The Column

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The truth is out: Guns don't kill people - idiots kill people


Lesson Number One in any firearm safety course usually runs like this: Don't kill yourself. And this is especially true if you're the one teaching others how to be safe.

Didn't quite work that way for 40-year-old James Looney (an appropriate name!), who shot himself in the head while showing his girlfriend how to handle a firearm safely.

Please. I'm not making this up.

This quote is from the original press release, submitted to the Riverfront Times by Jackson County, Missouri Sheriff Oliver "Glenn" Boyer:

... according to the witness, James Looney would show the different safety mechanisms, put the gun to his head, and ask if the gun would go off. Looney apparently did this with two other weapons and varied safety mechanisms, before the last one went off ...

Reading this story, I had a few questions:

- Was alcohol involved?

- Are you sure he wasn't just cleaning his gun? (I've heard that excuse given at so many accidental shootings that it's become a cliche. But, as I asked a cop at the scene of one such misfiring, don't you usually empty your gun before cleaning it?)

- Did Looney, at any time, announce: "Hey, y'all, watch this!"?




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