Fun With Guns
Liberty County is in East Texas, which explains a lot about this story.
Precinct 2 Liberty County Commissioner is the former sheriff of the county, Greg Arthur. He, of course, is a Republican. He took his wife and family on a vacation at Garner State Park, which is pretty much on the other side of Texas.
While there, Arthur encountered a gun problem.
“We were at the pavilion and I was wearing my concealed handgun. It was shifting around a little bit so I stepped out into the parking lot to readjust,” Arthur said.
While making adjustments, Arthur says he accidentally hit the trigger, causing the gun to fire downward toward the ground. The bullet grazed Arthur’s leg, entering the skin and creating a gash before it exited and hit the ground. As it hit the ground, fragments of concrete and the bullet reportedly scattered, hitting two other nearby people including a 6-year-old boy.
Insisting that is was “just an accident,” Arthur proves once and for all that guns are not safe, especially his.
The incident is the second time a firearm owned by Arthur has accidentally discharged. Several years ago, a Liberty business owner and a friend of Arthur’s accidentally shot himself with Arthur’s handgun. The business owner sustained non-life threatening injuries.
His guns seem to have a mind of their own.
Idiot, I think guns should come with some sort of switch, lets call it a’ safety’. This switch should be on unless you intend to use the gun! 6 year old boy…my goodness..
1“Accidental” discharges never happen. “Negligent” discharges do.
2“His guns seem to have a mind of their own” So evidently keeping a gun on his person is the only time he’s in possession of a mind. Makes sense that he keeps it in his pants.
3Pretty soon he’ll be able to carry a samurai sword too, if Abbott and Patrick have their way. At least a sword wouldn’t accidentally go off and stab someone, but with this doofus you never know.
4Darwin needs to be a better shot.
5Wonder how big the settlement to the boys family will be.
6If his guns had a rational mind of their own, they would have gone off pointing up.
7What Ray says: “Accidental” discharges never happen. “Negligent” discharges do.
The constant news reportage, and minimizing by LEO’s in most such cases is inexcusable. These incidents are never accidents, they’re careless, negligent, manmade FU’s, endangering anyone nearby. They should be treated as such, with serious consequences.
So goes one of the core tenets of the Repukian creed: “Personal Responsibility”, my ass.
BTW, how would this exact same scenario play out if it were a black man in Liberty County that had this ‘accident’ in a parking lot? Yeah, right…
8Umm…..did they change the CCL? When I took my licence course , I remember State parks were a no-no….They may have modified the rules for politicians…..they are in danger when in public.
9I guess now I’ll have to admit that I personally have used guns. Fortunately, none of those uses have included shooting at or even near living humans. I may have to agree that if you’re going to carry a gun around because you are in constant danger perhaps it should be cocked and ready to shoot. But, that also makes it an easy target for a light tap on the trigger to fire, creating a situation similar to today’s subject.
10I think I’m beginning to ramble already…
I believe when I started this I intended to say something like, “When will these people learn that carrying a loaded and cocked gun around, very close to their heart and or nether regions, simply isn’t all that smart!”
Some may, of course, ask snidely, “What makes you think it was cocked?”
Well, I then would reply, “If it wasn’t it wouldn’t have fired, imperiling the life of a 6 yo child and a selfish idiot, at the “brush” of a finger?!”
Furthermore, no doubt, the perpetrator in this incident, while at the gun club with his RW pals, brags about how much money it cost him to have the trigger mechanism “re-worked” to be the absolute “lightest touch” possible, just in case… Obama! Just like Dirty Harry!
“let’s call it a ‘safety’?”
11That seems like a pretty good idea. Let’s take it and run, before someone else gets a patent on it!
I s’pose the best safety would pretty much be to leave the whole shebang at the house.
Guns don’t kill people. People who screw up while handling guns kill people.
And people who carry a gun everywhere because they think they might need to have a shoot-out at any moment are already screwed up.
12Another case example of why requiring gun owner liability insurance would stop this sort of thing from happening.
