I dont mean to be funny,
but serves him right
A Dallas man who accidently shot himself in the head while "showing off his pistol to friends" at a party last Saturday looks certain to make the 2008 Darwin Awards nominations. According to the Dallas Morning News Andreous Robinson, 20, had been partying with chums in West Dallas when he decided to pop outside at around 1am …
"Real life Dirty Harry.
I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a pistol, and would blow a whole in your head, you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
I don't think we have a monopoly on stupid people. Whilst I enjoy the banter in El Reg comments, this is just a tad inappropriate, and frankly, idiotic.
I can enjoy the best any culture has to offer, regardless of who their leader is or what their policies are. And I can laugh at the idiots of any nation along with everybody else. However, I don't dislike any nationality just for the sake of it.
2 things that every thing and every one dealing with firearms will hammer into you
Always treat a firearm as if it is loaded
Never point a firearm as some thing you are not willing to destroy.
For those of you that live in countries that don't offer you easy access to a gun, not all americans own guns, and not all gun owners are retarded. There are some that own them for hunting, or in some areas they are used to defend crops and livestock from predatory animals, no we haven't killed them all yet, but not for a lack of trying by some.
Of course there are some people that are just plain stupid, such as the subject of this article, the vast majority of people that choose to obtain a gun in a less than legal way, the people that decide that shooting everyone else around them is a great way to spend an afternoon, and our Vice President's favorite pass time, the shooting of lawyers... wait maybe that last one should be on the good uses list.
....America has over 300M people, and over 1Bn weapons of various types. Per capita, there's enough guns in the US for everyone to have three. Statistically speaking, our gun death rate is really quite low, considering the amount of armed citizens in the populace.
Furthermore, while stupid, this is basically just another death by misadventure. How many people have been killed by misusing other types of machines through the years? Lathes, presses, conveyors, robotic assembly plants, etc?
If anything, this dude is the exception to the rule. The vast majority of gun owners will go their entire lives without ever shooting a person, either accidentally or intentionally.
Finally, the gun laws in the US have nothing to do with this idiot. As long as he's never been convicted of a felony, nor been committed to a mental institution, nor had official restraining orders placed upon him, he shot himself perfectly legally.
Something that I feel my British friends fail to think about is that a comprehensive gun ban and confiscation is simply impossible in America, from both a cultural and logistical standpoint. There are simply too many firearms in the country to ever get them all, and the people who own them are highly unlikely to give them up without a fight. Put yourself into the shoes of a 19 year old national guardsman-- would you really want to be on the detail who goes door to door and asks grizzled redneck types to surrender their grandfather's shooting irons? As that guardsman, would you be willing to arrest, or possibly shoot and kill, your fellow countrymen, who have been charged with no crime, and have probably never committed one?
For good or evil, guns remain a huge part of American life, especially in the Southern and Western regions.
I mean wow! That is just soooo stupid. Overlooking the whole "anyone can have a gun" thing, they should at least be forced to undergo some basic training in the safe use of firearms before being let loose with them. They're not bleeding toys!
Ah well, we can laugh at the guy, but I can't bring myself to laugh at his family/friends :o( At least "the helicopter guy" was trying to do something moderately useful, even if he did make a pigs ear of it. This was plain retarded. The *only* good thing about it is he put the gun to his own head.
As for the safety comment above, anyone relying on the safety for their own and others wellbeing should be promptly sectioned. The only safe gun is an empty one, with the chamber open to prove it.
>To the outside world, (well from the UK,) the US gun laws seem crazy!
Had he lived, he'd be charged with multiple crimes...and potentially felonies. Considering discharging guns into the air are associated with inner city gang bangers, the gun was almost certainly illegally posessed to begin with.
You can't buy a handgun in Texas unless you are at least 21, but thanks for lumping all Americans in with this miscreant; had to be provided by another, likely illegally. I for one am glad he is no longer able to contribute to the gene pool. No thought to where the other bullets went, no concern that there could be a live round in the firearm, or whether or not his miserable life was worth the next trigger pull.
Americans with guns have proven that Brits with guns aren't really all that dangerous, either as foes or as allies. America owes much to that oft-demonstrated fact. Now, a Brit with a beer or 10, that's a scary thought, as these pages have amply documented.
Some of the world's worst outcomes (US and UK both) have been immediately preceded by somebody saying, "Here, hold my beer and watch this." This is an exemplar.
Its surprising how many people do survive when they attempt suicide that way, which is why it's not a recommended method of self termination. Too many end up with brain damage and ironically an even worse life than the one they were trying to escape.
However even if the guy ended his life immediately my guess would be the general "having a laugh" nature of his demise would be clue enough to suggest he thought the gun was empty.
And I think while this will possibly get an honourable mention from the Darwin Awards, usually you have to do something significantly more stupid than merely fail to keep track of the number of shots you fired if you want to 'win'. Something both creative and yet at the same time spectacularly stupid is required.
I must say I was disappointed with last year's winner, I felt the attempted mole eradication was a far more worthy recipient. Succumbing to addiction in a creative manner is less stupidity, more desperation imo.
