Comments

1
What's interesting is that cheerleading DOES have a high rate of injuries but none of them are near-fatal or fatal (unless it's a mom whose daughter didn't make the squad).
2
Are guns really so poorly made? They always seem to be "accidentally firing" themselves. Articles so rarely say "the person holding the gun absentmindedly pulled the trigger while negligently pointing the weapon at their friend/fiancé/child/dog."
3
No, the original report was badly written.

The world is full of idiots, the US perhaps more so. Some of them show up at the range in blouses that shell casings will fall into and don't have the self control to be safe about the deadly weapon in their hands.

Many, many, more operate motor vehicles unsafely every day, but keep up that divisive drumbeat.
4
@2 I wondered the same thing. I remember the BB gun we had, a pistol, had a pretty good safety that showed bright orange or black depending on if it was on or not. Real tactical weapons don't have such impediments or "tells". Since they have to be used in an instant. The first 3 rules by the NRA could prevent a lot of these accidents but the general public are idiots (me, everyone). Oh the irony, the NRA was started by two union soldiers who thought if the union soldiers were better trained with their guns, the war would have ended quicker thus preventing uneeded bloodshed.
5
Well, your wonderful dad is how trying to gin up rumors (on Facebook) that Seattle Weekly wants to hire Dominic as its next editor. That's the thanks you get for complimenting him!
6
I did the brass dance one time when I was in basic training, but I didn't shoot anyone. Well-regulated militia!
7
Oh GOD. Dominic as editor? There goes any semblance of facts, or honesty, this paper has tried to have.
8
The choice of cheerleading as a comparison statistic is particularly cynical. It sounds ridiculous, because most of us associate cheerleading with jumping up and down with pom-poms, not to mention the "dumb girl" contempt they get for free by mentioning cheerleading.

Cheerleading has actually become extremely dangerous in the last few decades, rivaling elite gymnastics in the difficulty of the moves, but without the safety regulations and soft landing surfaces. And yes, some of the injuries are fatal.
9
I think you meant to say "Well regulated militia suffers friendly fire casualty".
10
@3 - We regulate nearly everything about a car, from the fuel efficiency to the airbags to the drivers' education, to the layout of the roads you can drive them on, to mitigate the dangers of driving. We'd like to do the same for guns.
11
It would be nice if every article about gun violence would say "gun violence, the #2 cause of non-disease deaths in the US" so people would stop making ridiculous comparisons. Yes, cars are #1.
12
Cheerleading is the leading cause of catastrophic injury in young women.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200…

13
#12

A fact?

How'd that get in here?

You're disrupting the incessant stream of liberal doctrine preached by the SLOG pastors from morning to night, blasphemer!
14
@10: We do. With the exception of a few exact replicas of historical models, every pistol (most every firearm, really) made in the last 50 years has an internal safety that makes it drop safe. Guns don't "go off randomly". They go off if and only if the trigger is pulled. If someone is carrying one without a holster that protects the trigger or someone leaves their finger on the trigger when not intending to shoot it (breaking one of the four cardinal rules of firearm safety in the process), then that PERSON is a moron who deserves the full consequences for their actions.
15
I like the first comment on the story ...

"The gun didn't accidentally fire, it worked as intended. She accidentally pulled the trigger."
16
"that PERSON is a moron who deserves the full consequences for their actions" Or, apparently, the person standing nearby does.
17
Cheer leading can lead to horrible accidents, unless you consider being parlylized not so bad.

Softball leads to tremendous hangovers and drunkeness, lewd behavior of all sorts.
18
@14 - Also with the exception of operator education (which @10 listed and you overlooked).

You can buy and operate a gun without the slightest indication that you know how to use one. Buying and operating car requires a license, which means at some point you've passed a driving test.

Not pointing a gun willy nilly (like the idiots in gun-buyback photos above) is as basic as not driving south in a north-bound lane. Maybe if they had to pass a test to own a gun, they wouldn't be ignorant of the most basic element of gun safety.
19
@18: That, for better or worse, requires constitutional changes. Tests to get access to rights, such as poll taxes, have been (rightly) declared unconstitutional because all too often they're used in a discriminatory manner.
20
I love how all the "gun just went off" stories are actually "user had finger on trigger when they were not supposed to" stories.

As said above, every modern gun has several internal safeties. Guns do not just go off when dropped like in movies, unless someone has removed those safeties, or the gun is in such poor repair that those safeties are compromised.

Not making any political points, just saying.
21
Take a look gun nuts. This is who you are.
22
Humans are prone to accidents. This does not mean we should confine ourselves to padded rooms. Firearms are a part of our society and should be dealt with by educating the masses not passing absurd laws that do more to limit law abiding, safe, and intelligent gun owners than stop crime.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.