An Armed Society
From the Washington Post:
A North Carolina man was arrested Sunday after he walked into a popular pizza restaurant in Northwest Washington carrying an assault rifle and fired one or more shots, D.C. police said. The man told police he had come to the restaurant to “self-investigate” a false election-related conspiracy theory involving Hillary Clinton that spread online during her presidential campaign.
The incident caused panic, with several businesses going into lockdown as police swarmed the neighborhood after receiving the call shortly before 3 p.m.
Police said 28-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch, of Salisbury, N.C., walked in the front door of Comet Ping Pong and pointed a firearm in the direction of a restaurant employee. The employee was able to flee and notify police. Police said Welch proceeded to discharge the rifle inside the restaurant; they think that all other occupants had fled when Welch began shooting.
But he was very polite.
Image by e53 
This story has “more to it” written all over it. I’ve can count the number of times the guy and his actions were mentioned in the news and how many times the news talked about the “fake news pedo ring conspiracy theory”. That ration is about 1 to 4. Trying to hard perhaps?
It’s one thing to be confused about concealed carry laws when transiting between states, but you gotta be real stupid/ignorant/something else going on to think you can walk around DC with a semi auto rifle nonchalantly, much less, discharge it.Report
He believed what he’d heard about Hillary on social media. That makes him stupid, but hardly uniquely so.Report
Yeah, but most folks have SOME sense, ’cause if you’re around guns long enough and you don’t, you get removed from the population.Report
Or tagged and relocated to Florida.Report
Why all the florida hate?
After all, they win the annual largest palmetto bug competition, so they got that going for them…and manateesReport
I hate florida because I know a lawyer that lives there. Her stories about what happens where they live are absolutely vile.Report
I’m not a big fan of florida either. I deal with enough idiots on the road-and they are not gerries. Having to deal with the geriatric drivers would push me over the edge..
That and I hate the humidity.Report
cause if you’re around guns long enough and you don’t, you get removed from the population
Or at least from the population allowed access to guns – e.g. by being imprisoned for firing off a gun in a pizza restaurant.Report
Indeed. 🙂Report
I keep hearing this, as if all the dumb stuff people are observed to do with guns must be some sort of optical illusion.Report
Sadly, it must just be my wishful thinking then…
Doing something stupid is stupid. Doing something stupid with something that can kill large numbers of people: car, gun, etc. is beyond stupid.Report
The barrel points the wrong way to remove most idiots from the gene pool due to mishandling guns.
Their unlucky family, friends, or dogs? That’s a different story.
(In fact, most people being shot by their own gun seem to be shot when someone ELSE is holding their gun. A toddler or a friend or perhaps their dog. There’s the occasional holster mishap, but that seems quite uncommon. Even with the idiots who shove it in their waistband).Report
I was barely older than a toddler and I knew how to handle firearms correctly….Report
Damon, if every gunowner were like my father-in-law when it came to guns, I’d be happily uncaring about guns in America. Have all you want. Have another. Take two, and enjoy yourself on the range or in the woods.
Sadly, I’ve come to realize he’s not average as a gun-owner. (He does own an awful lot of guns, but mostly through inheritance. I think maybe two rifles, one shotgun, and one handgun are all he’s ever purchased. He has…quite a few more than that these days. He prefers bows these days, which is nice — so do I. I find them far more visceral and fun to shoot than guns. Although my crossbow is also pretty darn fun).Report
Oy, talk about crossbows just reminds me of the elderly Navy Seal, who when told to “get good pictures of the parade” decided to ascend the town water tower, and take pictures from up there. (as in deus ex, minicrossbows are used a lot for special ops).Report
Is there a point to this post?Report
Mike shouldn’t use spinner bait is all I’m getting out of it.Report
A guy that believes the kind of nonsense that some people quote here endangered a lot of innocent people. Fortunately, he was white, so even though he was armed and dangerous, the police didn’t feel the need to kill him.Report
Is this really Mike? The avatar says Mike but the twitter-esque rant says Sam. Has anyone here mentioned/quoted that rumor? No, okay then. As for the cops not feeling the need to kill him, it appears that he put down the weapon and came out with his hands on his head. That is if your story and the accompanying picture are to be believed. If he hadn’t put the weapon down or resisted in any way, I’d be fine with the cops shooting him. Is seems as if you are trying to create a straw man to give you something to be outraged with and joust at.Report
But Mike…Second Amendment!!!
Come on…don’t you want to see another 200 posts on the subject? 😉Report
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