Fun With Guns: Imitate Dick Cheney Edition
A man in Maine shot off his face while jacking around with a .270-caliber hunting rifle. You might want to write this down somewhere: Do not clown around with a .270 caliber hunting rifle. It should be like a plastic bag and have a warning on it – “This is not a toy. Keep away from idiots.”
Dale Poulin, 31, of Ash Street, was visiting friends at 218 College Ave. around 9 p.m. Wednesday and exchanging hunting stories when he went outside and brought in a .270-caliber hunting rifle. At one point, Poulin put the barrel of the rifle under his chin and pulled the trigger, said Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey.
Yes, there was alcohol involved. What are you? Stupid?
And then in the understatement of the year, Police Chief Massey says —
Massey said the accident illustrates the dangers of improperly and unsafely handling firearms.
But let’s not stop there.
“Guns and alcohol – they just don’t mix,” he said. “Dangerous combination.”
Ya think?
Thanks to Jean for the heads up.
I’m no gun expert but isn’t that what supposed to happen when you pull the trigger?
1“Keep away from idiots.”
The problem is that idiots do not know they are idiots.
2Ok, now I’m wondering if this guy had any health insurance. Also, since he lived, does he get to keep his hunting license and his .270 caliber killing machine?
Once you’ve proven you are no longer a responsible gun owner, you should have your gun license revoked. Especially if alcohol is involved. We take driver licenses away from drunk drivers for being irresponsible, right?
Good Grief. The stupid is strong with irresponsible gun owners.
3If I remember the plot correctly, Forrest Gump was smarter than that.
4bud–If I remember correctly, Forrest Gump had horse sense, which sort of suggests….
5The Darwin Award averted. Apparently where this individual was injured failed to eliminate him from the gene pool.
6Ah, but the Moron Award is forthcoming!
7So he can still drop his jeans and spread his genes.
8IMO, any “accident” with a gun results from either ignorance of the weapon (user’s fault) or not following safe practices (user’s fault.) Accidents should thus result in (if no one was injured and no property damaged) a) a $500 fine plus loss of right to possess any firearm (not just the one involved in the accident) until completing an extended gun safety course (not the one-day or half-day kind), with the gun in the custody of the police until proof that the individual has completed that course and paid the fine is presented. The course should include multiple sessions of shooting and gun handling under supervision, and cover (for instance and besides the usual) ricochet situations (surfaces, angles, etc.), visibility challenges (weather, terrain, vegetation, buildings), penetrability of typical “barriers” (exterior and interior walls of typical materials, “brush,” tree trunks, etc, including danger of shrapnel spalling off the other side, etc., child-proof firearm storage, psychology of gun possession and use (for instance, research showing that having a gun in hand increases the likelihood of thinking what’s in someone else’s hand is another gun–hence the shooting of a guy in a wheelchair who was “armed” with a ballpoint pen by a policeman armed with an actual gun.) If no person was injured but property was (any property), the guilty idiot has to pay the fine, pay for the damage, do community service including at least two full shifts of scutwork in an ER, while wearing a sign that says “I WAS NOT A RESPONSIBLE GUN OWNER.” Second offense at either level means permanent loss of all gun licenses and confiscation of all firearms in that home, plus listing person on “Do not sell guns to” list (so any subsequent guns are illegally obtained.)
If someone is injured or killed in the “accident,” there should be immediate confiscation of all firearms and permanent loss of licenses. Restitution to the victim or the victim’s family, and if the victim was killed, it’s manslaughter and hard prison time.
But then I’m hardcore about drunk driving, too.
9I applaud you, Elizabeth … that comment is magnificent!!
10Just wondering how long before some RWGN goes after the sheriff for what he said. Lord love a duck!
11The founding fathers recommended people who bear arms be part of a well regulated militia.
As Elizabeth suggests.
As Mr. Poulin might now wish he had been.
12Elizabeth has this one right. I would add that gun owner would be held fully responsible for any of those “9 year old shoots baby brother” incidents.
13https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=616850741673449&set=pb.100000455868802.-2207520000.1384190307.&type=3&theater
Kory Watkins 4 y/o with Tech 9
14There are no accidental discharges only negligent ones.
15Well, he may not have shot off his reproductive equipment, but I’m willing to bet that without his face his chances of “getting lucky” some night at the roadhouse just went to about Zero.
16I suppose this moron is still capable of breeding, but as he’s probably less handsome than he was, he may find few women who want to breed with him… we can hope.
Elizabeth, I would definitely vote for that law if I could.
17Kory Watkins is disgusting. I grew up with guns in the house; my mother taught me gun safety (without taking me out of school…sheesh.) You can’t teach a kid that young “gun safety” except as a solid prohibition not to touch the grownups’ guns. At that age they cannot reason sufficiently or handle complex situation-based rules. (If this, then that modification of the rule) and they don’t understand death. Cause and effect is still “If you put your milk glass at the edge of the counter, it might get bumped off and make a mess” and a lot of 4 year olds aren’t “there” yet. You can’t teach what they can’t yet learn, and that doesn’t come until concrete operations at least.
Grung_e_Gene: My mother’s way of saying that (she was an engineer) was “There are no accidents. They are all caused.” For her, finding and eliminating the cause was important. For me as a child, the constant refrain when I said, “But it was an accident” of “There are no accidents…when you put the glass there, you made it possible to knock it onto the floor when someone walked past” and the like was infuriating…no kid likes to admit their own fault…but I did finally learn.
Of course, I automatically move _anyone’s_ glass away from the edge of the table/counter/shelf/whatever…put flatware into the drainer handle-side-up…and still screw up on occasion and hurt myself doing something carelessly. But I know who to blame: myself. If Watkins’ kid gets hurt playing with his firearms, he won’t blame himself–he’ll blame the kid, or someone else.
18Poor baby. She ought to be watching Bambi, not hunting Bambi.
If you hafta hunt, you should learn to use a bow. And if you kill it, you eat it. No exceptions.
19When I wuz a kid there used to be a bumper sticker that claimed gas and alcohol don’t mix,but gas straight up wasn’t bad. Well I guess gasahol proved them suckers wrong,now didn’t it? Some enterprising korporation will invent a gun with a breathalyzer built in to let nutjobs know when they have imbibed enough to be the life of the party with their shooty guns. Maybe the gun will detect the shooter is too impaired to find the trigger and just go off by itself. What a hoot!
20It never fails, get a bunch of guys together drinking and swapping stories and there’s always one a-hole in the bunch who drinks too much and shoots his mouth off.
21Good one, daChipster.
22LOL @ daChipster … you nailed it, Sweetie!!
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