Damascus parade (courtesy cnn.com)

“As many as 50 people were injured Saturday afternoon after a car plowed into parade-goers in Damascus, Virginia,” cnn.com reports. “Of those injured, at least five or six were ‘trauma victims,’ the dispatcher said. The accident occurred during the Hiker’s Parade at the annual Trail Days festival, which honors the famed Appalachian Trail, in the town near the Virginia-Tennessee border. Dalton Thomson told CNN affiliate WCYB that he was pushed out of the way of the oncoming car by a hiker. ‘We all looked back. There were hikers on top, hikers under the car,’ said the boy. ‘It was unreal. Nothing could be as scary as that.'” Not even a New Orleans gangbanger firing into the crowd? [h/t Torben]

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46 COMMENTS

  1. You can’t see a bullet coming at you. A Buick is a whole other thing. Gives you a moment to brown trou as it’s charging at you. I wonder what’s the best combo of gun and ammo to stop a rampaging Buick?

      • No small arms round will stop a moving car, its a myth. Even if the round cracks the block its still going to run till it overheats in a few minutes.

        Heavy car and a good driver way more dangerous than a punk with a gun.

    • @wolf/ben: that’ll stop the engine eventually, but only a tank will stop the car.

    • We should do some tests, walk around and ask people on video to pick on an unlabeled version of this graph which one is gun deaths and which one is car deaths. Then show them what the labels are so they can be shocked. I am sure a lot of low information people will think the 46k deaths is gun deaths because guns are so “evil”.

  4. I think parades may share partial blame for this, let’s ban them too.
    Wonder how many people I could get to sign a petition on change.org?

    • I forgot about that site….I’m thinking I need to push for a ban on di-hydrogen monoxide.

      • Worked in my IPC class, who pretty much all did Global Warming as their “important topic” speech…The only guy who didn’t sign my petition was the chemistry major, who was trying not to laugh and give away the game throughout my whole presentation..

      • Irrespective of the Internet chain, the proper form is hydrogen hydroxide.

        How about a petition on Change.org to the state of New York, to stop their citizen-to-victim conversion policies?

  5. “As many as 50 people were injured…at least five or six were ‘trauma victims,’”

    I believe pretty much everyone injured is a trauma victim here. (Unless they mean Trauma Protocol, requiring rapid transport to a Level 1 trauma hospital)

  6. Of course it’s a Deville? How old was the driver. (Sorry to the resident oldies)
    Unfortunately if we try to go after the seniors licenses the AARP will tool up and take us all out.

  7. I am not of the mind that a ccp should open fire on a driver in this situation. It would strictly be a matter of situational evaluation.

    Examples:
    If the person viewing this scenario sees a driver with a very “deer in the headlight-esque look in his/hers eyes or not conscious then a certain restraint would be more appropriate so as to disable the vehicle so as to hopefuly save a life or pain and suffering.

    If one sees a true look of utter enjoyable contempt, such as that of Kim Jong Un on his birthday, then by all means be sure to pop a few through the windows if the shot develops.

    • Either way, they are at fault. If you have a known medical condition, you have a known disability and should to avoid situations in which this could be a problem.

  9. The answer that most anti-gunners would say to this this blog entry would be, 1) cars don’t hit that many people often, 2) cars have other uses where as guns are evil death machines; 3) There were many hurt but no where near as many dead if a gun was involved.

    My answer to those are

    1) how many victims is enough to finally pass laws if laws are so great at saving lives. I mean if we possibly, maybe, supposedly save just one life by messing over everyone else.

    2) Does intent really matter? Guns aren’t evil death machines.They can save lives, diffuse violent situations, put food on tables to feed families and charities.

    3) So the driver didn’t get lucky? Grievous bodily harm isn’t important either eh? Can we really afford to not ban cars with the hopes they don’t up the ante? Perhaps with an assault grill.An assault hood ornament (like horns). Set car on fire before plowing into the crowd? Can we really risk it?

    Anyhow, I of course don’t advocate banning cars or firearms.I heard there is something called personal responsibility and rights of free people. They may sound strange to those not in the know, but they are a bit of fantastic.

    • Good points mister. I don’t understand how the gun grabbers are so content that living permanently maimed with bad memories from things like this or relenting to the demands of criminals trump common sense.

  10. The driver, elderly man, supposedly fell asleep behind to wheel (possible medical related), was going 25-35 MPH. One of the hospitalization has already been released. Driver was hospitalized also.

    • A guy was sittin on a bucket out in front of his business with a few friends, 5 or 6, sitting & standing around sharing a drink. All of a sudden a car come barreling into the yard. The vehicle plows into the guy in the middle of the group, hitting him so hard he was knocked out of his boots before being slammed between the car & his own busines’ wall. The driver, an elderly woman, having had a heart attack only moments prior, floored the accelerator & carined off the road taking out the unlucky individual.

      SIn this existence, being short as it is, the toll of the bell could be only seconds away. In some circumstances we have a will to ratify over anothers ill will.

      Live or Die, Be Free!

    • This would not have happened if we closed that auto show loophole. There should have been a background check. There should have been a mental evaluation……

        • Some people are just sensitive about jokes about hikers and hippies. If it had just been women hit someone would have asked “what were they doing out of the kitchen?” I forgive you.

  18. See “George Russell Weller” killed 10 and injured 63 with his Buick LeSabre at an open/farmers type market.

    Clearly these high seating capacity (5 std./6 with front bench), full size, assault vehicles are to blame. They belong only in the hands of military and trained law enforcement who are capable of handling such devastating driving power.

  19. I think we should drop billions into research before we make any big decisions. debate it for 18 months, write a bill as big as the C encyclopedia, then use piers Morgan as the crash test dummy.

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