Pretty much any non-felon who can fog a mirror can obtain a concealed carry permit in Florida (1,269,021 already have — suck it, Texas!). That way, they can strut around gated townhouse communities stroking The Precious in their pockets and be ready to respond to impudent, hoodie-wearing, Skittles-carrying, tea-drinking teens with a hail of gunfire if they feel they’re in danger of getting an ass-whoopin’ for being a creepy-ass cracker stalker.
They can also whip out The Precious at a crowded shopping center and threaten complete strangers who are whipping someone else’s ass due to unknown reasons, and not only will they NOT be arrested, the local news media will laud them as “Good Samaritans:”
Robert Avery came to PetSmart in Largo to buy fish food. He never thought he would be using his handgun to break up a fight.
[snip]Largo Police says Avery did nothing wrong. He always carries his concealed weapons permit. Police say that gives him the right to have the gun in the shopping center parking lot. Police added that by protecting the victim that gave him the right to pull the gun.
“If it wasn’t for me, nobody else was acting outside here,” he said. “Everybody was just going on their merry way with no concern for someone who was literally getting the daylights beat out of him.”
Largo police did not file any charges. They say there was no evidence to prove who started the fight. Both men say the other started it.
Avery claims he made sure no innocent bystanders were between the barrel of his gun and the combatants, which is, of course, awfully magnanimous of him, but who the fuck appointed him Eliot Ness?
And how did a person who is unable to use “literally” correctly in a sentence presume to divine that one of the fighters wouldn’t pull out his own gun and start shooting in the crowded area, perhaps taking out someone’s toddler or Bichon Frisé?
And since the cops didn’t have enough evidence to charge either of the combatants with a crime, and apparently no one was rushed to the emergency room with a skull fracture, was the beat-down really as potentially life threatening as Avery claims it was?
I really don’t know. But I’m thinking that standing up an army of a million-plus gun-toting Nosy Nellies will not end well.
Luke, Chapter 10, 33-34 (Ammosexual Edition):
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He
went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of himpulled out his Glock and threatened to splatter that motherfucking stranger’s brains all over the PetSmart sidewalk if he didn’t desist from beating the shit out of that other motherfucking stranger, for violence is wrong.
Yes, intervene in a dangerous fight — take five steps to the door of the store and call for help. Bounce chew toys off the combatants. Sprinkle fish food on them. Threaten to run into the assailant with a shopping cart. But escalating the situation with a gun? Not around my kids or pets, fuckface.
Roger Moore
He assumed, probably correctly, that if either of the fighters were carrying, they would have used their firearm to settle the argument rather than resorting to fisticuffs. With
Stand Your GroundLast Man Standing, it’s the wise thing for a well-armed Floridian to do.Walker
Adam Weinstein has just posted a really good article related to this:
http://gawker.com/its-really-hard-to-be-a-good-guy-with-a-gun-1588660306
JPL
When new dogs meet and get out of control, I’ve always used a hose. I guess a gun would work but then I’d have to use the hose to wash off the blood anyway.
(Actually I never used the water hose but it sounds like a good idea.)
BGinCHI
Surprised that the cops didn’t roll up and literally shoot the blood out of him.
Oh wait, what color was he?
ranchandsyrup
“By the authoritah vested in me by Samuel Colt, I am judge, jury, and executioner.” *spits chaw*
Zam
Fighting in public is not a crime we hand out the death penalty for but thanks to our new citizen police force we can change that.
Violet
President Obama spoke out about gun violence today.
He also said the US “does not have a “monopoly on crazy people.” And yet the violence keeps happening here.
Betty Cracker
@Violet: Well said, Mr. Obama.
Gravenstone
That’s nice and all, but was he also making sure there were no innocent bystanders downrange the couple of hundred yards his rounds would be lethal if he fired? No, of course he didn’t.
Schlemizel
The guy that got shot at WalMart in Las Vegas was a 31 year old Concealed Carry guy. When the assholes ordered everyone to the back of the store he confronted them. They shot him. The only person that they did shoot in Wally World.
The NRA is getting a lot of people killed even people who think the NRA is god
Patrick
We have people bring AK’s to Target, 2 days ago somebody had brought a gun to a Walmart and got killed using it, here we have a guy bringing a gun to Petsmart of all places, and recently where I live some idiot’s gun misfired at the grocery store when he was in the mensroom.
