Thomas Mcguinness and family pet (courtesy nbc-2.com)

Anyone [left] old enough to remember the National Lampoon magazine cover that warned “Buy this magazine or we’ll kill this dog?” To say it was polarizing would be like saying gun control is a slightly contentious issue. Personally? I thought it was funny. But then it was supposed to be funny. According to nbc-2.com, this image was posted by Floridian Thomas Mcguinness on his Facebook page, along with photos where he points his gun at himself and his dog. They’ve since been removed, obvs. But not before Mr. Mcguinness made a snide remark, further angering a whole lot of people . . .

Executive Director of the Animal Welfare League in Port Charlotte Sharon Thomas was almost brought to tears after seeing a Facebook post of a man holding a cat by its scruff and pointing a gun at it.

“To see something like that it just turns my stomach,” Thomas said.

The post that has been taken down was reported to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office and Animal Control.

“It angers us beyond belief,” Charlotte County Animal Control Division Manager Lt. Brian Jones said.

Thomas Mcguinness of Port Charlotte who is seen pointing the gun at the cat later posted: “don’t know why everybody so mad about a cat we only shot it twice.”

“That’s a confession, where I come from if we found a dead cat,” Jones said.

But . . . they didn’t. So . . . it isn’t. And that means, the government can’t touch Mr. Mcguinness – who’s agreed to an animal welfare check to show he was just funnin’. Ms. Thomas is not amused. “Just to pretend you’re doing it or to think that it’s funny in any shape or form is criminal to me.” Not a big fan of the First Amendment, I guess.

That said…really? Mr. Mcguinness has done nothing to help promote the idea that gun owners are responsible adults (who understand the importance of trigger and muzzle discipline), and much to damage it. Yes, we have a sense of humor. Yes, we support free speech. But this fails the giggle test. IGOTD all the way.

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111 COMMENTS

  1. If that guy was in front of me right now Id pistol whip him.
    Nothing funny in that picture.
    What a jackass.

    • True, but there’s also nothing in that picture that “turns my stomach,” or “angers me beyond belief.” Slight overreaction on the part of the animal lovers.

      • Breaking the 3 rules is breaking the 3 rules.

        Minute you start adding grey areas you make mistakes. Doesn’t mean there could never be a good reason to do so, but certainly pointing it at a cat isn’t one.

      • Although its harmless enough since nothing horrific happened, it still poses the risk of perpetuating that gun owners (and yes, sites like gawker media and mother jones will attribute this to ALL gun owners even though they loudly clamor about generalizations) don’t take their tools seriously. Personally, it didn’t enrage or turn my stomach but made me shake my head that someone would even point a gun at their own head, loaded or not when not cleaning. Thus, I strongly feel this was titled appropriately.

      • Shame on you. If that photo doesn’t turn your stomach, I feel truly sorry for you, because you have no heart.

    • I know he would have shot himself in the hand. Know your target and what’s behind it. Tisk, tisk, tisk!

      • Exactly what I thought. What an idiot. My biggest issue with it is that, like others have said, it makes it look like gun owners are all a bunch of irresponsible morons who brandish and wave their guns around. I cringed over his finger inside the trigger guard the most. I mean WTF?

        As a weird aside, it seems like the cat likes being held like that. Might still be a kitten.

    • Meh. That cats got a purdy coat… It would make a pretty nice pillow covering….

      • Are you kidding? How effing stupid, you moron! I wish I had a front row seat to someone banging you upside the head to knock some sense into you, though that would likely be an effort in vain.

  4. This story is like a perfect storm of stupidity. Him for posting pictures like that in the first place and them for hyperventillating over it seriously that tore up over a cat when there is far far worse goin on in every major city? Yes the guy deserves to be pistol whipped not just for the act in the pictures but for posting them in the first place (1st A lets you speak it does not in fact protect you from an ass whippin because you said it. That’s what the 2A is for.)

    • Guys I just had to say what my gut instinct was to the picture.
      That could have been any animal.
      But as I was reading it and seeing it.
      My cat was in my lap purring away..
      I had a neighbor growing up as a kid who would shoot at any cat or dog in his yard for fun.
      Until he got caught in the act and was put away.
      Any one who thinks that’s a responsible person and gun owner to post that crap. Then says I have no sense of humor??
      Has something basically wrong with their own humanity.
      I was truly offended as a gun owner and pet owner by it.