" I don't think we have a monopoly on stupid people. Whilst I enjoy the banter in El Reg comments, this is just a tad inappropriate, and frankly, idiotic.
I can enjoy the best any culture has to offer, regardless of who their leader is or what their policies are. And I can laugh at the idiots of any nation along with everybody else. However, I don't dislike any nationality just for the sake of it."
It isn't that there are more idiots in the US per capita, its just that your country decides to arm them with guns which can be bought from supermarkets.
Now that is stupid, really stupid regardless of the president your gun laws are the laughing stock of the civilized world.
@Clive:
hole, not whole
@Jeff:
We (being the rest of the world) are very specific in which nation we think have a scarily high proportion of idiots.
Yes other countries probably have a similar proportion (discuss); but since USAians wield a disproportionate influence in global affairs, it's a whole lot scarier that so many USAians seem so idiotic.
Especially the Idiot-in-Chief.
"To the outside world, (well from the UK,) the US gun laws seem crazy!"
piss-off. You've got a big problem. Maybe if more of your populace
was well armed, they could scare off some of your criminals.
[Between 1997 and 2003] crimes with [banned firearms] have more than doubled.... In 2002, for the fourth consecutive year, gun crime in England and Wales rose — by 35 percent for all firearms, and by a whopping 46 percent for the banned handguns. Nearly 10,000 firearms offenses were committed....
Clearly since the ban criminals have not found it difficult to get guns and the balance has not shifted in the interest of public safety....
In the four years from 1997 to 2001 the rate of violent crime more than doubled. The UK murder rate for 2002 was the highest for a century....
A recent study of all the countries of western Europe has found that in 2001 Britain had the worst record for killings, violence and burglary, and its citizens had one of the highest risks in the industrialized world of becoming victims of crime....
And here’s the icing on the cake: “[A] United Nations study of eighteen industrialized countries, including the United States, published in 2002 ... found England and Wales at the top of the Western world’s crime league, with the worst record for ‘very serious’ offenses.” [Emphasis added]
This is exactly why every citizen of this country has the right to own a firearm. Think how much money, time and effort are saved from Social Security, inappropriate voting of thier governor to President, psychatrist payments and other nationalized services (welfare) because he did what needed to be done.
American accomplishments far outweigh the stupidity of a few yahoos. Yank-bashing is just a sport for those embarrassed about their own country's lack of accomplishment. We see it all the time here in Canada. Looking down on someone is so much easier than actually putting in the effort to contribute something worthwhile.
"One stupid american down, 300000000 to go"
I can read your mind. In your mind, this man was a white adult male wearing a wifebeater T-shirt, drinking beer, with a baseball cap and a denim shirt. This is the kind of person you fear and despise, and want to die.
But judging by the name of the victim and the location of the story, Mr Robinson was not one of these people. He was one of the multi-millions of Americans who is not of that type, and you have just insulted them. Which is amusing, because you've now created a cognitive dissonance in your own mind between two incompatible stereotypes.
Oh well. At least we can give him credit for not pointing a weapon (loaded or unloaded) at somebody else. So, like, half credit. Still a failing grade, then.
One idiot offs himself (IMO without much creativity), and that whole "serf" mentality kicks in. "Ordinary people aren't smart enough to have weapons, only the lord's army should have weapons." Heh. Only so many people fit in that castle on the hill, you know.
Though you may think so, the Yanks don't have the monopoply on idiots with guns.
Some years ago I was on a military range training with the old British army SLR ( Self Loading Rifle) ,We had a few new recruits with us who had just been instructed on IAs, that is immediate actions in the event of a misfire or a jam. One of these budding officers suddenly stood up with his finger on the trigger and shouted `Hey sarge I've forgotten what you said about IAs´ as he said it he pulled the trigger again and the gun went off and put a bullet through a round steel circle painted red to indicate the range was in use, the circle was about six feet away from the range warden's position so he was lucky as were the rest of us. Surprisingly the sargeant in charge of us didn't say a word, he just ran up and knocked the offending idiot who is probably a general by now, off his feet and into the land of nod, I would have shot him but the paperwork would have been horrendous.
Is this the american version russian roulette?
Automatic pistol + no counting skills instead of a revolver + luck, seems about right. Give this man a medal, and here's to hoping the fashion goes all the rage as the new national sport! I would pay good money to watch it on cable.
...I live in Britain and I for one would feel a lot happier walking around London (or any other city it seems at the moment) with a gun... I have had friends shot in London and it's always gangs and kids growing up with no sense of identity or belonging (there is no 'Great Britain' amymore, just a multicultural melting pot where the English are treated as second class citizens). Whilst I obviously don't condone gang warfare of illegal firearms (or knives) on our streets you can see with the state of education and the state of the nation why it is happening
"Robinson's counting skills proved inadequate"
Funniest of it all for me was this sentence, really...
Re: Darwin Awards worthiness, I think this one is a reasonable contender. Yes, it is not of the elaborate absurdity variety, but I can't think of things more stupid than point a gun (no matter how sure you are it's got no ammo) to your head and pull the trigger, particularly when you don't intend to get hurt...