Fun With Guns Vacation Edition, Squirrel Division
It happened in Georgia.
A man shooting squirrels at exclusive Ocean Forest on Sea Island with a .22-caliber rifle shot a woman on a golf course Sunday morning.
The victim was in stable condition Monday in intensive care after surgery, authorities said.
Glynn County police said Edward George Johnson of Forest Road called them at 11 a.m. to say he had accidentally shot someone on the Ocean Forest golf course.
I dunno if this is true or not, but my Grandpa told me that a .22 can travel a mile without stopping for a rest. He wanted to impress upon me the importance of knowing what’s behind things you might miss, which in my case could be the side of barn.
Edward George Johnson needed a grandpa.
Thanks to Carl for the heads up.
JJ, Yuh reckon this dude learned a damn thing from this incident other than he will now have nightmares until he shuffles off this mortal coil?
1I was riding my horse on a power line road that cut through my lakeside community, and I saw a couple of teen boys with rifles plinking at cans alongside the power line path.
They hadn’t bothered to scout the background of their impromptu shooting range. There was a grove of alder trees along the power line right of way, an easement between private property and the power lines. Behind those trees was an inhabited house.
I suggested they getthehelloutathere pronto before they hurt someone.
That happened around 1985 or so. Folks didn’t “act out” or blow up angry then as much as they seem to now. If I’d done that in more recent years, I’d be riding off wondering if I’d get a bullet in the back, or the back of my head.
One thing for sure, judging from your story, folks with guns haven’t gotten any smarter in all these years.
2When my nephew bought his first car, he picked out the fastest, hottest one he could afford. After my brother went for a ride with him, my nephew bragged about being able to outrun the gendarmes.
3My brother considered for a moment, and asked, “Possibly, but can either one of you outrun a bullet?
I’ll keep contending that the hope we’ve got is to require liability insurance on those things, commiserate with the amount of damage they can cause. The insurance industry should love the income.
4A mile? This nitwit was shooting squirrels close enough to a golf course that he knew he’d hit someone, presumably from the outcries. He should be charged with something, maybe reckless endangerment.
5Well. At least we know who the next GOP veep nominee will be.
6Ed Johnson must be a cousin of Carl the caddy from Caddyshack:
Sandy: I want you to kill every gopher on the course!
Carl Spackler: Check me if I’m wrong Sandy, but if I kill all the golfers, they’re gonna lock me up and throw away the key…
Sandy: Gophers, ya great git! The gophers! The little brown furry rodents!
7I guess you’ve seen the web ads for the “Cricket” .22 rifle marketed especially for kids. There are pictures of toddlers in cowboy hats holding a .22. Blood-chilling.
A .22 is NOT a toy, and these are being purchased for kids who aren’t allowed to use pointy scissors in the first grade.
8I dont think the 22 can travel that far. I know that on the side of the box it said that but that was a sales point. Killing a deer at 400 meters with a 9mm rifle would be difficult. Even military trained sniper would have a hard time at one mile with the new rifle that is the most accurage. I dont doube that some limb cicken hunter could hit someone on a next door gold course.
9These shootings are not “accidents” and should not be treated as accidents. They are caused. They are caused by the willful carelessness of the shooter. Mr. Johnson should be arrested and charged with (at the least) reckless endangerment.
I’ve got plenty of squirrels, and my great-grandpa was a squirrel hunter. But I know darn good and well that a .22 round out of my rifle would easily zip onto my neighbors’ property and could kill someone without my intent. So…I don’t shoot squirrels. They’re up in trees. That means a higher angle of shooting, which means any round that misses a squirrel and doesn’t lodge in the tree will go “somewhere” and come down “somewhere” and if someone happens to be there…I’ve just shot them.
As for the range on the ammo box being “just a selling point”–no. It is a SAFETY point. It’s not a distance at which a shooter can hit an intended target–small rounds will be more affected by wind drift–it IS a distance at which the round–it doesn’t hit something in between–is still moving fast enough to cause serious bodily harm. Different ammo has different labeling based on the exact mix in the round.
So-called accidental shootings are frequently the result of shooters thinking that if they couldn’t hit a defined target at a given range, it means the bullet won’t go that far. Very dangerous thinking. Remember, it’s not about hitting a target…it’s about the bullet having enough initial velocity to keep going…and going…and going…until it hits something you didn’t even notice.
10Gee, you mean bullets don’t stop when they miss the intended target? Who knew?
11Miz Juanita, my Daddy taught me the same thing your Grandpa taught you, and he taught it to me young. Lack of this bit of sense being shown in TV shows makes me flinch regularly. Just think how much kids would learn if they used it consistently on TV? And in 1st person shooter games?
12Yes, check out where the bullet is going to go other than into your intended target is one of the basic rules of gun safety– along with not aiming at anything you don’t intend to shoot, not putting your finger anywhere near the trigger until you’re about to shoot, not loading the gun until you’re about to shoot, and assuming every gun is loaded. If I know this and I’ll never own a gun, why doesn’t someone make sure these jackwagons know it?
13@aj Not only bullets, but radio waves and bear in the air stuff like helocopters and fixed wing patrol aircraft. Running just means you go to jail tired.
When I was in scouts 100 years ago or so, we went to a sand pit and put targets up and the scouters congratulated themselves on how careful they were. Along about noon time this old farmer came around mad as can be. Fortunately his anger fell short of strumming heads, but he handed the scoutmaster a smashed up 22. Seems it went flying through his screen door and impaled itself in the outside skin of his refrigerator, after passing by his dear wife’s nose whilst she was cooking.
14Yeah you can’t be too careful with 22s.
Used to go deer hunting up here in Badgerland while in college. Wearing the required blaze orange, I got shot at three times. Could actually hear one bullet whizz past my ear. After that I gave up the sport. One year during deer bowhunting season a poor fella was shot dead cold in his tree stand by a guy who mistaked him for a turkey. Another year a hunter shot a Yak that a farmer raised, mistaking it for a deer. The 70-year old hunter explained this by stating that at his age he “can’t see too good”.
15In the first or second grade in the lovely metropolis of Muleshoe, I was BFF’ers with twins… a boy and a girl. Polly had these adorable, long braids with bows… Pete sported a flat top with lots of butch wax. AT their birthday party, circa 1957, Pete got his first BB gun. A week later, he also had it handed back to him, smashed to smithereens, after shooting Polly in the butt. He swore it was an accident, but Momma had no problem with destroying the “toy” forever. Boy, she was absolutely furious… and poor Polly had to bring a pillow to school to sit on for a week or so.
16@Micr, “Running just means you go to jail tired.”
17hmmm..My nephew is a Law Enforcement Officer. He has been known to use that line also.
Which side of the law were you on when you first heard it?!
Google muzzed volocitie and you will find tables and charts that show how far bullets travel. It clearly shows, despite what grandad said, that a 22 cannot go over a mile, no where near it.
18@aj
194 years sworn service in a small northeast Texas department, followed by 8ish years as a military officer. Today I’m in my 28th year at a north Texas county. Not in a sworn position but in a support department. The constables and jail are two of my biggest internal customers. God has blessed my career.