On Thursday, July 21, 2022, a Michigan Home Depot customer “reached for his wallet and accidentally grabbed his gun,” and shot himself “in the rear end.” (Story here.)
When this hit the news, a debate raged on the HorsesAss.org blog (more or less here) about whether this is funny (or, alternatively, hilarious).
A GOP-leaning commenter compared it to the Wisconsin legislator who killed a woman and child while driving with one eye and talking on her cellphone (in his selective outrage, he didn’t mention the GOP state attorney general who killed a pedestrian and thought it was an eyeglasses-wearing deer), and also to someone running over a child with a riding lawnmower.
Accidents happen, he seemed to be saying, and when they do they’re not funny. Certainly the deaths and injuries aren’t. But some liberal-leaning anti-gun commenters, including yours truly, thought so; I posted, “Shooting oneself in the ass with one’s own gun simply isn’t in the same category as distracted driving or running over a kid with a lawnmower.”
What arguably makes it funny is their belligerent attitude about carrying guns in public combined with demonstrated incompetence in handling these obviously dangerous instruments.
What’s not funny is they’re allowed to do it. What if, instead of wounding himself in the derriere, this careless gun-toter shot and killed another shopper’s child?
We need better legislatures. And a better Supreme Court.
Photo below: Is this the Home Depot shopping experience you want?
