Calling members of the mainstream media on the firearms-related myths, misstatements and misinformation they’re so well known for spouting can be a Sisyphean task. No matter how many times you swat them over the net, they bounce right back with another gem (or three) that only further illustrates either their cluelessness, their calumny or both. The latest scribe to beclown himself is New York Times‘ editorial board member Jesse Wegman. In a blog post archly titled ‘Wait, Guns Do Kill People?’, he writes, “Last July, William DeHayes was practicing some innocent gun-slinging tricks in his kitchen in Brooksville, Florida, when he accidentally shot Katherine Hoover, the wife of his old friend, point blank in the temple as she sat eating at the kitchen table. . . .
“Ms. Hoover was five months pregnant at the time, and doctors tried in vain to save both her and her fetus, a boy she had named Rehlin.”
Just a little good natured hijinks that went tragically wrong, all thanks to the presence of a gun. Or so Wegman deduces. He was probably combing the net on his phone while taking his morning recreational when, to his great satisfaction, he ran across this little tragedy at The Daily Beast and recognized it as an ideal opportunity to gig the gun nuts. Gold!
Mr. DeHayes clearly feels very bad about what happened. In an interview with the local sheriff, he said, “I haven’t slept in three days trying to figure out how the hell [the gun] went off. I don’t know. I mean them damn guns. The shotgun goes off when it wants to. I almost blew my damn head off twice.”
Gawwlee! Just another redneck gun lover with barely enough IQ wattage to brush his own teeth (well, tooth). A perfect example of the crying need in this country for more common sense restrictions on civilian firearms ownership.
Make no mistake, Wegman’s no idiot. You don’t become a member of the Times’ editorial board without a certain flair for cranking out the kind of agitprop that plays well to his ethically sourced, sustainably raised, skinny soy chai-swilling, gluten-free Upper West Side readership. He saw what he figured was a big, fat softball teed right up for him so he choked up on the bat handle for a mighty clout at every right-thinking New Yorker’s favorite bogeyman: the N…R…A.
Can’t you just picture him rubbing his hands together before typing out the following?
Since the National Rifle Association has repeatedly confirmed that guns do not, in fact, kill people, who is responsible for the deaths of Ms. Hoover and her unborn son?
Swing and a miss! Who is responsible, Jesse? At least you used the right pronoun. As any gun owner worth his Hoppe’s #9 can tell you, William DeHayes is responsible.
DeHayes’ gun didn’t anthropomorphically decide to cavort willy-nilly around an occupied kitchen. He’s the numbnuts who thought performing a few “gun-slinging tricks” with a loaded heater and an audience would be tons o’ fun. He’s the mouth-breather who, if he’s to be believed, “almost blew my damn head off twice.” An outcome, it seems safe to assume, that Ms. Hoover and her family would have preferred to the stupidity that finally ended DeHayes’ gun-owning career (and her life).
So we’re terribly sorry to harsh the buzz you no doubt experienced during the 20 seconds or so it took to concoct your brittle little narrative, Mr. Wegman, but DeHayes’ gun didn’t kill anyone. He did the deed with his appalling carelessness and lack of regard for those around him. He did it with his abject failure to observe any of the four rules of gun safety.
Better luck next time.
If you enjoy his ignorance, you will love the 300+ commenters to his article….
I love how the antis always bring up how more people in the US have been killed with guns than all the wars combined, conveniently ignoring the fact that the majority are suicides, then of course another moronic anti will state that if it weren’t for guns we wouldn’t have 20,000+ suicides a year.
We could stand to thin the herd a bit.
Thin the heard? Well that portion of the heard needs a bit more thinning but the heard that needs thinning the most are the anti’s portion. Or let us think about how to chlorinate the shallow end of the gene pool that they reside in. It is necessary to be, at least in my opinion, a bit safe with firearms. Loaded weapons are a tool for protection not amusement. Unloaded firearms are seldom a useful tool, unless one wants to make a very expensive door stop or hammer of one.
Gun “tricks” indicate a lack of intelligence and it astounds me that there are those that give a pass to the imbecile that “plays” with a lethal weapon but hammers on the idea that government is the only power to stop the practice. In my experience it is training and familiarity, as well as a healthy respect, for and with firearms that will stop the idea that firearms are a toy. I have no problem with toys that represent firearms and the longer it goes that society suppresses the idea that a firearm is the greatest defense against aggressive and malevolent intent from another the worse it gets. We give a pass to video game makers that portray shooting and theft as rewards for heroic behavior and yet society wants to give every child the same score in a competition and reward mediocrity.