13Sandridge – you’ve got that right:
White men have ‘accidents’ with their guns.
14Black men have ‘assault with intent to commit a felony.’
Alan–indeed it would, so that’s not going to happen; at least not in Texas.
15Meanwhile, here in Denver:
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2017/07/15/tanner-gun-show-accidental-shooting/
What wasn’t explained in the report is why some freakin’ idiot was carrying a loaded gun around the gun show, despite the very large sign prohibiting that. It’s almost like rules don’t apply to these people, or something.
16At least here the onus is put on the gun owner, for whatever that’s worth. Hope he gets his ass sued by the victim.
If I am ever injured by an accidental gunshot, I will sue the pants off the irresponsible gun owner.
17It’s only right to hold them accountable for their lack of safety precautions.
Yes, I know I[‘m being old again when I tell you that I got hit in the legs after a basketball game. I left a tad early to beat the crowd but some yahoos also trailed out after me lighting firecrackers and throwing them on the ground. Unfortunately the parking lot was covered with loose gravel with stuff that was so finite you had to see the sharp edges with a magnifying glass. What I got was a load of that stuff in the legs. When I got home and my folks saw what happened they were fighting to use the phone to call the president, the mayor, the pope, the pastor and the marines they were that mad. The miscreants ran off when I screamed (it hurt like hell so I can feel for that 6 y o boy) and of course no one knew who they were. We never had a basketball game in that place ever again. People in charge of stuff way back then really took their responsibilities seriously. They closed the gym permanently until the following year.
18Re Lunargent’s link: “‘Proper gun safety, and handling the firearm, would have prevented this,’ a witness said.”
I guess that’s why the NRA wants everybody to be able to buy and carry a gun with no questions asked and no competence or knowledge required.
Gun shows put up signs prohibiting people from bringing guns in because they want everyone to be safe. But that’s only inside the gun show — anywhere else it’s a free-for-all. Ya gotta shake your head.
19He is a jerk and should be treated as such.
20“His guns seem to have a mind of their own.”
So one of them has a mind. Does he call his gun Abby Normal?
21Why…I mean why…why would he think he needed a handgun in a state park? What the hell was he planning to shoot? The mentality of the gun-humpers has made me fear gatherings of people.
22So where was the good guy with a gun to stop this evildoer from harming a six year old child????
23Sadly the rot in the Republican Party doesn’t appear to hurt/injure its members. The innocent get hurt. Too bad the gun lovers are all too often not harmed. But they still loudly proclaim “their rights”. Don’t believe any have actually read the Second Amendment.
24Somehow negligent discharges must be punished in the jurisdictions in which they happen, regardless of whether the perpetrator should have known better or not. A minor punishment for youthful offenders, a more severe punishment for older offenders, and add-on punishments for offenders who should know better: current or former licensees and those currently or previously legally armed as part of their jobs.
25Nervous Nellies are the worst possible candidates for gun ownership and the NRA has become their Patron Saint. If a person lacks the confidence to NOT chamber a round, has the firing mechanism modified to allow the hair trigger ‘accidents’, etc., there are only two reasonable choices for them. Either they donate their weapons and ammunition to the local police department, or enroll in a thorough safety/training program. If a person cannot in a split second load their weapon, remove the safety to deliberately shoot said weapon, they do not qualify to be carrying one anywhere near other people.
In the most recent incident involving old Greg, LE needs to get real in similar situations by charging child endangerment at a minimum and applying all applicable public safety laws.
26Isn’t it ironic that a gun show would not allow guns. The NRA prohibits carrying guns at their conventions, too.
27OF, perhaps he needed one to fight off marauding grizzlies. He could have been using the “Betsy DeVos” defense.
28Next time wear your gun under your arm pointing up
29“If I am ever injured by an accidental gunshot, I will sue the pants off the irresponsible gun owner.”
You can’t get blood from a stone. Why aren’t gun owners required to have liability insurance. I have to buy it for my car, on the chance I might hurt somebody with it.
They should be required to have insurance. Can’t wait to see what the insurance companies will charge for that.
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