE WRONG TARGET ALL THE TIME.
A month ago
Canadian rapper sentenced to 6 years in prison for gun-running in Minnesota: the guy had bought 67 guns in Florida and was caught going 100 miles on hour while doing drugs. Again, why was he able to buy 67 guns without the FBI taking notice? Florida, Georgia, Alabama and other southern states are arming criminals in New York, Canada, Mexico and across the world.
A 13-year-old boy made and trafficked ‘ghost guns,’ authorities say, and then killed his sister with one: The kid was selling an illegal gun to some thugs who ripped him off, so he whipped out another one and fired at them, killing his sister instead. So, A) Why can kids buy gun kits over the internet? Purchase of gun parts should be treated the same as any gun purchases, with the requisite background checks and never over the internet or by mail order. And B), BULLETS HIT THE WRONG TARGET ALL THE TIME.
Brooklyn Park police say 13-year-old fatally shot boy, 5, while making a video to post on social media: where the hell are the parents? And let's also blame social media for this one: people do so many stupid things to show off on social media. Chalk this death up to Facebook, or Tik Tok, or Instagram, or whatever useless internet time sink this little kid died for.
Discharge of Felon’s Gun Prompts Panic at Atlanta Airport: Are people who own guns just stupid? Over 450 idiotic gun owners have tried to bring their guns onto planes this year at Atlanta Hartsfield alone. And why wasn't this felon on the no-fly list? As well as every other idiot who has assaulted airline personnel because they didn't want to wear a mask during the most virulent and deadly pandemic in a century?
These stories don't even begin to scratch the surface. There have been hundreds of stories about people being carjacked or mugged at gunpoint, all of which has been made possible by gun nuts gutting the gun laws that the NRA itself lobbied for a century ago.
What they show is that people -- including cops -- show horrible judgment in times of stress, underestimate the firepower and randomness of gunfire, and drastically overestimate their own competence with firearms. They think of guns as toys and something that they have total control over, even though countless people are shot accidentally while handling guns in totally mundane circumstances.
Guns are not safe. They are not "defensive." They are deadly weapons whose sole purpose is to kill, and are more likely to hurt their owners or their owners' families than anyone else. You make one mistake and someone you care about dies.
The vast majority of people are simply not emotionally or technically competent to be trusted with firearms.
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