Hell, it’s getting to the point where I can’t go shopping anymore because of these nutcases that insist on bringing their stupid guns to places where they don’t belong. Guns create freedom??? For who???
Betty Cracker
@Walker: Excellent article. Thanks for sharing it.
skerry
Interesting article on just this topic. “Half the class said to shoot the black guy”
Sorry for the gawker link.
Kropadope
@Schlemizel:
The other two victims were police officers, so does that mean that every single person they killed was armed?
Alison
What I always wish someone would ask these fuckers is – what if an innocent bystander *did* get in the line of fire? What if you whip out your 45 caliber inferiority complex and think you’re going to save the day by stopping a robber or someone using too much creamer in Starbucks or whatever, and you accidentally shoot and kill a completely innocent person?
What should happen to you? What punishment would you deserve? You killed an innocent person. Should you suffer no repercussions because you were pretending to be a cop or you were the “good guy”? Should that person’s family just have to say “Oh well, these things happen” and let you go on with your pathetic, paranoid, now-murderous life?
I have a strong feeling they’d say yes, nothing should happen to them. Which makes me hate them even more.
WaterGirl
@Kropadope: That would be correct.
skerry
@Kropadope: Yep. If Wilson hadn’t been carrying, he would be alive today.
Keith G
I was just thinking about the poor sap (would be good Samaritan) who thought he would be taking care of business by pulling his personal weapon on the male shooter at the Las Vegas Wal-Mart.
What this good guy did not know was that there was more than one bad guy, so his exercise of his right to carry a gun got his butt killed.
Sad.
After edit….And I was not alone.
WaterGirl
Betty Cracker, I love you for writing that sentence.
Davis X. Machina
@Alison:
We hold harmless the firm that built and sold the gun, don’t we?
People are corporations too, my friend.
Schlemizel
@Kropadope:
Yes, yes it does.
I give the cops a pass because they were shot by surprise with no warning & no chance. The dipshit at Wally put himself in the situation when, if not for his penis extension, he would have avoided and would have survived.
raven
Tonight’s rainy night in Georgia.
Schlemizel
@Schlemizel:
why is this in moderation?
or crap, I said a naughty word, PEE-ness
@Kropadope:
Yes, yes it does.
I give the cops a pass because they were shot by surprise with no warning & no chance. The dipshit at Wally put himself in the situation when, if not for his [email protected]Kropadope: extension, he would have avoided and would have survived.
Steve from Antioch
@Walker: Interesting article. Thanks.
WaterGirl
@raven: Beautiful photo!
skerry
@Walker: Sorry. I didn’t see you had posted this until it was too late for me to edit my comment.
Kropadope
@Schlemizel:
Darnit, your fairness has deprived me something to lord of my glibertarian roommate.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Nice! We had a similar sky awhile ago, and now it’s pouring.
Iowa Old Lady
Eric Cantor appears to be losing his primary.
skerry
OT: With 71.3% districts reporting, Eric Cantor is losing in his VA primary. 56.2 Brat. 43.8 Cantor.
A girl can dream.
ETA: Sorry Iowa Old Lady
JPL
@raven: Nice pic. We had a nice shower but I’m hoping for more. The plants are saying feed me.
WaterGirl
@Iowa Old Lady: Be still my beating heart.
beltane
I know it’s OT, and Michael Moore at that, but his latest FB status is like the cherry atop today’s shit sundae:
Iowa Old Lady
@skerry: You had the details!
JPL
@Iowa Old Lady: That would be awesome. What an asshole. We need to have five day postal delivery not because the post office needs the savings but so we can build a bridge. I can’t stand him.
Betty Cracker
@Iowa Old Lady: Wow! I wonder what the chances are that the mouth-breather who wins would lose in a general? I despise that weaselly fuck Cantor.
Violet
@Iowa Old Lady: @skerry: Seriously? That is good news! Is his opponent a crazy teabagger?
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Does it really matter. Cantor is a mouthpiece on the tv and the next person won’t be. They vote the same.
Luthe
A modest proposal:
Why don’t we link sensible gun laws to law enforcement funding, the way we linked raising the drinking age to highway funding? Your red state doesn’t want to implement an assault weapons ban? Fine, but we’re cutting your small town SWAT team money by ten percent. It can even be spun as deficit reduction! The more states that opt out, the more money saved!
Pogonip
@Patrick: To Target? The girliest chain in America? I would expect pearl-handled pistols.
