Sunday, February 13, 2005

Hobart Man Dies Testing Bulletproof Vest

“HOBART, Ind. -- A man whose friends initially said he was killed by gunfire outside a Gary liquor store actually died after he donned what he thought was a bulletproof vest and asked a cohort to shoot him.

“A friend then shot Daniel Wright with a .20-gauge shotgun, but it turned out the vest Wright had put on Thursday was a flak jacket not designed to stop a bullet.”

Read complete story here.

I’m sure there will be no shortage of smartass “Darwin Award” comments among the chatroom/forum warriors, but this is tragic. A young man is dead and his survivors must live on with this senseless and terrible loss.

I did plenty of stupid things when I was young, and am lucky to still be here.

This would not be as likely to happen in a society that inculcated respect for firearms at an early age, with attendant age-appropriate education as young people mature--as opposed to knee-jerk fear, loathing and avoidance.

It’s also illustrative of how uneducated most reporters are. The AP is notorious for ignorant articles when it comes to guns. One would think a professional reporter would learn his subject matter well enough to distinguish “shot” from a “bullet.”

And as we can see from the headline, the editors are no better, as the story clearly indicates that bullet resistant vests played no part in this.

Six Degrees of Hypocrisy

It's gonna be a slow day at the computer--we have company coming and the house and yard are a mess due to jobs, taking care of kids, my writing, etc.

Weren't we supposed to rest on the seventh day? Well I have chores to do.

So I'm gonna cheat and rely on an old effort from GUNS AND AMMO to be my entry for today. If you haven't already seen "Six Degrees of Hypocrisy," just click on the link.

It's about our many good friends in Hollywood. I guess when you're rich, famous and can afford the best personal security money can buy, worrying about "ordinary" people's ability to defend themselves just isn't a priority.

Besides, it's a numbers game--if they lose a few fans out of millions, it won't even be noticed at the box office.

And in the interests of complete disclosure, I have another motive for revisiting this article. I'm working on a piece about an established Hollywood producer/director/screenwriter who is one of the strongest supporters of the Second Amendment I know. I plan on posting more soon, but, alas, my charwoman/lawnboy duties come first.