I didn't see the "one-in-infinity" quotation, but isn't one in infinity a zero chance? So this didn't actually happen and the father is alive and well with his new baby?

"Shisler told deputies he tried to pick up the gun by its trigger"

stupid fuck. charge him with 2nd degree manslaughter.

This is intensely sad.

@2 is clearly correct, even though Shisler will clearly use the pre-emptive stand-your-ground doctrine to defend himself in court.

And of course, if only Mr. Ayers had been armed, he could have, ninja-like, spun and shot Shisler before being shot in the back of the head himself.

And yet, even though there are plenty of laws with which to prosecute Shisler, he will probably get nothing more than a stern talking to. If people thought they might spend life in prison, or even a decade or two, they might think better.. Reading the next story down, if you kill a cyclist, you at least get a $175 ticket - that's probably worse than Shisler will get for his "accident".

And who the F- picks up their firearm by the F-ing trigger???

I bet if he was high on pot instead of drunk he would be getting charged with multiple crimes and be facing a virtual life sentence.

he tried to pick the gun up by the trigger?

We live in a deeply stupid country.

You have to assume he'll be charged with manslaughter right? Right? If you accidentally kill someone with a car you get manslaughter.

Anyone else find it interesting that any time someone's killed with a gun accidentally they simply say the gun "discharged" as though it just decided to blow its top through no action of the person carrying it.

"I didn't shoot anybody! The gun just discharged and the bullet hit that guy in the back of the head."

FYI, the article states
"Shisler was arrested and charged with manslaughter and felon in possession of a firearm. He had a previous felony conviction for carrying a concealed firearm from 2006."

So he is getting at least manslaughter charges. It would be interesting to know where he got that gun since he can't legally have one. Did he buy it at a gun store that didn't background check him or did he buy it on the secondary market where there is no check?

I am so weary of being outraged at these things that I think the only outrage left to muster is that it is happening so frequently.

If you accidentally kill someone with a car you get manslaughter.

What? No you don't. Did you miss the morning news where the worst punishment for a guy who ran over and killed a kid in the crosswalk was a $175 ticket?

I see SLOG's resident gun-humping buffoons that always swoop in minutes after their "stranger + gun" Google alerts go off won't even touch this one.

@14

(sigh.) Fine, I'll take this one if you insist.

So a guy gets killed accidentally by a fucktard in Florida. Fine.

It may not jibe with your worldview, but these are the facts, per the Journal of the American Medical Association:

FIREARMS ACCOUNT FOR 852 ACCIDENTAL DEATHS PER YEAR IN THE UNITED STATES.

1) Medical Errors in hospitals. 210,000-448,000
2) Smoking Tobacco 435,000
3) Obesity 111,999
4) Alcohol 85,000
5) Infectious Diseases 75,000
6) Toxic agents including toxins, particulates and radon 55,000
7) Traffic Collisions 43,000
8) Firearms deaths 31,940
Comprising:
Suicide 19,766
Homicide 11,101
Accidents 852
Unknown 822

So what does this tell us? Folks on the SLOG, including Charles, don't give a shit about preventing deaths. They just don't like guns, which is why a preventable gun death is somehow more tragic than via another means.

And the hypocrisy continues...

____________________________________________________

Mokdad AH, Marks JS, Stroup DF, Gerberding JL (March 2004). "Actual causes of death in the United States, 2000". JAMA 291 (10): 1238–45. doi:10.1001/jama.291.10.1238. PMID 15010446.

@15: The difference being that we regulate the practice of medicine, the sale and use of tobacco and alcohol, and the operation of motor vehicles. We pour funding into combating obesity, disease, and environmental exposure to toxins.
However, it is considered taboo to legislate any sort of gun safety; any regulation of the industry is equated to a direct assault on basic liberties, and federal funds are banned from use in any attempt to study the roots of gun violence. The tragic deaths of 3,000-odd persons in a single terrorist attack in 2001 led to massive changes aimed at preventing further atrocities, and yet ten times that number every year aren't even worth studying. Yeah, there's hypocrisy related to those numbers, but not where you think it is.

@16

You're going to have to prove your numbers to me with sources. 2/3rds of all firearm deaths are via suicide, yet the United States ranks 33rd in suicide rate worldwide, well behind gun free utopias like Japan and Russia.

Then you'll need to start looking at violent homicides as compared to the United States, because in my mind, dead is dead and anyone killed in a violent crime with a gun is just as tragic as someone killed without a gun.

Then you need to look at the data and see where violent crimes occur, which are in metropolitan areas with populations greater than 250,000 where the rate is twice as high as smaller cities and dwarfs the violent crime rate in rural areas.

My point is that you shouldn't get your information from the media, which makes money by pushing fear. Go get the information for yourself.

@16, wait a minute — are you trying to imply that there are no gun laws in this country? Jesus H. Motherfucking Christ, pay attention, son. There are hundreds of thousands of gun laws. So many, in fact, that even us lawyers have a hard time keeping them all straight. We don't need more of them.

@17: I didn't make any claims about numbers. What numbers do you speak of?
@18: Legislate, verb: to make or enact laws.

@19

YOU WILL NEVER GET THE LAST WORD WITH ME!

(Just kidding. Thought someone might get a chuckle if anyone ever sees this thread again...)

If anyone is wondering why I'm looking through old threads, I'm trying to collect all of my gun screed from over time to compile my main points into something easily digestible.