Growing up playing cowboys and native Americans was healthy role playing. Sometimes you were the good guy and sometimes you were the baddie. Sometimes your firearm was a stick and a voice yelling like a canary “Bang! Bang! Yer DED!” Sometimes it was a Mattel Six Shooter with caps and plastic cartridges. When it came to real firearms it was the parents and Boy Scouts and Indian Guides that transported us to the local firing range. Police and military officers, in their spare time, that gave us safety training (“Keep a loaded weapons barrel pointed up and down range son”), and the hunt that taught us exactly what happens when you shoot an animal that would become food. All the anti-gun movement does is cripple yet another generation of kids in the wholesome experience of lethal technology for the hunter and protector, and empowers yet another generation of couch dwellers.
Or, if criminals actually couldn’t get guns, they would just have to find something else to do, besides being criminals.
Sounds like DeHayes is responsible, but I find it odd that the state attorney cannot prosecute. From the original DB story: “In a letter denying her case, King wrote that an accidental discharge of a firearm that kills someone—even if it is the result of gross negligence—cannot be prosecuted.” I don’t get that.
Seriously… Kill someone “accidentally” with a car and it’s negligent homicide or manslaughter.
WTF?
WTF is right …
“There is no evidence to suggest the [sic] DeHayes had a careless or reckless indifference to the safety of the victims when the firearm discharged,” assistant state attorney Brad Magrino wrote in his recommendation not to prosecute.
SMH …
WTF indeed…
He’s practicing tricks with one in the chamber which led to the death of a pregnant woman and he won’t be prosecuted?
If Mr. Wegman is of sound mine (he isn’t) then the best law to change in light of this tragedy would be the one that lets Mr. DeHayes walk away a free man.
Appears to me that the District Attorney or Prosecutor is just as liable for this incident as the moron that is doing “tricks” with a loaded gun. There is clear evidence of wrong doing but it requires acknowledging that stupid people doing stupid things should be prosecuted for criminal behavior when it is criminally stupid behavior. The only tricks I have ever done with one in the chamber is the trick of putting one in the center of the target and close range. Fortunately I haven’t had to shoot anyone yet but I do a lot of trick shooting at the range, and I call it trick shooting because the trick I am perfecting is to see that ALL of my shots go in the center of the target, and when it is a profile target, they all go into the heart and head with no strays. I keep the gun loaded in a safe place with the safety engaged when it is not in my hand and no one but I know where the safe place is located AND I live alone these days. My 40 isn’t a beverage and it never has left the house without me.
I think these kinds of laws or legal opinions spring from the part of our legal system where nobody is really responsible for anything anymore and the guy with biggest pockets is always the one that gets sued. In this case I am sure that the brilliant legal minds will try to prove that the gun manufacturer was at fault instead of the idiot that was playing with a loaded gun.
It looks like the ole decking a hammer fired gun with your trigger finger and thumb while using a live human head as your safe direction trick.
Perfectly believable article, for instance my car insists on driving drunk with me in it, very disrespectful of the contraption if you ask me.
(snicker) And my computer spouts wisecracks without me at the keyboard! These machines are FIENDISH! 😉
And naturally, the comments section is closed on his article.
But the ones that are still there are scary.
I have friends in Brooksville, and this moron is not representative of the town.
Broke all 4 rules – what could go wrong? There was no safe direction to point while decocking?
Don’t know how this guy gets off without any charges, that kind of discretion is usually reserved for LEOs. I would feel differently if he dropped the gun and it discharged, but he was in control of the weapon. Hopefully the family gets some justice in civil court, but it won’t bring back the wife and baby.
Wow, didn’t expect Brooksville to make headlines. This man is not representative of this area.
Journalists are not ignorant , or misinformed any more than Brian ” I wasn’t there ” Williams.
The BS they spout is their sole agenda. I will not try to educate them , I will call them LIARS.
They are in fact … Truth Deniers ! I know the stupid hurts , but keep calling out the Truth Deniers ! My fake study by ” Experts ” proves I am right ! ( See how that works ? )
Masterful writing there, Zimmerman. Made my day.