      • Yep. Offended. Defenseless young animal. People like that desperately need to be made into fish food. I mean look at the guy. What a piece of work. Is that all there is in Florida, white trash like this guy? Lousy taste in firearms too.

  6. Animal abusers are highly likely to also abuse people. You can expect to see him in a mug shot in the future.

    • The cream of society.

      http://www.ccso.org/forms/arrestdb.cfm

      The search for MCGUINNESS, THOMAS JOSEPH returned 7 record(s).

      Date Confined OCA Number Booking Number
      September 8, 2012 1209-004975/12-786T 44194007
      August 10, 2012 12-786T 44194006
      April 20, 2012 1204-011932/12-786T 44194005
      April 16, 2010 1004-012142/09-761T 44194004
      April 19, 2009 /09761T 44194003
      February 16, 2005 051492 44194002
      March 26, 2001 01008284 44194001

      • I have never been PC-not about to begin now, so all the crying over the cat-which suffered naught means NADA to me. I wonder though, since it is not stated in the byline-have his firearms been confiscated by the local po-po? Per LeadSlinger, this guy has a rather extensive arrest record. Not trying to justify confiscation, but I have seen gun owners lose their weapons/ccw permits in South Florida for a whole lot less.

      • There’s more on PeopleSmart. I found out 2 former girlfriends had died on the site. As well as lots of info about nearly everyone I looked for. You can run but it’s hard to hide.

    • Actually, I personally know kids I grew up with that sadistically abused and killed domestic pet animals, that later became adults and sadistically murdered humans in cold blood..

  7. Thomas, Thomas, Thomas…. do not dive into the shallow end of the gene pool! Will you never learn?

  8. I see nothing sickening or stomach turning. Just an idiot with his gun and his cat in a photo displaying extremely poor taste. He’s guilty of stupidity. i’m soooo sick of political correctness. While I in no way think it’s humorous he’s not a criminal. He’s just s.t.u.p.i.d.. But he lives in the USA where, most of the time, you’re still free to be an idiot if you want to be.

    • I agree with what you’re saying, but at the same time with the political climate what it is, this sort of thing just gives the anti-gun nuts more fuel to their Mom’s Demanding Action fires. I just wish he had a little more sense in his head to realize that even though it would be in poor taste at any time, and somewhat dangerous as well (lots of people get killed with “unloaded” guns), it’s especially troublesome “right now”. It’s like all the stupid has coincidentally come out… “right now”. Sometimes makes me wonder if some of these stunts aren’t anti-gun people trying to make us all look like a bunch of dangerous yokels.

  9. I might be the world’s biggest cat fancier, but c’mon. Sure, it wasn’t funny, but no animals were harmed AFAIK.

    Geez, this politically correct bullsh1t is getting out of hand.

    • I’m right there with you man, I actually laughed out loud pretty hard. “don’t know why everybody so mad about a cat we only shot it twice.” damn near made me pee myself.
      I must say, this is a hell of a lesson in Tolerance™. I will accept anyone who shares my point of view, but if you have an opposing point of view, you sir are a racist.

    • I agree, laughed heartily.

      Too many cats have pissed in my flowerbeds for them to get any sympathy from me.

      And yet, big cats, which are proud, majestic and pretty damn rare these have people travelling thousands of miles to come and shoot them. And the majority of the POTG pat them on the back for it.

      Hypocrisy much? And don’t say the lion charged you. You felt so threatened by the lion living in the US that you had to come down here to kill it?

      Double standards, it’s what the anti’s do.

      • Sportsmanship means nothing to you? If you can’t tell the difference between hunting/species management and mock idiocy you might want to stay clear of firearms pointy objects or any household chemicals that might resemble flavored drinks.

    • Practicing your demeaning, regionalist, liberal snarkosity?
      It’s not only lame, it requires absolutely no effort. Grow up!

  15. Hardly anything people post on facebook is as funny as they think it is. I say we lock them all up.

    Kind of obvious he’s not going through with it, he’d go deaf and have a hole in his hand. And anyone that nutty would have also posted the ‘after’ picture.

  16. So just an odd thing I noticed about the pic, since its an XD, even in the low res pic, doesnt look like the chamber indicator is up.

    Oh the derp…

    • Looks fake to me, and the points made by several people have nothing to do with actual danger to the animal. On another note can you imagine the outrage on this blog if the gun were replaced with a lighter and the cat by the flag? Suggestive poses can mean a lot to someone if the content is right.

