The Planet of the Gun Nuts

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why didn't he unload the damn thing before he went to the gun show? I'd like to think that the guy would have been cited for reckless endangerment here in Washington and fined or even thrown in jail. His gun toting days should be over.

auntie jim on January 19, 2013 at 6:47 PM

If there's got to be accidental shootings, that's one of the places they should happen.

So what was the reaction? Did all the other folks there heroically run toward the sound of the gunfire ready to take out the bad guys?

seatackled on January 19, 2013 at 6:57 PM

I couldn't help but spin this scenario out in my mind alá the kid in the film Stand By Me - you know where the barf chain reaction starts at a pie eating contest.

Imagine that some "good guy" returns fire when he thinks an attack is being made by a lunatic with a 12 gauge. Other heroes attempt to drop good guy No1. mistaking him for a lunatic after shooting some dude who is just trying to exercise his god given right to pawn a 12 gauge for a couple of bucks. Before you know it the most heavily armed convention center on the East Coast and presumably the safest place on earth has erupted in gunfire. Casualties abound.

Essay question A. How does the NRA spin this event.

jnonymous on January 19, 2013 at 7:11 PM

@3: That's how I figured it would happen. There have been a couple of public shootings in the last few years where bystanders with guns have reported not firing because while they knew shooting was going on, they couldn't be sure who "the bad guy" was. Apparently it's not as simple as in video games.

And while not all gun owners are idjits, it seems idjits are magnetically attracted to guns and mishandling them. Loaded? Safety off? Finger on trigger? Not pointed at the ground? Good god.

tiktok on January 19, 2013 at 7:21 PM

it's a lamentably slow process, but since gun ownership statistically shortens the life of the owner as well as any household members then the gun nut (mutation) will eventually be eliminated from the gene pool.

theophrastus on January 19, 2013 at 7:43 PM

I can see where the Coffinmakers of America could co-sponsor an annual Gun Appreciation Day with pharmaceutical corporations. Business would soar.

on January 19, 2013 at 8:28 PM

It's now official--you can't make this shit up.

runswithnailclippers on January 19, 2013 at 9:07 PM

Cue the conspiracy theorists saying this was staged by Obama in 3...2...1....

runswithnailclippers on January 19, 2013 at 9:17 PM

@8 You wicked, wicked devil!

OOF POOF on January 19, 2013 at 9:38 PM

The Stupid is very strong among these folks. Like a vortex, The Stupid sweeps them into gun shows. The thing about Darwin is that his ideas work, whether you believe them or not.

Ballard Pimp on January 19, 2013 at 9:55 PM

Who needs false flags? All Obama has to do is show them a rope, and they'll grab it right from his hands and hang themselves with gusto.

I have always been... east coaster on January 19, 2013 at 10:05 PM

Hilarious. Maybe we should have more gun shows.

fletc3her on January 19, 2013 at 10:28 PM

If only all of these guns had had guns, these tragedies could have been avoided.

this guy I know in Spokane on January 19, 2013 at 10:29 PM

Why isn't the Stranger reporting about all the deaths at boat shows today? Or are they..?!

fletc3her on January 19, 2013 at 10:34 PM

@14 - Because the idea and comparison between the two is completely asinine.

Pridge Wessea on January 19, 2013 at 11:19 PM

@14 - Oops, I think you were being sarcastic. Sorry for my itchy post button finger!

Pridge Wessea on January 19, 2013 at 11:21 PM

@13

Well, there were only injuries--just flesh wounds; nobody got killed. And the reason no one got killed was because they all had guns. If they didn't have guns, don't you think we would have seen something besides injuries? See? The guns really protected them from other guns!

seatackled on January 19, 2013 at 11:54 PM

Some gun owners are stupid, some make mistakes, sometimes they combine in dangerous and unfortunate ways. This is not news, though it does feed into the popular narrative here on slog.

Some words from the Big Dog:

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/bi…

Amnt on January 20, 2013 at 12:11 AM

@18 Fuck the big dog. I don't want 45 student classes with 11 gun toting guards roaming the halls at my kids' schools here in Washington, so why should I accede to it in order to mollify some fools in Arkansas? We have to laugh at them. Gun nuts currently are awarded deference and power beyond their numbers, but the gun nuts are not the boogy man. And they are ludicrous, as shown with these shenanigans at national gun coming out day. However, it is hard to fight them because they are both fanatics and well funded puppets for the gun industry, and industry that rejoices in every killing as it raises both paranoia and gun sales.

cracked on January 20, 2013 at 1:13 AM

these folks are so stupid.

in fact, according to the CDC, 20% of practicing gun owners have shot them self.

fucking. retards.

on January 20, 2013 at 4:41 AM

@8 Good point. Indiana and North Carolina where these events occurred happen to be the two states that voted for Obama in 2008, but then voted against him in 2012. This surely can't be a coincidence.

bwouns on January 20, 2013 at 6:25 AM

Now if they had made it "Bullet Appreciation Day", things would have been a lot better for everyone.

mubhappy on January 20, 2013 at 6:28 AM

And once again there are reports of shootings from across the nation.
But nothing from Seattle.
No one here can name the first (or latest) brown person wounded or killed in Seattle in 2013. Without looking it up.
Judging by the coverage in The Stranger, there haven't been any.
Yet there will be stories posted about shootings across the nation.

Who is shooting whom with what and why?

fairly.unbalanced on January 20, 2013 at 7:26 AM

@18 it certainly is disappointing to see the political left so obvious, clumsy, and heavy handed. Playing directly into the hands of the NRA and firing up the base on the right for the midterms. there were better fights to choose

chinaski on January 20, 2013 at 7:43 AM

Couldn't have happened to better people.

DisorganizedReligion on January 20, 2013 at 7:58 AM

#24 Yesssssssssss, we're playing directly into the hands of the NRA by...

Reporting idiots who shot themselves and others at gun shows?

Huh.

I think not.

Because, again, reality has a well-known liberal bias.

judybrowni on January 20, 2013 at 8:49 AM

The irony is that most gun shows don't allow you to carry a loaded gun into the show for safety/insurance reasons. Even gun enthusiasts recognize at some level that getting too many 'good guys' with guns together raises the danger level.

Action Slacks on January 20, 2013 at 9:15 AM

I love how Tonderai lumps everyone in a geographic area with his cut little epithets: those rural people [niggers] or those country people [niggers]. I guess everyone in America can't be a "hip" third world refugee such as himself.

Stranger'sWorstNightmare on January 20, 2013 at 12:32 PM

#28 - I'll bite; what the hell's a Tonderai?

catsnbanjos on January 20, 2013 at 1:10 PM

@24 Come midterms I defy you to show me one gun nut politician in a CLOSE race talking about their support for armed guards in schools, large clips, more concealed weapons, and less government regulation of firearms.

They are under pressure and we have to keep the pressure on. Pointing out how poor vast numbers of "law abiding" gun owners are at safely managing their weapons is a very effective argument to the ambivalent or conflicted against relying solely on self-regulation.

cracked on January 20, 2013 at 2:19 PM

Amazing how there were thousands of eeeeeevil guns on the streets of Seattle on Saturday, and none went off and nobody got killed. This, at the biggest gun show EVER in Seattle, hosted by Mayor McGinn. I'm totally voting for him next time BTW.

SO many "stupid inbred people" there too (especially white guys with signs)...

[rolleyes]

GeneStoner on January 29, 2013 at 5:34 PM

The Planet of the Gun Nuts

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