Iowa Old Lady
@Violet: Cantor’s opponent is named Brat (sausage or spoiled child? you decide) and is an economics professor. Beyond that, I don’t know. Apparently it’s an open primary and there was some agitation for Dems to vote for Brat.
D58826
@Betty Cracker: Two unrelated points.
1. looks like Graham will win in SC
2. the family of the dead good guy with a gun can’t afford to bury him. They are asking for donations. Maybe the NRA will kick in a buck or two..
Schlemizel
@Schlemizel:
sorry about putting your link in the middle, no idea what happened: @Kropadope:
Heliopause
Maybe tangential, but the “good Samaritan” analogy is rarely used properly in news reports. In contemporary society you have to be a Muslim or a black male in a hoody or an atheist or some such doing a good deed to be technically a “good samaritan”.
Schlemizel
@Iowa Old Lady:
how fucked up are we as a nation when Eric Can’ter is not radical enough.
PsiFighter37
Eric Cantor is losing! That about makes my day. Boehner is an alcoholic who I feel mildly sad for at times, but Cantor’s a little piece of shit. I’m thrilled he’s going down.
Anoniminous
Cantor is loosing?
I shall prepare to flavor my popcorn with my salty, salty, tears.
ETA: AP declared the Brat won.
Roger Moore
@Luthe:
You and what Congressional majority? The problem isn’t coming up with good gun laws; it’s passing them given the political sway of the NRA.
skerry
@JPL: Probably, but it would be nice to see a Tea Party fool run in the general. Even if he won, he wouldn’t have the seniority/position of Cantor.
Virginia has open primaries. “Cooter” (Ben Jones) from the TV show Dukes of Hazard was encouraging democrats to cross party lines and vote against Cantor. Maybe it is working.
I’ll go make the popcorn.
JPL
@PsiFighter37: Maybe. Don’t pop that cork until the deed is done.
Does anyone have a link for live updates on the Cantor race?
Kropadope
@Schlemizel: NBD
SatanicPanic
I helped stopped a fight once but I wasn’t that scared because I was drunk and also because I was in Japan so I knew that neither guy was packing.
JPL
hah ..Maddow is saying he lost the race..
D58826
@JPL: kos has a live blog going for all of the races
Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim
@Betty Cracker: Pretty good chances for the mouth-breather. The Democratic Party has not troubled itself to nominate a candidate in the 7th district.
skerry
MSNBC (Rachel Maddow) just called the race for Brat. Cantor is out!
Evidently, there isn’t even a Democratic candidate for the seat yet.
D58826
Speaking of mouth breathers Calgary Cruz has officially give up his Canadian citizenship. I suspect there will be a run on popcorn and party hats north of the border once the news spreads.
Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim
@Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim: Sorry, I’m an idiot. The Democratic candidate, Mike Dickinson, didn’t have a primary opponent.
Again, sorry.
Anoniminous
Sitting here laughing my ass off. Cantor has not only lost the primary he’s lost any power he had in the GOP caucus, nobody is going to give a damn what a lame duck says.
Tommy
Can I ask a stupid question. Does anybody here live in a place where folks are just walking around openly armed? I live in a rural area. Blue dog district, but not super liberal. Also, if I am not mistaken IL was the last state to have a carry permit made legal, via the SCOTU. But with that said EVERYBODY I know owns guns. Often more then one or two. You know hunting and stuff. I’ve never heard a single one of them want to take one of them to shopping.
I ask cause I’ve NEVER been in public and seen ANYBODY with a gun that wasn’t a law enforcement officer.
If I started going out and folks were carrying a handgun around, honestly it would freak me out more then a little. An AR-15 over their shoulder like I am seeing in some places, at my local Subway, and I’d honestly back out of the place slowly and call the police.
With that said I am willing to bet I am more “pro-gun” (whatever that means I guess) then most liberals, but this is just getting out of control.
I asked the above question cause I am wondering if what I see in the media is just a planned thing that doesn’t happen on a daily place in other areas. You know a staged event to get media coverage. Do people here live in places where when they go get a soda they are standing behind somebody with an AR-15 over their shoulder?
Fred Fnord
@Schlemizel: Well, there was that guy with the pepper spray. He didn’t have a gun, and he might have done the same thing in this situation, and one shooter would have ended up with a face full of pepper spray and his wife would have killed the pepper sprayer.
Some people try to be heroes whether they’re armed or not.