  19. I’d like to see him pull the trigger with his hand like that (not that the cat should get it though). The hand should be at the top of your list of non vital organs to avoid puncturing with bullets. Ever notice how fine your sense of touch is in your fingers? That’s because you’ve got 10 times the nerves running through your hand than anywhere else in your body. And believe me, I got slashed in my hand once bad enough to warrant a 5 hour surgery, you will know about every last one of those nerves if you shoot yourself in the hand. It’s a whole new world of pain you probably haven’t even imagined.

  20. We grew up with an amazing German Shepherd and one or two cats at all times.
    As pets, I found the cats much more fun than the dog. In fact, when I got married I made my cat dander allergic wife live with my cat for a full year before finally giving him to my mother.

    tl;dr: I really love cats and animals in general. I was even a vegetarian for a while.

    That said, this is being blown way out of proportion. I mean “reported to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office”?
    WTF for? Making a stupid joke? (Stupid, because safety rules, not alleged cruelty).

    No way I support the animal welfare check and certainly not the removal of guns or pets. What kind of fascist mix of PETA and Moms Demand BS are you people on?

    And btw, if you’re all panty knotted about this dummy, how do you feel when people like me use live ammo, metal hooks, clubs and knives to innocent fish, fowl and furry for leggers. And then eat them!

    Ugh.

    Oh, and “we only shot [it] twice” is obviously a corny reference to cats having 9 lives.
    Jeez.

    • Not a hunter nor a fisher but I feel a lot better about killing animals for a purpose, better still when the hunter exercises morality in hunting (ie clean kills) if you simply roamed the woods plinking deer for fun it would be entirely different.

  21. God, you really can’t fix stupid.

    As a related aside: Get your personal shit off the internet people. Get off Facebook, get off snapchat, get off instagram, all of it. All it does is suck time away from meaningful things you could be doing and you never know who’s watching.

    • “and you never know who’s watching.”
      Yes you do, the whole point of those services is that you know EVERYONE is watching. Your friends, your enemies, the cops and the government. All watching. And then storing for later so they can use it against you when the feel like it. People buy locks for their doors and alarms for their windows, and then log on to Facebook and give away so much they might as well have a street sign directing traffic down their front hallway.

  22. Why would you point a gun at the only puss available to you? Not like he’s gonna see much after posting a pic like that.

  23. That idiot lives in the same city as my daughter. Luckily she’s visiting for a week in Aug. and we’ve already setup a shooting day. Now we have to have the talk about gun ownership.

  25. What the hell possesses people to do the stupidest things imaginable and think, “OMG, I just realized, I’m so cool! I need to take a picture of this and put it on Facebook!”
    There is so much fail going around in this situation my head spins trying to list it all concisely. But, all of this could have been avoided if for one second this man had thought, “Gee, maybe it’s a stupid idea to put a picture of me doing ANYTHING with my gun and my cat on Facebook.” Even just putting a picture of your gun of Facebook is a bad idea in my book. The same type of person today who says, “where I come from that’s called a confession.” about a Facebook post will have no problem showing up at your door tomorrow trying to confiscate your guns pictured conveniently on your Facebook.
    DISCRETION is the better part of valor, and Facebook.

  26. Not a cat lover but that guy ain’t funny. I agree he makes legal gun owners look like idiots. This is a tiny drop in the bucket of stupid s##t on Facebook.

  28. Absolutely disgusting piece of shit… I hope this is one post that doesnt get me banned or edited… Theres a special place in hell for people like this…
    Im actually surprised there isnt more blowback here. As an animal lover, Im absolutely disgusted.

  29. Anyone [left] old enough to remember the National Lampoon magazine cover that warned “Buy this magazine or we’ll kill this dog?” I really am not very PC, but I thought the whole things was just stupid. The gun pointed at the cat is just as dumb. We are really dealing with the brain trust.

  32. Okay… the way that photo is cropped, I can’t even tell if he is holding the cat up by it’s scruff or just sorta holding it while it sits. In the latter case it’s really nothing at all except poor optics.

  33. Padon my French but that guy is an

    ASSHOLE

    Any man man that treats a defenseless animal like that deserves to have his balls cut off with a dull butter knife.

  34. Wow. You don’t f*cking point a gun and roughly handle animals like that. I wish that cat scratched his face all to hell. That’s really stupid of him, especially since the animals did nothing wrong. I wish nothing short of pain on this man, and nothing more.

