Photo by David Nelson

Drive about a half-hour south of Seattle and you’ll find the town of Renton, WA. It was at the Regal Cinemas there on January 21st at the 8:00 PM screening of “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” when an apparently drunk moviegoer negligently discharged his pistol, striking a woman in the chest . . .

The 40-year-old woman was rushed to the hospital and arrived in critical condition, later downgraded to serious. But the drunk shooter beat feet out of the theater first. It was only later, when, according to KOMO News…

Police say the shooter’s father called 911 Thursday night from his Newcastle home and told dispatchers his son was distraught and told him that he dropped his gun at a Renton movie theater and it discharged.

According to witnesses, the man was screwing around with his pistol 15-20 minutes into the movie and “it went off.”

The 29-year-old was arrested without incident. His identity has not yet been released, but he wins our IGOTD award regardless. That, of course, is the least of his problems as he’s looking at multiple felony charges plus, I’m sure, a sizable civil suit. All of which it sounds like he’s earned in full.

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64 COMMENTS

    • Us? How many of the gun owners here play with our loaded carry guns? He is not “us,” despite what the news would report.

  3. Alcohol and guns don’t mix well…
    At least know your limits. Leave the carry piece in the car if you’re gonna enjoy a few beers during the movie.

    • Being drunk with a loaded weapon outside your own private property should be added punishment if a crime is committed.

      • In some states it is, like Alaska §11.61.210 and Kansas 21-6332. And not just if a crime is committed, the crime IS being in possession or using a firearm while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

          • Not in GA. Thank God!
            I don’t think anyone should lose a right, even temporarily, because one decides to ingest an adult beverage.
            Prohibition was a better law and it sucked too.
            Let’s say I walk into a school with a drink and a gun, can’t deny it happened, I should get into trouble, if caught, for the drink. Not the gun.
            I am armed everywhere on the free side of a metal detector, and sometimes on the other side, and I live how I want. That means going to bars and parties and even carrying a flask into the viewing of 13 Hours the day it opened.
            I like my bourbon. I like my rum. I like my beer and wine. But prohibition returned, I wouldn’t die fighting the law. Disarmament? That’s another story.

    • Dramatic instance. I suspect that many people drink while armed without issue. I know of no off duty cop that disarms while drinking. I never disarmed while drinking and neither did any of my family or friends. I rarely drink these days but if I do have a drink, I don’t disarm. It’s all about responsible drinking as much as it is about responsible carry. IMO, it’s a product of responsible behavior. When I used to drink, I didn’t drive but that didn’t mean I didn’t have my car keys.

      Just like antis that are afraid that people will get angry and start randomly shooting, perhaps those who are so concerned about someone drinking while armed should take a closer look at themselves. Perhaps they’re projecting. Perhaps they’re just unaware of how many people drink while armed without incident. Perhaps the just want to impose their will on others. Regardless, they’re wrong.

      • I can’t imagine where the attitude comes from. I suspect it is new gunowners or carriers, as whether I’m drinking or not, I do not screw around with my gun, I don’t decide to “examine” it or show it to friends while I am out and about, what are we thinking? Just like when I’m stone cold sober, it will not jump out of my holster and start shooting people if I just leave it alone. The drunker I am, the more likely I am to make the decision to try to run away if a problem arises, rather than run to the sound of the guns. If I need to check something or adjust something, it can wait until morning, when I am alone in my home. Even if I am sober.

        • Exactly. If I can’t trust myself to not mess with my firearms or drive my car when intoxicated, then I wouldn’t be armed or have my keys if I might take a drink. Better yet, choosing to not drink if that were even a potential issue. Everybody has to evaluate themselves and decide what their limitations are regarding responsible behavior.

    • Don’t blame alcohol for the acts of an idiot.
      Alcohol is a truth serum. Sober idiots become intoxicated idiots and act idiotically.
      Sober sluts become intoxicated sluts and screw strangers. The male version applies too.
      Sober depression gets worse with intoxication.
      Happy intelligent people can drink and carry weapons for self defense without incident.

      • Everyone gets stupid when they’ve drunk enough. Ethanol is a well-studied chemical that leads to psychoactive effects including lack of inhibition and reduced higher-brain functioning. This isn’t a “truth serum” it’s a chemical reaction.

        • How much is enough? I tend to go to sleep when I approach my threshold. It’s different for different people. To have a law that says one drink is not allowed is fascist as well as ineffective.
          Let’s punish offenders rather than punish potential offenses.
          Drinking while armed should not be a crime. Shooting someone negligently should not be blamed on alcohol. This guy needs jail time, rehabilitation and an ass whooping.

        • @Hannibal

          Disagree. There is a difference between having a few drinks causing your inhibitions to degrade and your true colors to show a bit versus being blackout when chemistry overcomes personality.

    • “A few beers” is one thing, and yes, you should lock up your piece before those few beers, but this guy was apparently stumbling drunk. Like, to the point that the staff had made note of him before he entered the theater.

      Guy’s a fu*king asshole.

  4. I live in Renton. This retard is causing all the liberals to be up in arms and is a detriment to those of us who carry responsibly. I support having his gun being taken away for him. Why the hell was he “playing” with his gun? Dumb ass.

    • It must’ve been a completely unengaging start to the movie. Christ; talk about a short attention span.

  5. Ah, the old ‘it went off’ defense.

    When we finally enact common sense journalist legislation, the use of the term ‘it went off’ to describe a negligent discharge needs to result in a fine to the writer, and to the news outlet of at least $5000/$50000 and a revocation of the journalists Permit to Write.

