Thursday, February 11, 2010

Stupid Kills.

There was a fratricidal shooting in the northern Indy 'burbs the other day. Apparently 14 year-old Cain slew 16 year-old Abel with a 20 gauge scattergun in the family garage. Allegedly the older brother was pelting the younger with snowballs when the kid picked up the fowling piece, "jokingly" pointed it at his older brother, and... well, I'll let the local cops, since everyone know that the police are gun experts, say it:
Police say the gun went off when the boy jokingly pointed it at his older brother, hitting him in the chest. Carson later died at an Indianapolis hospital.

Bowen says the shooting "was clearly an accident" and he doesn't expect any charges to be filed against the boy.
I'm sorry, officer, but that's wrong; well meant, but wrong. I know you want to spare the parents and, for some reason, the shooter, but you know and I know and, sure as God made little green apples, the shooter knows that his finger pulled that trigger. Guns don't just "go off" by themselves.
According to neighbors, the young men were familiar with guns and firearm safety.

"The boys hunt all the time. They've always used guns. They know how to handle guns," said Wiles.
If the boys were familiar with the firearms safety, then why did the younger one act like he was a contestant in a "How Many Of The Four Rules Can You Break At Once" shoot-off?

Let's review the Four Rules:
  1. All guns are always loaded.
  2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
  3. Keep your $%^&@#$ booger hook off the &*%$#@& bang switch.
  4. Be sure of your target and what's beyond it.
Sounds like Junior managed to break all four, with the usual consequences.

21 comments:

  1. I imagine a quick glance at who, and for how much, Adam and Eve contribute politically might be enlightening. "Pillers of the community" always seems to be more accident-prone then criminally inclined it seems.

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  2. No, it's not corruption. Juries just won't convict in these cases, any more than they will when parents boil their children to death in cars.

    "Whoops!" is a pretty successful defense, if you want to kill someone you know and love.

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  3. My sister once tried to fasten a .357 revolver in its holster by bracing the muzzle against her sternum. I politely asked her not to do that again; she rolled her eyes and said "Yeah, yeah, a gun is always loaded but it's not loaded." Why I didn't take it away from here and smack her in the mouth right then and there, I'll never know.

    She has since, THANK HEAVENS, lost interest in firearms.

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  4. *that's "take it away from her", not "here".

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  5. Senseless deaths and by people, from the sounds of it, that should have known better.

    I agree with your assessment Tam. Nobody "accidentally" pulled the trigger. At the very least, if we were only going with spirit of law, we have a manslaughter. Someone died due to anther's negligence or if you don't like that word "stupidity".

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  6. Pointing a gun and pulling a trigger and saying it was an "accident" and you "didn't mean to kill them" is like pushing someone off a 200-foot cliff and then saying it was "just a joke" and you didn't mean to kill them.

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  7. A priest, a rabbi and a minister walk into a bar..BANG!

    Corpman!!! My Glock just went off and I killed my boss.

    Yea, thats the ticket.

    Gerry

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  8. I guess Col. Cooper was from that generation that didn't have to be told that guns weren't toys, or he might have added another rule:

    A Gun Is Not A Toy. Don't Play With It!

    I teach all the other rules, but I always make that one Rule #1.

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  9. I have had two cases of "whoops" that were straight up ambush murders. One was the SECOND TIME a gun "went off" and hit his wife in the head fatally.

    But the killers cried, acted all hurt, and how do you prove it DIDN't happen that way? So the old "suffering enough" thing flew.

    Drives me crazier, it really does. To me the boiled baby cases are exactly the same.

    But jurors really do not like to believe that people kill family members. And they just love to forgive, and adore a happy ending. So when they have a chance to gratify three of their own desires...

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  10. Age 14-16 is that period in life where successful suicide attempts have been made over not being allowed to go over to a friend's house; it is the age when never having been denied anything as a small child can come home to roost with monumental consequences.

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  11. The 14 year old may very well have not broken any of the rules.

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  12. Michael said...
    The 14 year old may very well have not broken any of the rules.

    What?? Did Dick Chaney do it and Karl Rove got the kid to cop to it?

    Damn that Bush!

    Gerry

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  13. 'Pelting the younger with snowballs'.
    We had this a few weeks ago, with the cop in D.C., and I mentioned that anywhere else in the world it would get the merry prankster a punch in the mouth. An assault with chunks of ice is no more a 'snowball fight' than rape is consensual sex.
    I'm certainly not advocating responding to such an assault with gunfire. Teenagers often over-react. But I say again:- PLEASE do not try this when traveling. I think North America is the only place where this is considered acceptable 'fun'. And in this case, not even there.

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  14. Michael: Then I guess you haven't a clue what rules we are talking about.

    Which one of these four rules did that kid actually follow:

    1. All firearms are considered to be always loaded.
    2. Always keep a firearm pointed in a safe direction.
    3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
    4. Always be sure of your target and know what is behind it along the bullet's trajectory.

    If that idiot teenager had followed any single one of these rules, his older brother would still be alive.

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  15. Gerry, Kristopher,

    Think carefully about what he said. ;) I was going to respond the same way y'all did, but then I got it.


    MrWolf,

    Here in America, small children have snowball fights all the time and survive. Maybe we're just tough that way? But it needs to be mutual; you shouldn't throw things at people who have not agreed to have things thrown at them.

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  16. Tam,

    I'm sorry but you must be south of the Mason-Dixon line or be from there before you can use the word y'all.

    If you are wondering I am in North Carolina and can use the word with reckless abandon!

    Kel

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  17. Keads -

    She's from Tennessee. That far enough south?

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  18. Steve,

    That works for me, I have to give the Vols cred and they are next door!

    Kel

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  19. The kid fucked up, and he is old enough to both know it and be punished for it.

    I make no apology for being Draconian in the matter, that for the sake of the accidents like this which can be prevented.

    Jim

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  20. It's sad, but we have had a few cases here in Cincinnati where one sibling killed another for trivial reasons.

    We may feel better calling these cases accidents, but at times it's murder.

    Sorry for the Obama bit the other day Tam. Had JFK lived, America would have been done with the Kennedys as a political family back in the 60s.

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  21. Getting shot after throwing snowballs and ice at people is an American tradition!

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