  35. Looking at the scar on his face, and reading his arrest record, I imagine his favorite sentence is “Hold my beer and watch this!” In my opinion, the guy is criminally stupid, which is unfortunately not something that you actually go to jail for in itself. but often ends up in jail time when the stupidee is allowed to go unsupervised for any length of time. My prediction for this guy is he will definitely win a Darwin award before he is 50 which will look good next to his IGOTD award. In fact, I will go so far as to predict that he will fill a whole shelf with similar awards right up to the final one.

    • Unfortunately, he will probably reproduce before collecting the big Darwin award.

  37. The man is an idiot and I hope he gets toxoplasmosis from changing the poor kitties litter box.

  38. I see people pointing guns at people in movies all the time. I see actors pretending to kill people with guns all the time.

    So why is this man’s act so objectionable when we don’t mind seeing it in the movies?

    Clearly a parody of Mad Magazine. Or just humor for its own sake. There may be rules for handling guns that most people adopt, but they can be violated prudently for the sake of humor.

    No animal harmed, no crime, no nothing.

    • I suppose parody, satire, humor, and political commentary are only suitable if you’re in the Studio Actor’s Guild or a Pundit on a major news channel. The First Amendment only applies to professionals.

  40. It’s knuckle dragging dipshits like this that the anti gun douches use as an example and make them their poster child. Asshole!!!!

  42. “Yes, we support free speech”

    Absolutely. And I’ll use my free speech to say this guy is a COMMENT MODERATED that will provide ammunition (ahem) to anti-gun nuts.

  45. Lol Ing. Anyhoo, now that I’ve composed myself… This guy’s not evil. No one was harmed. Except we were. Because of the political climate, MDA and Mother Jones are gonna get their hands on this and and make such a huge deal that they have more leverage. Is this what we want? No. But there are plenty of people like him anyway. Goddamn.

  46. Is this really any worse for the cat than dressing it up in some idiotic cutesy outfit.

  47. This guy is a sick bastard, but the animal lovers did overreact. It did not bring tears to my eyes, but then neither did The Fault In Our Stars. Maybe it’s just me.

  48. His arrest record suggests he should not be legally in possession of a firearm….

  50. Funny. Lots of people here sound like the people who comment under a huffingtonpost article about gun rights. Double standard much? I know it’s not in good taste and the guy is a douche but c’mon, really? Lots of people here wishing harm on a person who failed at humor. Good job guys.

  51. This has NOTHING to do with free speech and everything to do with someone representing gun owners as a bunch of fools. How hard do we all try to instill in ourselves and our loved ones that a) there’s no such thing as an unloaded gun and b) you never point a gun at something you don’t want to destroy, because of a)? Specifically in this current environment, fellow gun owners can’t make light of others acting buffoonish and sophomoric. Guns can be a lot of fun, but there’s never anything funny about firearms.

  52. I do not like that sort of stuff. I do not like it Sam-I-am.

    It’s a stupid way to handle a firearm. It’s a bad example to set for your children (if this guy has unfortunately bred). And if feeds the hordes of of gun grabbing morons out there who already think we’re a bunch of Redneck, Sasquatch watchin’, sister marryin’, morans.

  54. This prick is clearly on meth or something, you can see it in his eyes. Maybe he needs to be investigated for THAT.
    Just because HE was treated that way and hated by everyone as a kid, gives him no right to do this.

  55. Get a life! It is mildly funny, though not original. The real a$$e$ are those wanting to pistol whip him or bang his head against the wall. Think about it, these idiots believe its okay to physically harm another human being but it is horrible to point an empty gun at an oblivious cat. They are morally confused. I’m sure several of them routinely shoot unarmed and innocent animals with absolutely no qualms (and no, I am not anti-hunting, just making the case of absurdity….)
    It is obvious he intends no harm to his cat, its not like he is a pro football player who forces dogs to fight to the death.
    This is nothing more than hyperbole and PC going amok.

  56. I have to wonder why the NRA isn’t all over this guy. He’s clearly got mental issues, harming animals is a sign of a Sociopath. The NRA says it isn’t the guns, it’s the mental illness. Taking this guy’s gun away might save lives.

  58. Look,
    He’s complaining about his 1st Amendment rights… of which nothing of the sort was taken away.

    You post pictures on Facebook – that’s not protected by the 1st Amendment. Not even a little. You’re using THEIR property to post those pictures. They have every right to take down what they choose.

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