A Geek With Guns

I have a quick tip for today. If you do something illegal don’t post about it on a damned forum. That is all.

How efficient of North Korea:

North Korea has promised a “physical response” to joint US-South Korean military exercises this weekend.

Yes that’s certainly a good idea. I’m sure the United States, who have been looking for practically any excuse to go to war with North Korea, and really shaking in their boots over this threat. Yup. No seriously can’t you tell how scared America is of the big and powerful North Korea?

I’m sure most of you have guessed I’m against the death penalty simply on the grounds that I don’t believe a government has the right to kill citizens outside of the defense of a human life (in other words the same rules that apply to the citizens apply to the government in my book). But if you’re going to execute somebody at least do it on the cheap.

At 0000 MDT Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by .30 Winchester rifle round to the chest:

Four of the .30 calibre Winchester rifles were loaded with live bullets but a fifth carried a blank, so that none of the men would have known with certainty that he had shot a lethal round.

Gardner was asked if he had any final words and said: “I do not. No.”

He was hooded and strapped to a black metal chair, with a white target pinned to his chest.

Gardner was then shot at a range of 25ft (7.6m).

I have to say I don’t mind this method of execution if we’re going to do it. It’s cheap and effective. Lethal injection requires chemicals that I’m sure are fairly expensive, the electric chair isn’t always reliable, but good old bullets are cheap and reliable. Also this may go down at the best use of Twitter ever:

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff used the Twitter micro-blogging site to say he had given the go-ahead for execution.

“May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims,” Mr Shurtleff tweeted.

That’s right his execution was Tweeted. I wonder if that’s a first.

I’m also not sure if I would call this an execution so much as natural selection:

He was convicted in 1985 of fatally shooting a lawyer during an attempt to escape from a court where he was facing another murder charge dating from 1984.

Real bright buddy. You’re up on murder charges so at the trail you shoot a lawyer and try to escape… from a courtroom most likely to guarded. You’re a smart one aren’t you. I guess I should say you’re were a smart one weren’t you.

But alas this method of execution was deemed too efficient and both in it’s ability to execute the target and in the small cost to the taxpayers:

Gardner, 49, chose the firing squad before Utah banned the method in 2004. Critics say it is barbaric, harking back to the Wild West.

Critics say death by firing squad is barbaric? Really? Wouldn’t it be better to say execution in general is barbaric? I mean between being electrocuted to death, injected with lethal chemicals, or shot I’d rather be shot. But the bottom line is killing somebody outside of self defense is a barbaric act. Changing the method of execution doesn’t all of the sudden make it all rainbows and unicorns.

Every Day, No Days Off informs us that some marketing people don’t think their clever ideas through all the way:

A marketing stunt to promote a video game sparked an armed police callout after an actor pointed a fake gun at terrified pubgoers in Auckland’s Viaduct Basin.

About 20 revellers drinking outside Degree bar dived for cover after the promotions worker threatened them with a black imitation pistol about 8pm on Friday.

I can’t quite put my finger on it but something seems wrong with that promotional idea.

Random Nuclear Strikes reminds us that guns are not toys:

Sheriff’s deputies have arrested a man who said he accidentally shot his girlfriend to death with a gun they used during foreplay.

May I suggest handcuffs next time?

I don’t have much to say other than this. If you’re a person looking for the “truth” about 9/11 maybe shooting up a heavily fortified command center isn’t the best way of going about it. I don’t think Rambo could successfully shoot that place up.

Here is a story implementing a really bad idea via Dvorak Uncensored. It appears as though police officers are going to stage break ins. Yes police officers are going to break into the homes of citizens to raise awareness of burglaries. I see all sorts of bad things coming from this. See people don’t take kindly to strange people breaking into their homes in the middle of the night. Often when a person encounters the stranger they decided to perforate that individuals with gun fire… oh wait this is happening in England. Yeah never mind, capital idea there Bobby.

Says Uncle brings us a story where the moral of the story is if you’re carrying make sure your noise maker is in a holster. Mitchum Patterson didn’t follow this precaution and suffered a negligent discharge. Worse yet he was illegally carrying the gun on school grounds which of course should be impossible since it’s a gun free zone. Here is the situation:

A Dallas Independent School District maintenance worker is recovering at Parkland Memorial Hospital after shooting himself with a gun he carried onto an elementary campus.

Here is how it happened:

Mitchum Patterson, 52, shot himself accidentally in his right thigh as he bent over inside a maintenance closet at Umphrey Lee Elementary School. The employee, who has worked at DISD for 14 years, had the loaded gun tucked in his pants.

Here is what he’s facing:

DISD police plan to charge Patterson, who has been suspended from his job, with a third degree felony once he is released from the hospital.

Patterson could face two to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 if convicted. However, judges have the right to give probation in some cases.

And to think that could be have been voided by a $10.00 Uncle Mike’s holster. But the absolute best quote in this article is:

“It was crazy because our kids are here,” said Laquecia Smith, a parent. “It’s supposed to be a gun-free zone. You see the signs up and down the street.”

Wait you mean those signs can’t actually enforce themselves? OH SHIT! WARNING! People CAN bring guns into gun free zones! How is this possible? THERE ARE SIGNS!

This kind of story can only occur in the area where I grew up (Viroqua, WI is very close to my home town in southeastern Minnesota). A deer picked a fight with the wrong elk costing that daring deer it’s life. From the story:

A love-struck buck ran out of luck a week ago. The seven-point buck was killed when it rammed a 640-pound concrete statue of an elk in the backyard of Mark and Carol Brye’s home in rural Viroqua.

That’s right deer will hunt themselves for you. Yes after it’s death the deer was tagged:

Brye claimed the buck with a tag from the Vernon County conservation warden. He laughed at the warden’s tag note: “lawn ornament fight – lost.”

This even is a reminder that humans aren’t the only species Darwin’s ghost is watching over. But on a serious note the challenging deer did get a good strike against the elk:

“The statue is OK, but the antlers broke off when it tipped over,” Brye said. “One side of the antlers is in one piece, but the other side is in five pieces.”

Seriously this story is too funny.

Wow some people are fucking idiots. I present exhibit one here. I’m not going to say anything until you read this:

Timothy William Pollard, 37, and friend Robert Knorr, 28, were playing with the gun Sunday night after a full day of drinking. Pollard had about six beers, a couple shots at a bar and then another beer at home.

I bet you can guess where this is going:

Pollard had taken the handgun and pointed it at Knorr. Pollard told police he thought the safety was on as he pulled the trigger once and it just clicked, the Greeley Tribune reported. So he pulled the trigger again, shooting Knorr.

This should bring a couple points to bear. First booze and guns are not good bed fellows. If you want to drink leave the gun, if you want to carry the gun don’t drink (and before somebody says something this has nothing to do with being able to carry guns in places that serve booze, you should be allowed to do that so long as you don’t drink). The second point is you never, EVER, point a firearm at another individual unless it’s in self defense. The gun is always loaded, plain and simple (somebody is going to quote Gabe Suarez’s remark about two people verifying it’s empty, I don’t care the only safe bet is not to cover another person with your barrel ever).

And to top it all off these clowns are from my state.