    • Yep. DON’T TOUCH THAT GUN, it will go off! It’s just like car crashes and movies. Every car that goes off a cliff blows up in mid-air. Every car that get’s in a fender bender burns or blows up. Yeah sure, some cars can catch on fire after crashing but come on, the TV and movies make it look like it happens every time.
      Guns just don’t go off! Heck, if that were true, every guy that carries IWB appendix is in serious sh–, myself included.

  6. Has it been determined if this gun-toting doofus is LEGAL? Haven’t heard one way or another. If he is(was) I wish him all the worst. And if he ain’t we got nothin’ to do with it…

    • It has been reported that he has a concealed weapon permit.

      “The suspect was booked into the King County Jail on charges of investigation of felony assault. The Renton Police Department is not naming the suspect until charges are formally filed, which is anticipated on Monday. The suspect has a valid concealed weapons permit. The victim remains hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries”

  7. Politely remind people that drunk drivers injure or kill innocent people every day. Sadly they won’t get the logic, because they own a car, but not a gun. Guns=bad, cars=good even though they both kill while under the control of idiots or evildoers.

      • Jeremy, even that number seems high. I suspect a lot of those “accidents” are not. Mostly suicides staged to allow life insurance to pay the survivors, and a few murders that got away with it.

        • Yes, it is suggested that many suicides are deemed accidents by surviving family due to the various stigma and such surrounding suicide.

  8. Yes, in a state, where I too live in hell because of idiots like him and sheep lead to slaughter by Bloomberg, that really needs this kinda of crap happening to forward the gun confiscation agenda. Fricken’ idiots exist in all states, but seems they happen to be more frequent in Washington state. It doesn’t matter that he was drunk, that he should have used common sense not having a weapon while drunk (like that would happen as a drunk anyway), or that he drove drunk – all that is going to matter is that he had a gun and shot someone. He indeed has done more damage than just shooting an innocent person. Our governor has found it to befit him to be like Obama and enact executive orders for more gun control at the state level, this will help him get away with it even easier and more often.

  9. Israeli carry: Allowing idiots to exercise their 2a rights safely for all of us. To be clear not all who Israeli carry are idiots. I, personally, am a fan of that carry method.

    Excessive drinking and carrying is also clearly bad form.

    • I dunno, I think if someone is too drunk or stupid to be trusted with a chambered gun he’s too drunk and\or stupid to be trusted with a loaded gun..

  12. …
    Shooter not licensed to carry, under the influence, and had previous arrest record for drugs. I’m thinking this guy didn’t get double 800’s on his SATs

    “According to a police report released Saturday, Dane Gallion, the man suspected of shooting a stranger at a 13 Hours screening in Renton, Washington, was carrying a firearm because he was afraid of mass shootings. He also gave police three different, contradictory accounts of how the accidental shooting happened.”
    “He told some people he’d taken the gun out because he was concerned about the possibility of mass shootings there,” Detective Robert Onishi said Saturday. Gallion, 29, who told police he’d taken Xanax and drank a 22-ounce beer before the movie, did not have a legal concealed weapons permit, KOMO News reports.
    http://gawker.com/alleged-accidental-benghazi-movie-shooter-told-police-h-1754865291

    Gallion has a prior arrest from five years ago for being under the influence of a controlled substance.
    https://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/man-who-shot-woman-at-13-hours-benghazi-movie-carried-gun-because-he-feared-mass-shootings/
    …

    • Conflicting reports on if he had a CWP or not it seems. Nice work finding his name. He’s been released on a $25,000 bond and no longer in jail
      There’s only two things on his record, that case from Kirkland Municipal in 2011 #36054 and the incident from the shooting and that’s it.

      • Still, a picture begins to emerge, of a lifelong doper, paranoid as many dopers are, in a drug induced panicky haze during a shoot-em-up movie, fiddling with a gun he should not have owned.

  13. I actually work right next to this theater.

    I went to the KOMO News story cited above and it looks like the police say he did indeed have a valid CPL. The previous conviction was for DUI.

    There is a person with this same name that appears to me a pain-management medical clinic manager, I fear there may be more to the substance abuse aspect.

    He also reportedly told the police that someone “grabbed his crotch” in the theater – his story has changed multiple times.

    • “someone “grabbed his crotch” in the theater”

      That would be a valid reason to call the cops from the lobby, what did it have to do with a GUN?

  15. This clowns parents got to be proud. I’m afraid of mass shootings in the theater. So, the genius pulls his pistol out to what? Stand guard for other moviegoers!!! I reckon This tool bag is the reason those on the other side want us disarmed…

  17. Well burned powder wouldn’t be on his hands if it discharged on striking the floor, so the cops will know that answer pretty quick. I am betting this useless fool dropped it and managed to pull the trigger when he tried to catch it before it hit the floor.

    • The moment you realize you’re F’d if for some reason you have to submit to a GSR test. When don’t I have gunshot residue on my hands and clothes? Sheesh.

  18. Ralph, yes l do. And correct you are sir. Those who want us disarmed have a much darker plan for us for sure.

  19. Funny, my wife and I also went to see 13 Hours on Thursday (Also at a Regal Cinema) and my firearm miraculously never went off by itself the whole time. Wonder what I did right?

  20. According to the latest account in a Seattle paper the idiot was carrying the pistol stuck into the waist band of his trousers. Accounts are still unclear as to exactly how the gun was negligently discharged as the fool has given the cops several different stories. There is no mention that he has a concealed weapons permit. The story implies that he takes medications.

  22. Reports say that after the theater shooting he went to a restaurant. Having to use the toilet he got up and went. In doing so he DROPPED HIS GUN AND LEFT IT. It was a customer that saw and reported this to the manager.

    This is why we can have nice things.

  23. This asshat needs to be put in front of a firing squad. ANYBODY that accidentally shoots someone should get the same. When there are very real negative consequences most will be more careful, and those that aren’t won’t be around anymore.

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