6 Jan 16

“Newspapers don’t print the truth. They print what people say”

Frank Galvin (played by Paul Newman) from the 1982 feature film, “The Verdict”

Why can’t gun manufacturers make guns that don’t “misfire?”

Yesterday, in Colorado Springs, CO, a man who said he was “cleaning his gun” (type, brand not reported) had an ND. The single bullet penetrated a common apartment wall and injured a neighbor. Injury was not life-threatening.

Shooter was arrested.

Not a particularly unusual story. What annoys me is that the local media (Fox News in this case) reported that the gun “misfired,” and that was apparently the cause of the “accident.” I wonder how many at Fox News just can’t understand why today’s gun-makers continue to make guns that “misfire.”

I wonder if anyone at Fox News can define the term, “misfire!” From reading this news report, one gets the impression that modern guns simply fire spontaneously every time their hapless owners attempt to clean them.

In fact, if BHO were really concerned about gun accidents, he would propose a new federal law banning the practice of gun-cleaning! If the act of “cleaning guns” were made illegal, 95% of gun accidents, certainly the one described above, would be prevented! As a practice, “cleaning guns” is akin to binge drinking in the danger it represents to the practitioner.

My advice: Never clean guns!

Okay, I’ll now wax serious, at least for a moment.

We all know that this clown had an ND, resulting in personal injury, because:

1) He had his finger in contact with the trigger when there was no reason for it to be there.

2) He simultaneously had the gun pointed in an unsafe direction

3) He foolishly believed “unloaded” guns are “safe.”

It is extremely unlikely that the gun in question “malfunctioned,” “misfired,” nor was inherently defective in any way. It is virtually certain that the gun functioned normally, and as designed.

A careless and untrained owner is the issue here, and the only issue. Modern guns go off because people put pressure on triggers. That is why the go off, and the only reason they ever go off!

Why can’t media people ever get this straight?

Is it that “They don’t know what they don’t know?” Or, is it “They don’t want to know what they don’t know?”

I don’t give them much credit. I suspect the latter!

“The truth which makes men free is, for the most part, the truth which men prefer not to hear.”

Herbert Agar

/John