Responsible Gun Owners Continue Shooting Kids To Keep America Safe

Yet another in the long-running internet series 'cats with guns'

Time once again to check in with America's Responsible Gun Owners to find out how the Second Amendment has been keeping us all safe from government tyranny and rampant crime, though not necessarily from ourselves or people we live with. Hope you can hear the freedom ringing -- or that may be your ears. Use proper protective equipment at the range, will ya?

Let's All Go To The Lobby And Reload

In Salina, Kansas, a gentleman who had just gotten a brand-new concealed-carry permit took his pistol to the movies because, as everyone knows from reading internet comment threads, the one sure way to make sure you're not a victim of an Aurora-style massacre is to carry a concealed weapon. And happily, in July, a new Kansas law took effect allowing concealed carry just about anywhere without a permit or any mandatory training, because what part of Shall Not Be Infringed don't you understand? Local TV station KWCH reports that about 45 minutes into the movie, the gun went off, as they sometimes do when handled less than responsibly. Witness Heather Myers told the station a man sitting about three rows behind her and her husband, Domenic, began calling for help:

"This guy started shouting 'Oh my God, I just shot myself! I just got my concealed and carry,' and then everybody jumped up and that's when we heard call 9-11. [sic]

According to Salina police, the man accidentally shot himself once in the leg.

"You could feel the concussion of the shot," Domenic said. "I mean you know being in a movie theatre it's a surreal situation, and I don't believe anybody really expects it to be a gunshot."

Ms. Myers said that despite the inexperienced gun owner's mishap, she supports the new gun law, since, as she put it, "I believe in protecting yourself, but it is scary knowing they're in public places."

Quite the conundrum! Luckily, everyone was protected in case some nut with a gun had tried to pull off a mass shooting.

Small Prices To Pay For Liberty

In Chicago Saturday, a six-year-old boy shot and killed his three-year-old brother, Eian Santiago, while playing "cops and robbers." The older boy had climbed on top of the family's refrigerator and found a loaded revolver kept there by the boys' father, Michael Santiago. Mr. Santiago was arrested and charged with child endangerment. He told police that he was a former member of a street gang and had bought the gun from a gang member "for protection." A week prior to the shooting, Santiago had shown the gun to the six-year-old and told him not to touch it because it was only for grown-ups. Looks like Santiago's abbreviated version of the NRA's Eddie Eagle safety training didn't quite take. On the plus side, at least Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal won't be able to complain that this tragedy occurred because the boys didn't have a father in their lives.

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In Paulding County, Georgia, also on Saturday, an eight-year-old girl, Sharia Lynch, was shot in the head and killed when a 9mm handgun fell on the floor and discharged while her mother was braiding Sharia's hair. It's not clear why the gun was there at all -- probably for "protection," the way so many guns are. The bullet first went through Marsha Lynch's leg and then fatally wounded Sharia in the head; she died before she could be airlifted to a hospital.

The Paulding County Sheriff’s Office is investigating who the gun belonged to and why it was able to discharge when it hit the floor. A firearms dealer interviewed by WXIA-TV said that the handgun's safety should have prevented a discharge unless the gun had been modified, perhaps to have a shorter trigger pull. No charges have yet been filed, but it should be pointed out that many of the founders of our nation said many inspiring things about the right for citizens to be armed being a necessary part of liberty.

In the most recent defense against tyranny, at least as we type this, a four-year-old girl was shot and killed Tuesday while riding in her parents' pickup in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in an apparent act of fatal road rage. It's unclear how the incident started, but the killer's vehicle pulled alongside the pickup on Interstate 40, and the driver fired several shots, hitting the girl in the head. Police say they have a description of the suspect's vehicle but have not yet located it. According to KOB-TV, one witness described a red pickup -- apparently the vehicle the girl was riding in -- repeatedly changing lanes to prevent a red sedan from passing. Again, very tragic, but the sort of thing that cannot possibly be prevented because Americans need guns for self-protection, and occasionally revenge against rude drivers. Or at least their preschool children. It's all in the Constitution, wonderful document.

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We're now up to 576 children under the age of 11 killed or injured by guns in 2015, up from 559 just two weeks ago. On the up side, we didn't come across any story of toddlers shooting anyone in the last few days, so there's that.

Teen Shoots Friend With 'Empty' Gun While Potted Up On Weed

In the Boise suburb of Meridian, Idaho, an 18-year-old boy shot a 15-year-old boy dead Saturday. David Provencio was charged with involuntary manslaughter after the incident. The two were among several people in a bedroom drinking and smoking the marijuana, and at some point, somebody thought it would be a great idea to take out a couple of guns and start waving them around.

Provencio reportedly thought the handgun was not loaded when he pointed it at the 15-year-old and pulled the trigger, according to [the Meridian Police Department].

The boy sustained a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the hospital. The incident was initially called in as a suicide, but after questioning, police arrested and charged with the shooting [sic]

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The handgun was determined to belong to Provencio; Meridian is not known as an especially high-crime area, but there is a general consensus in the state of Idaho that guns are the coolest thing ever. 

Most Gun Owners Disagree With NRA, Imagine That

Some potentially hopeful number-crunching from the Washington Post's Christopher Ingraham: Despite the enormous influence of the National Rifle Association in both Congress and state legislatures, survey data suggest that the organization's absolutist views on gun regulation are not shared by all gun owners, and not even by all NRA members.

We've known for a while, based on the 2013 Pew survey Ingraham draws from, that the majority of gun owners, and even the majority of NRA members, support closing the gun show loophole for background checks. But it's also worth noting that a slim majority (51 percent) of gun owners who aren't NRA members also support measures like a ban on assault-style semiautomatic rifles and limits on magazine capacity, joining a larger majority of non-gun owners who support those steps. And as Ingraham points out, even one third of NRA members support these measures.

What he's getting at is that the loudest voices in the room are not representative of most gun owners, and it should be possible to get those people to support measures that could reduce some of the carnage.

Anecdotally, here on Yr Wonkette, we have no shortage of armed liberals who can't stand the NRA, and are in favor of things like mandatory training, licensure, and insurance for gun owners.

Back to Ingraham:

Taken as a whole, these numbers indicate that there's a large and largely silent majority of gun owners who find themselves at odds with the NRA on key gun policy issues. And even within the NRA, plenty of members disagree with the organization's stated policy positions. As my colleague Michael Rosenwald wrote last week, this silent majority has been locked out of the gun control debate, on the one hand by gun control advocates who paint gun owners in broad brushstrokes, and on the other by the more extreme elements within the NRA.

Seriously, take a minute to go read that Rosenwald piece, too. Yr Wonkette promises to do what it can to reach out to sensible gun owners who want to break the NRA's death grip (sadly, not an entirely metaphorical term) on gun laws. To start with, we pledge to specify that by "gun-humpers" we only mean people who fetishize their bang-sticks to the point of orgasmic delight. If you just like to go out plinkin' at cans or are a hiker who carries a gun because you don't relish being et by a grizzly, we'd like to hear from you. We won't even mind if you limit your gun-love to occasional flirtatious caresses. You're the real responsible gun owners, but the crazies have been claiming to speak for you for too long, and like that infamous Cleveland Browns letter, it looks like some asshole has been signing your names to stupid messages.

[ KWCH via RawStory / Reuters / WXIA-TV via RawStory / Idaho Statesman / Wapo via Tegan Goddard's WonkWire / WaPo again]