D58826
@Tommy: My guess would be you would see some guys with hunting rifles/shot guns getting coffee during hunting season. But they would kinda standout as hunters with their gear and the orange safety vests
Tommy
@D58826: I see hunters all the time. But they leave their guns in their trucks. You don’t need one to get a cup of coffee, some fishing bait, or ice.
realbtl
@Tommy: This is my experience here in Montana as well. Almost everyone has guns but they are seen as tools for a particular job, hunting. No need to parade around with one.
What carpenter is going to walk into Target carrying his nail gun?
the Conster
@Walker:
Wow, that was a great read. I am always amazed – literally – when someone admits that they love guns, like he does in the article. There is just something fundamentally wrong with someone who admits to loving a tool. It’s weird. That’s why the article is so good though – he can speak gun nut but he’s thoughtful.
OzarkHillbilly
Some years ago when I still lived on the south side of STL I was driving north on Jefferson thru midtown at about 2 am when around about Chouteau, I came across some guy beating some other guy’s ass in the middle of Jefferson.
I said “HEY! KNOCK IT OFF!!”
He mouthed off about how he was going to kick my ass, until I stopped in the middle of the street. More words. Less beating. No guns. Just one bloody beaten guy in the middle of the street and me, as the other guy walked away..
Steve from Antioch
@Tommy: The open carry types are just yahoos trying to make a point. We had it for a while in various communities in California before a recent law passed. The point they were trying to make – which follows no logic at all – was that they were going to open carry (which was then legal) as a protest against CA not having concealed carry. The game was to parade around with you rifle and your go-pro hoping some cop stopped you so you could lecture him and your 3 you tube followers about your RIGHTS.
Most of these stories are coming out of Texas it seems so I assume it is still legal to open carry there. For the life of me, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to –especially since TX has concealed carry.
Tommy
@realbtl: That is how everybody I know thinks about their guns. They are tools. Look if I felt I needed to take a gun with me to be safe to TGI Fridays, well (1) I wouldn’t go to TGI Fridays and (2) I’d honestly think about moving.
Tommy
@Steve from Antioch: That is a point I ponder. If I can conceal I’d rather do that. I can only assume if some wacko walked into where I was with the intent of killing people, if my gun was out in the open I’d be the first person dead.
the Conster
@Steve from Antioch:
You know who does things they shouldn’t because they can? Children. The point of open carry is not to parade around exercising rights – that’s the bullshit cover story. The point and the attraction is to intimidate without fear of retribution. In other words, it’s all about bullying and cowardice and childishness, and children shouldn’t have guns.
Steve from Antioch
@the Conster:
“There is just something fundamentally wrong with someone who admits to loving a tool.”
Really? Sounds like you need better tools.
But seriously, set aside the question of guns for a minute — there’s no tool in your life that you don’t love? There are some woodworking tools – such as my little Lie-Nielson apron plane – that I love. I’m happy whenever I can find an excuse to use it.
If the house was on fire and I had all the living things out and safe, I’d run back in to get that out.
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet:
I think we have a monopoly on ammosexuals, though.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@the Conster:
This.
the Conster
@Steve from Antioch:
If someone told me that they loved their chainsaw – they carry it with them everywhere they can in fact – I’d maintain eye contact, back up and warn anyone in the vicinity that that person was crazy. No, there’s no fucking inanimate object in the world – especially a gun – that should ever evoke love. If you would die for a tool, then yes, there’s seriously something fundamentally wrong with you.
Steve from Antioch
@the Conster: well I don’t carry my apron plane with me wherever I go, so I guess I am sane. Whew.
WereBear
And I would add, as the Daily Show has been doing… they are seemingly racist children, as well.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@the Conster: The people who carry their guns around everywhere don’t view them as tools. For them they are talismans of power. The people who view them as tools use them for their intended purpose, clean them, and put them away.
pluege
the old fashioned “real” man way to stop a fight was to get in between the two fighters (who without fail don’t want to carry on after the first few seconds anyway – both know who is gonna wup who within seconds of a fight starting). None of this chicken-shit pull a gun out coward stuff.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): That’s exactly it. Gun as fetish, in the original sense of the word. And, given ammosexual, the more recent usage as well.
I may have inadvertently made a gun pun.
pluege
@the Conster: by definition, wanting a gun means that person is unfit to own one and should be under professional psychological care.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
Ew.
Kay
I agree Betty. 100%. I didn’t ask for an armed, amatuer national watch and I don’t want the “help”. I thought the guns were to protect their families, anyway. Now we all have to have this roving “protection”?
