Fun With Guns: Hitting the Pavement Edition
Okay, so in Lancaster, Ohio, a volunteer decided that it was his duty to guard the military recruiting station.
Christopher A. Reed is 28 years old so you gotta wonder why he didn’t just join the Marines if he wanted to play with guns. Reed was standing in front of the recruiting station at 12:01 pm and something predictable happened.
Reed told the officer who responded that he was standing, holding his AR-15 rifle in front of the military recruiting station to guard the personnel inside when someone approached him and asked if he could take a look at the weapon. Reed agreed to show him, and while he was trying to clear the ammunition from the weapon, he accidentally fired into the asphalt pavement.
Luckily, no one was hurt.
You’d think Reed would feel crummy about the irony of this situation but you’d be wrong.
Reed said he is not a military veteran. He described himself as an active gun enthusiast who makes a living working side jobs.
He downplayed the accidental shot fired.
“It is what it is,” he said. “Nobody got hurt.”
I dunno. Aren’t side jobs something you do if you have a job?
This guy could have gotten extra points if he’d had missed the pavement and shot himself in the foot.
Thanks to Don for the heads up.
Isn’t funny that these gunho type guys are the very same ones who never held any type of military job. One thing for sure they talk the talk but they sure don’t walk the talk.
1Why in the world would you let someone take your gun, loaded or not? Don’t you know it could be a librul wanting to steal it?
2Stupid is as stupid does.
I served from 1966 to 1970 and I always get a kick when one of these nummies says”I almost joined the Corps”
3This whole armed citizens “protecting” recruiting offices stuns me. If you think you can do it soooooo much better, as our Stone Kettle friend says, “hold up your right hand and put on the uniform and step up to the mark”.
4So he has an AR-15 that he is incompetent to use. Glad I’m not going through Ohio any time soon. Apparently there are a lot of places I need to avoid.
5That has to be such the stupidest excuse I’ve ever heard: “someone asked to look at the weapon, so I was gonna let him”.
Some STRANGER???
Wanted to look at his weapon and he was only too happy to let him????
This guy needs a keeper and canvas restraints with long arms.
6The Navy says if those ammosexuals try to “protect” (endanger) their recruiters, they’ll leave. Clearly the pros know just how dumb those idiots are.
7The ammosexual Patriots get real cranky when you point out the military has requested these clowns not do this.
8Another member of the unregulated armed farces.
9Reading through the whole article…if, as one of the people there said, “We are not a redneck group, we are prior military” why was Reed there? (I am offended that a Marine veteran, as he claimed to be, would let a civilian, armed or not “guard” a recruiting station with a Marine in it.)
I’ll bet that Marine who said he was not authorized to speak to the press said plenty to his buddies. Full of bleeps. Few things annoy troops like being treated as poor little darlings that need a civvie to protect them from harm. (Channeling either of two MGySgts I knew at HQMC: “We don’t need your bleep protection, we don’t want your bleep protection, get the string-of-bleeps out of here before I stick that bleep-bleep up your bleep and pull the bleep trigger.” Every bleep different and creatively decorated.)
One hopes the cop’s “God bless you” was uttered in Southern style, but probably not. (“God bless you, son, [it’s gonna take the Almighty a lot of blessing to get the job done] but you need to put that deadly weapon down and come with me.”)
And Reed had pled guilty to the same offense in 1913? And still doesn’t know how to clear his weapon without firing it? And thinks it doesn’t matter because nobody got hurt (again.) If “it is what it is,” then what it is, is someone who should never, ever, EVER have a firearm in his hand again. (He will of course. Until someone shoots him.)
10Well, yeah, but what if it was terrorist pavement?
11I’m glad when I went into my recruiting office there was no idiot with a gun standing outside, otherwise I probably would not have gone in.
12These jackasses have been on nightly news here in Columbus all week; this was duly reported as well, although the reporters somehow managed not to smile. Kasich gave the National Guard permission to arm their personnel as well.
I read that as a brilliant but cynical ploy to gain some notoriety and move up from the FOX kids’ table to the main stage debate as the GOP’s tenth-most bestest whackadoodle.
Rhea: sorry you’re not coming thru Ohio soon. Hope you won’t avoid C’bus when you do. Stop by and say Hey!
13“Side Job” as in Side Show at the carnival.
14I agree with Jim Wright.
http://www.stonekettle.com/2015/06/bang-bang-sanity.html
There is no such thing as an “accident” when it comes to firearms. There are only instances of someone not following the rules to handle the firearm safely.
If you own a firearm, you should be held responsible for the damage it does. I hope the city or state charge him for patching that hole.
15BTW in the article
The only damage was a hole in the pavement. The rifle was taken from Reed pending his appearance in court, the incident report says.
Conviction on the fourth-degree misdemeanor is punishable by a maximum of 30 days in jail.
Reed was convicted of the same offense in 2013, and was fined $50, court records show.
Maybe this time fine him $500?
16The last time recruiters in Chattanooga had “an active gun enthusiast” show up at their front door it did not end well.
When a civilian with a gun shows up it is not possible to guess their intentions on sight. He’s lucky the police who showed up didn’t shoot him.
17Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” keeps playing in my mind. Any “gun enthusiast” who thinks that that’s all one needs to qualify for military service would not be sworn in, I expect.
18I have said this before, and I’ll say it again: The purpose of a gun is not for protection. The gun will not automatically leap to your defense if you’re threatened. The purpose of a gun is to *KILL* whatever it is aimed at, be it a rifle for hunting, or a handgun for close-quarters combat, or an AR-15 for more distant elimination of the threat. It is a weapon, and like any other weapon, when you pull it out the implied intention is that you are going to USE that weapon.
19Drilled into your empty head at Parris Island(March – April 66) all day, everyday!
Treat every weapon as if it were loaded.
Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you intend to fire.
Never point your weapon at anything you don’t intend to shoot.
Keep your weapon on safe until you intend to fire.
20I am appalled that the Recruiting office would allow this volunteer activity on public ground. Did any one ever do a background check on these so called protectors? What would happen if one of these armed and presumably dangerous fools actually shot someone–who bears that liability, has anyone ever thought of that?? I continue to be appalled at the lunacy that we must attribute to the NRA and the fools in Congress that pander to them and their followers.
21Spent some time yesterday looking at a possible retirement site. It was T-totally terrific in every way and then someone asked me if I minded living across the street from the National Guard Armory.
Well . . . um . . .er . . . NO!
22So let me get this straight.
Some guy shows up at a recruitment office to “protect” the military folks inside. You know, the people whose JOB it is to protect us. They get training for it and everything. And this guy shoots the pavement.
Wow. I’m so surprised I just don’t know. All this excitement has given me the vapors. I’d better go lie down for a bit.
23Do something stupid, don’t be surprised at what happens next:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/07/23/recruiting-center-shot-fired.html
Yes, they’ve been told to get lost. Now if only other recruitment sites do the same thing, we’ll hear howls of outrage from the ammosexuals and the wanna-be soldiers.
24These gun nuts are desperate for attention and respect. They wannabe heroes, dammit. Mr. Truth, Justice and the
25American Way ended up Mr.Shoot, Stupid and Hole in the Sidewalk.
As per Wonkette: “The Most Florida Headline To Ever Florida”
FOX news headline: ‘Gunshot victim dropped off at Walmart instead of hospital’
http://wonkette.com/592052/here-it-is-the-most-florida-headline-to-ever-florida-your-florida-roundup
26