1. … who is responsible for the deaths of Ms. Hoover and her unborn son?
Who, meaning person, not what, meaning object. Even his grammer cannot support his gun hating ideology.
2. Son named Rehiln… Pronounced Ray-Lynn…? The female vision of Raymond? If so, that’s a straight up girl name.
Subject matter substitution test:
“An area man was engaging in some innocent doughnuts and other car tricks in a school parking lot while pulling on his second bottle of Wild Turkey 101 when his vehicle spun off and struck a child, who later died from the injuries.
The man was quoted as saying ‘those damn cars! My truck spins off the road whenever it wants to. It almost ran me into a tree twice while I was doing donuts in a field. Damn thing tried to kill me.'”
“Consider a moron. Now consider a lefty blogger. But I repeat myself.” – if Mark Twain was blogging today
😉
In a world filled with stupid rants by stupid anti-gunners, this one actually seems to stick out as unusually bad.
Just tagging to read comments for now. Y’all have it pretty well covered.
Sadly, the victims were also unaware of the safety rules, and allowed this moron to play with a gun instead of tossing him out the door.
In addition, I wonder what sort of “hold my beer and watch this” nonsense led to his disability… if that’s even true. I can’t imagine why anyone would consider that his use of drugs, “legal” or otherwise, would relieve him of responsibility for his actions.
This guy needs to be taken out to the woodshed and educated seriously, and then spend the rest of his life working to pay restitution to the victims.
Just FYI: I have a sword named Stormbringer that is a sentient avatar of a demon of the Realm of Chaos that drinks souls of any being it strikes granting me unholy immortality and potent magicks that ironically leave me hollow inside longing for oblivion and destruction all while it mocks my powerlessness to ever achieve my own destruction.
So, I guess I’m saying I can empathize with his story even if his is a little harder to believe than mine.
Some revolvers will hold on to a round if you rely solely on gravity alone to clear the cylinder. It’s fine hold revolver, barrel muzzle pointed in a safe manner, to clear it but only if you also push ejection rod and visually check that all the rounds are out before attempting to do dry firing. Not an accident. MHO, a negligent homicide,
Liberal/Progressive. One of the educated elite. Better than half of the comments are in support of this commentators interpretation of the evils of the NRA, of guns, of the second amendment and those Americans that overwhelmingly practice their G-d given rights responsibly.
Those gun owners that say we need to find some middle ground with people that have this type of thought process and beliefs are just as delusional as those that believe a GFZ sign will keep them safe from a maniac with a gun.
There is no compromise that they will accept that does not ultimately lead to our complete disarmament and the monopoly of force in the hands of the state.
No more compromise.
Totally agree with you. If you want to see how well GFZ’s do just put a sign in your front yard exposing your neighbor that is anti Second Amendment and that you protect your property with a siren, phone and Colt or Smith and Wesson. You will see just how fast your neighbor wants that sign taken down. They don’t want you to have a gun but by God they want the burglar to think he has one.
The weird thought process of an anti-gun person that can’t see their lack of consistency.
Another example, of many, is how they say that they want to have assault weapons banned because of mass murderers, but then call us gun owners paranoid for carrying a gun to defend against said mass shooter.
Google William DeHayes and the photo that pops up is a gun-banner’s wet dream. This is how they view all of us, their poster child NRA member.
Then again, the photo being promulgated by the media is undoubtedly handpicked for the occasion. I’m sure that the NYT editorial board didn’t sit around a conference table and vote to choose the photo that least portrayed DeHayes as a backwoods bumpkin gun-weirdo with “an IQ just high enough to brush his tooth.” (Props to Dan Zimmerman for the quote.)
This is the same media mechanism that chose to widely publish photos of a cherubic, prepubescent Trayvon Martin several years out of date.
The leftist media are evil, not stupid. Their followers, however, are stupid. Rejoice, because one thing that we have over the leftards is that we’re smarter than they are.
In a battle of wits, the average leftist tool is unarmed. Because in Progworld, guns and brains are icky.
This is one of the rare times a liberal blogger will show some empathy to an unborn “fetus” that has a name. You know, when it’s killed by a firearm that needs to be banned. When a fetus is killed by an abortionist, it’s just a worthless lump of flesh akin to a tumor.
