As a ‘joke.’
I understand that Mayor Richard Daley is a liberal Illinois Democratic politician – which is semantically equivalent to ‘pig-ignorant about guns’ – so let’s go over some of the basics for him about firearm safety. Let’s also discuss some core assumptions that Dick needs to embrace:
- GUNS ARE NOT TOYS.
- GUNS ARE NOT PROPS.
- IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHETHER OR NOT A GUN IS LOADED, IT IS.
- IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHETHER OR NOT A GUN IS READY TO FIRE, IT IS.
- NEVER POINT A GUN AT A LIVING CREATURE UNLESS IT IS A MATTER OF EITHER SELF-DEFENSE OR RESPONSIBLE HUNTING.
- NEVER POINT A GUN AT A REPORTER.
So [Mick Dumke] asked: since guns are readily available in Chicago even with a ban in place, do you really think it’s been effective?
[snip]
“Oh!” Daley said. “It’s been very effective!”
He grabbed a rifle, held it up, and looked right at me. He was chuckling but there was no smile.
“If I put this up your—ha!—your butt—ha ha!—you’ll find out how effective this is!”
Via the Top of the Ticket and @baseballcrank. The room went on to have a good laugh, apparently; one wonders if they’d continue to laugh the next time a kid who hasn’t been taught gun safety imitates Mayor Daley’s behavior, only with a loaded pistol instead of a bayoneted rifle. Actually, I doubt it: they’ll all probably blame everybody except themselves.
Moe Lane
PS: No, people cannot ‘lighten up’ on things like this. Accidental shootings usually involve precisely this kind of casual disrespect for firearms, and this kind of casual disrespect is easily avoidable. A small girl in Texas died Tuesday night because her sibling used a gun for a toy: do we really want our elected officials reinforcing that particular mindset?
Crossposted to RedState.
To be perfectly fair…
The story said he held the rifle up and looked at the reporter. No where does it say he AIMED at the reporter. He could have been holding it with one hand around the middle of the rifle, business-end pointed up.
Without a picture of the event, or a full description of what Daley was doing, we don’t know, and are only assuming he pointed the gun at the reporter.
Sorry, I’m an absolutist on this kind of thing. The second that you treat a firearm with anything less than complete respect you’re running an unacceptable risk. It’s like the end of War Games: the only winning move here is not to play. Say a bullet was in the chamber, the safety was off, and the gun went off; Daley’s responsible for where that bullet ends up, even if he was ‘being careful.’
That idiot should not be allowed to handle weapons. He is clearly dangerous. Never point at weapon at anything you don’t intend to shoot even if it is a newspaper reporter.
If any regular citizen did this — brandish a firearm and threaten bodily harm — we’d be up on charges.
Scott, the four rules of firearm safety are hammered into every student’s head from day one of class. You simply DON’T play around like the mayor did.