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Earlier today, TTAG editorialist Josh Grabow argued that gun rights should trump partisan politics. I don’t know about that. But I do know that Darwinism trumps everything. To wit this tragic tale from wnem.com: “Police say the victim and at least one other person were outside firing gunshots in celebration of the new year. The victim thought that all of the rounds had been fired in his gun. He then jokingly put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.” By the same token, the video from TheKyleFrench’s YouTube Channel above. Bottom line: guns are dangerous. Also: guns are safe. Whether or not bad things happen to good people with functional firearms is usually down to the owner’s common sense and slavish adherence to the basic safety rules. Here’s hoping you stay safe in 2012, ’cause we need all the responsible gun owners we can get. [h/t to Daniel for the vid]

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25 COMMENTS

  1. Judas H. F’ing Priest. You could see death at the south end of the barrel looking at this idiot, grinning for the camera.

    I cannot tell if the thumb safety was engaged.

    Tragic about that boy shooting himself. A young ‘un in my church watched his dad do basically the same thing with a .22 a few years ago.

  2. Yep, there’s a bullet at the end of that tube. Method for those who find press check too hard.

  7. Too many guns, too little target and field shooting. If people who owned or had access to guns also had more practice actually shooting them then the bravado of owning them would wear off and safety routines would be better established. Dynamite is cool until you use it everyday at work, at which point it’s a tool and safety habits become strong. Where I received my CCW permit it was necessary to have two neighbors sign for me. It turned out both women, close neighbors, were members of the Million Mom March against handguns. They both signed, but had stories to tell very close to today’s featured IGOTD. Both cases involved guns with no practice or use, just “a gun to have around the house.”

    • sadly, the first Darwin Award Winner of 2012.

      really not trying to make *any* sort of joke about this; it is truly a sad event, of which those near to the teen will be deeply affected for a long time.

      and 17 years old with friends and a gun?? –there’s got to be a lot more to the background story. is it legal for a 17 y/o to own a gun in MI?

  9. I have no doubt that alcohol was involved in the self-inflicted gun shot wound. When will people learn that alcohol and firearms is a recipe for disaster? It’s not too much different than drinking while driving.

  10. whats the big fuss….unless the hammers cocked and the triggers pulled it won’t fire by itself…..geez…whats the big deal….i,m going back in the shed now to play with matches and gasoline….

  11. Let’s pretend for a second that we never heard of or learned or practiced any rules of gun safety. Let’s say we’re all tabula rasa, okay? Now tell me why anyone would point a gun at his own head, because I sure as hell don’t get the joke.

    I’m sorry that a young man foolishly ended his own life. All I can say is, this kid was a disaster waiting to happen. Better him than some innocent bystander.

  12. Ralph’s right on target cuz that kid could have pointed the gun at one of his friends and gone bang thinking the gun was empty. We always hear about some idiot killing someone with what they thought was an empty gun.

  13. I’m actually not convinced that this regular feature, IGOTD, has much point. Schadenfreude? Voyeurism. Everybody who follows a site like this one knows the rules. Yes, lots of careless people pay no attention to such issues. Every day on the roads around my city some idiots crash. Some die. I wouldn’t want to read about it on a car site, say Edmunds. And the motivation for this is?

    • 1. Inculcate newbies in the way of the gun
      2. Combat complacency
      3. Highlight the gun rights community’s sense of responsibility

      • It shows how stupid people doing stupid things with a gun can make us all look bad. I like seeing the IGO because it helps everyone think twice about safety, and maybe some of these people will be more careful.

  14. To the video, not smart to be handling a loaded weapon like that. However, we don’t know that he/she looked down the barrel of the gun, only that it was pointed at the lens of the camera that he/she may or may not have been behind (most likely was, though, based on the angle of the wrist when the gun was rotated toward the camera).

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