It’s only a “fetus” if the mother has chosen to give birth to it. Everybody knows that life starts when that “choice” is made. Otherwise abortion would be murder.
/sarc
The logic of “someone was a moron with an object, therefore we should ban the object” never transfers to anything else.
It’s funny, pretty much any gun owner who ISN’T the guy who pulled that trigger while it was aimed at another person could answer the question of who was responsible.
Think they bothered to ask anyone?
Someone needs to activate an online 24/7 camera that films a loaded gun (maybe that awful killing machine that is the AR…) alone all by itself on a table or the like and challenge any and all liberals to find one instance where the gun suddenly becomes “dangerous”…
This has already been ongoing for over a decade. See:
http://www.assaultweaponwatch.com/
(Warning: all the seemingly anti-gun stuff on the linked site is tongue-in-cheek/parody)
Awesome
LOL! Thanks!
When I practice field stripping a howitzer upside-down and naked I always make sure my weapon is clear……rookie.The comments on the Times article are enough to cause a seizure.
This is as clear a case for Manslaughter as there could be under Florida Law – culpable negligence. And of course the antis “up north” are going to use this example to further their cause.
The first dozen or so comments I read on the article link were pretty much in line with what was noted here: treat all firearms as loaded; don’t play “games” with guns and point in safe direction; this guy in an idiot and a woman paid with her life; why is said idiot not charged with at least criminal negligence?
the irony of the new York times stance on gun control is especially thick when you consider the fact that they were also the first entity to use an automatic weapon when they fired a gatling gun on a mob during the draft riots of the civil war.
“I haven’t slept in three days trying to figure out how the hell [the gun] went off. I don’t know. I mean them damn guns. The shotgun goes off when it wants to. I almost blew my damn head off twice.”
Well, the personal gun in my pants sometimes will go off by itself, but the rest of the store bought guns usually seem to behave themselves quite well. The shotguns seem especially well behaved.
Playing cowboy with a pregnant women in the room…check. Yeah I noticed the humanization of the baby. Noblob of tissue matter when it doesn’t fit the narrative…
If practicing tricks with a loaded gun in your kitchen in the direction of a pregnant woman doesn’t qualify as recklessness, I’d hate to imagine what would.
Proof that even IQs less than Forest Gump can get a good job!…AND in the national media…..peas and carrots.
Wegman is a numbnutts. DeHays is responsible.
Suge Knight is innocent!
…His car mowed down those two guys he had a previous argument with, killing one and putting the other in ICU.
The same for that lovely chap in Austin, TX, who was merely the helpless passenger as his vehicle went on a rampage and plowed down a whole group of people.
We all know that nobody should be held responsible for the murderous actions of their steel death machines … Said no-one, ever!
Wegman is another irresponsible journalistic jerk. They abuse responsibility, laugh at integrity and make a joke of liberty. Telling them where to stick it is dutiful.
Some details:
“”DeHayes also told the sheriff he had taken a number of prescription drugs an hour before the shooting—methadone and Loratab, opiods for pain and Soma, a muscle relaxer, all to treat what he said are diagnosed “severe back problems.”
So, methadone and hydrocodone and some Soma on top and then decides it is a good idea to play some gun tricks…ow.
His trigger must have pulled the finger.
From Wegman’s perspective, his argument is sound. He believes that as long as isolated idiots do idiotic things, all aspects of everyone’s lives should be tightly controlled. And he will continue to believe this, right up to the moment some regulation affects him personally in a way he finds unpleasant.
But, the above statement shows my own bias, vis. the assumption that laws apply to everyone. Pinch is free to carry a gun in a city he and his father helped to disarm. As always in collectivist authoritarian societies, some animals are more equal than others.
I know Hanlon’s Razor is in full effect here, but maybe he just wanted to murder his wife.
So either William DeHayes was doing his dipshit “tricks” knowing full well the gun was loaded, and should therefore get 10-20 years behind bars being perpetually gang prison raped, or he was doing his dipshit “tricks” without ever even once bothering to check if the gun was loaded, in which case he should get 10-20 years behind bars being perpetually gang prison raped.
While i’m certainly not defending DeHayes, he has at other points mentioned entertaining thoughts of suicide, knowing full well that the death was purely his fault.
I presume when he said he “almost blew [his] head off” he means that he almost killed himself out of guilt and shame, not that he kept right on playing around and had some close calls.
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