It’s like they’ve internalized the laws they changed, where they expanded the castle doctrine to ridiculous lengths and now they think the whole country is their property. I’m sick of it.
the Conster
@pluege:
There are legitimate circumstances to want to own a gun, or need a gun, and like Omnes says, if you’re not a gun nut, you’re glad you haven’t had to use it, or even show it. You take responsibility for it in every way, but you don’t love it. If you LOVE guns, there’s something fundamentally off about you. It’s weird and creepy and a signifier that you value force over consent.
NonyNony
@Steve from Antioch:
The Texas Open Carry yahoos are specifically protesting the fact that Open Carry of handguns is illegal in the state while Open Carry of long arms is not (because nobody was ever stupid enough to do it so Texas never needed a law, I suppose). They want the law changed so that they can open carry handguns.
As to why they’re carrying around the most vicious-looking long arms they can find instead of the typical hunting rifle? Because they’re assholes who push the law to the ultimate limits to “prove” their “point”.
As to why they want to be able to openly carry handguns – I can only presume it’s because their Old West Cosplay is hampered by the fact that they have to wear their handguns under their jackets instead of hanging in holsters at their sides where they can always have them available to draw in case they find themselves on an empty street at High Noon against a rival gunslinger. Or something. (Swear to Grod that most of these yahoos could be settled if we could just find the right MMORPG for them all to get addicted to – could someone PLEASE develop a Red Dawn MMO for these guys to get sucked into?)
gian
@the Conster:
yep, the guy making the night deposit from a mostly cash business like a 7-11 has a legitimate reason to want to carry.
why you’d want the drunk in a bar to carry, well it’s not freaking rational unless you want death. I can only imagine the mess that dodger stadium would have been under McCourt’s “security” plan if it was full of guns.
can you imagine what would happen to santa claus in philly if the fans were packing?
I hope they push to allow carrying guns to family court hearings because no-one is ever at risk to lose their temper there, as they’re all “responsible gun owners”
Someone with more skill than I have could do a good riff off of “friends romans countrymen… replacing honorable men with responsible gun owners”
gian
@Tommy:
armored car guards aren’t sworn peace officers and they carry. as do some security guards. (google California guard card)
the Conster
@gian:
You know what the real responsible gun owners would do? They’d tell those open carry losers to grow the fuck up and act like responsible adults, and hump your gun at home without children around. If not, the grown ups will have to take their guns away, because they obviously aren’t able to handle the responsibility. They’re children, and need to be treated like children now.
Sondra
I can’t say what the 2 recent “good samaritans” had in mind when they came to the rescue of these people. One, who carried a concealed weapon is dead, trying to stop the carnage at a Walmart. The other one is this fellow who was certainly taking a big chance bringing a gun to what looked like a fist fight.
But I do know that every time I hear the phrase “Good Samaritan” I think back to what and who that first Samaritan was. The Samaritans were universally despised by the Jews of that era. They were thought to be the worst people in the world, and that’s why Jesus used them in his parable. In the version in Luke he says, “the good Samaritan” and he meant it literally.
He said it that way to mean that the man was the only good man from that tribe. There is no other reference like it in the entire bible. No other description of any other men or tribes where there is only one good man among all of the others.
The result here is that the stupid phrase “the only way to stop a bad man with a gun, is a good man with a gun” applies. Of all of the people carrying guns, there may be ONE good one. If so, he’s now dead.
The other “good one” walked away this time, but I doubt if he will ever leave his gun at home again, and I have no doubt he will use it again.
I just hope it doesn’t mean that another kid with a bag of skittles doesn’t die in the wrong neighborhood or that a few innocent by-standers at another Walmart don’t end up dead in a shoot out.
Robert Avery
I got an idea why dont you do something to help people? Largo PD is still working this and has been turned over to DA. From what I saw and acted one was a Strong Armed Robbery. Also that is what is coming out now. Also you dont know my training or background.
And for you racists out there everyone was white cause i know you racist are concern about that and I can tell you by bring up the whole treyvon martin issue here. GET OVER IT!!! I dont care if your black, white, asian or hispanic, if you are committing a forcible felony you will see the end of my barrel of my gun period. Grow up and move on or we will seperate more and more. Lets all move forward as a community and help those in need.
Btw this is your notice to remove article as this article falls under slander. If not removed in 24 hours will file a suit. Good day