Fun With Guns: I Wanna Be Just Like Daddy Edition
A Texan visits Oklahoma City and decides he needs some new duds for the Jason Aldean concert.
Jason Aldean
So, he drops by that haute fashion house, Bass Pro Shops, to buy something to catch the ladies’ eyes. He is with his five year old son in the dressing room when he takes off his gun to try something on.
The five year old picks up the gun, shooting himself in the finger and his dad in the leg.
Oklahoma City police did not charge the father.
Because reckless endangerment is apparently not a crime in Oklahoma.
Bass Pro Shops is denying all responsibility for attracting butt ignorant shoppers. They issued a statement.
“Bass Pro Shops is committed to our customers’ well-being should an emergency arise. This is why each Bass Pro Shops store has a dedicated operations support department and a manger on duty every hour that a store is open. In the event of an emergency, our protocol requires immediately contacting the appropriate first responder. In addition, we strive to maintain good working relationships with local first responders in markets where we operate.”
In other words, “If one of our damfool customers lets his 5 year old shoot you, we we will find the store manager and instruct him to call 911.
Thanks to Brian and Mark for the heads up.
Yeah, but what if you are in the next dressing room and you get shot? Is Bass Pro Shop going to pay your medical bill?
1I hear trying on pants can be dangerous bidness, so I guess that’s why he needed a LOADED gun to keep him safe. That worked out just about right.
2By golly, they did say they have a manger on duty. I have terrible images of hauling the victim to the “manger” area and setting them onto it. Or that the manger on duty is for Christians to pray at…
3If you admit your store needs a first responder action plan, maybe you need to look closer at why your store needs a first responder action plan.
It’s something that should have gone out of style along with Old West swinging saloon doors.
4Carrying a loaded and chambered handgun with your little boy tagging along while you shop. Bet his momma’s gonna have a discussion with daddy about this. Unless, of course, she’s as dumb as he is.
But something else stands out here. The way to reduce the risk of being the accidental victim of a handgun discharged in public is not to be around those places where loaded guns are likely to be found. Sounds like Bass Pro Shops are those kinds of places. If that’s the case, Bass Pro Shops, and you do not forbid customers from carrying loaded handguns around your premises, why would I expose myself to the heightened risk of shopping at your locations.
If I took a bullet inside your store from one of your customers and then sued you for having neglected to take the necessary precautions to improve my safety – would one of your defenses be that I displayed contributory negligence by entering your premises? Instead of displaying a “No Handguns” sign at your entrance, should you instead be posting “Enter at Your Own Risk”?!
Your defense attorneys might make a lot of money on this one, but your liability insurance carriers should be shaking in their boots.
5I don’t understand this attitude of “as long as the guy has a Permit to carry a Concealed Hand Gun”…. it’s nobody’s fault that a five year old got hold of his loaded gun, and two people got shot.
What am I missing here??
6@Miemaw – you aren’t missing anything. It’s that our gun laws are missing common sense.
7Nice shot hitting the leg, but a few inches further inward and higher up would have solved at least one problem and qualified his Daddy for a Darwin award.
8If you substitute “car” for gun and “keys” for bullets in all these stories, somebody would get charged with a crime. If I accidentally discharge a gun while I’m driving and shoot someone in the oncoming lane, I get a pass. But if I accidentally cross the median and hit them head on, I’m ticketed. If we’re going to let people “exercise their 2nd Amendment rights” can’t we at least throw the book at them when they do it irresponsibly? Y’know, like yelling “Fire!” in the picture show isn’t covered by the 1st Amendment.
9Does someone have a source of statistics on dumb*** shootings like this in states where any peabrain can waltz around with a loaded gun? I’d just like to see a comparison, but I don’t know if anyone’s keeping track. Seems like a time-consuming job.
Possibly there are those who waltz around with gun and bullets in separate pockets, but at least they don’t get into the news. And if someone can explain to me rationally (if possible) why these jackwagons need a LOADED gun within reach every minute of the day…. What the sam hill are they so afraid of?
10Rhea. He was a Texan. In Oklahoma. Of course he was afraid. We have it in for Texans. By the way, the local paper here in Oklahoma City (link now gone) said he was trying on a new holster for his gun. My first question was why he was in a dressing room.
11Republicans passed a law FORBIDDING such statistics to be collected, Rhea. That’s a law that needs changing. The only reason to forbid the numbers being collected is because the NRA, etc., know darn well the numbers are against them.
In this case, I consider letting a 5 year old get hold of a loaded gun to be child neglect and endangerment (the child was in fact injured–forget about Daddy; he deserved it.) So yeah, we need better laws there, too.
You want a gun, fine. YOU are responsible for the destination of every bullet out the business end.
The second amendment does not say “Doofuses are not to blame if they shoot the wrong person.”
12Gotta wonder if the kid will remember this all his life and never touch another gun or get anywhere near one. As for daddy, he’s dumber than a rain barrel full of trout.
13Which leg? No more kids?
14My niece who works for Bass Pro (fishing) suggested I look at the website. They do sell guns (Berettas and some kind of black powder pistol like in the olden times) but mostly their long guns outnumber anything that can be holstered. They are really oriented to hunting such as deer and waterfowl. As for allowing a customer into the store while he/she is packing, that is another question entirely.
15Hah! Sounds like the 5 year old kid was “standing his ground.” Let’s hope the Texas Department of Child protection and Welfare stands it’s ground with this Bozo. And gets his carry permit revoked.
16NRA. Bless their hearts….
toadstool IQ – reckless endangerment doesn’t apply in Oklahoma – really, why.
17I’m not a gun person so, I gotta ask. Was he armed because he was afraid of other customers in the Pro Bass store? What was he doing in the dressing room that he didn’t see his 5 yr old reach for his loaded gun?
This guy is lucky his kid didn’t kill someone. But if he did, Pro Bass probably has a PR team for that situation too.
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