Just because she votes the right way doesn’t make her any less of one. These are people I’d rather not have on my side. The media seems to keep harping on the gun not having a safety. I don’t care whether it has a safety or not, you don’t point it at people. I also don’t care whether the the reporter, as Klein claims, sat in front of her line of sight. If someone walks in front of the muzzle, you point it in a safe direction immediately. It’s hard for me to imagine a scenario where I let someone walk in front of my muzzle. It’s also, equally hard, to imagine a scenario where I agree to show off my loaded pistol to a reporter, or anyone. If someone asks to see the gun you’re carrying, the responsible answer should be “NO,” and the next question is how the person knew you were carrying in the first place.
UPDATE: SayUncle notes that her side of the story is different, namely that she cleared the pistol first.
“If someone walks in front of the muzzle, you point it in a safe direction immediately. ”
She was interviewed again and said she did.
I can imagine various scenarios of someone walking in front of my muzzle who a few moments earlier I thought had a brain in their head.
It is disputed whether she pointed the gun at him, or he walked in front of it – which I find less likely given that there was a laser helpfully pointing out the muzzle direction. Either way, this dangerous situation occurred because she was showing off her firearm as a fashion accessory. If she wanted to show off her gun to the reporter she should have taken him to a range.
“and the next question is how the person knew you were carrying in the first place”
Um… Because I’m open carrying?
How do we know that this was not a deliberate set up by the journalist?
It’s difficult for me to imagine a situation where I’m going to believe it acceptable to bring a loaded gun out for show and tell. Maybe at a gun nut friend’s house, who I know won’t react to it stupidly, and then only after I find a safe place to unload it to show it off.
Because I’m open carrying?
In that case the reporter can see the gun just fine.
The audio is pretty clear that it wasn’t a setup: t.co/83GYDWw
I holster my gun in the morning. I put it away in the evening. As the day goes unless some limited extraneous circumstances, the gun stays in the holster.
Yeah I’m proud of my gun, I’d love to show it off and let people handle it. But it isn’t a toy, and those practices are only safe in controlled environments.
Markie Marxist sez: “Our Marxist/warrior/hero/journalistas should always try to get in front of the muzzle any time a private gun owner is showing a gun. It makes the gun owner look bad, and if the gun goes off, it makes the gun owner look even worse! That’s politically useful to our gun ban agenda. Ha! Ha! All your negligent discharges are belong to us! Hopefully.”
Back when I was just a kid, I was taught as a matter of practice by the adults in my life that whenever you want to show off a gun to a friend, besides keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, you should also open the bolt, or the action, or whatever is necessary to check for a cleared chamber, unless the chamber is open already, of course.
Since guns have been so demonized over the last 40 years, and nothing useful or practical is being taught about guns in schools any more, there are a whole lot of newcomer gun owning adults out there who never grew up learning safe gun handling habits at home like I did. I would suspect that this Arizona lawmaker who we are talking about now is one of those newcomer gun owning adults, but it’s never too late for anyone to learn safe gun handling habits.
@9 I think that is exactly right, certainly more plausible than the idea of a secret communist directive instructing reporters to hurl themselves in front of loaded firearms.
This is why training is important for everyone, and particularly for those who act as spokespeople for gun rights. Politicians should be setting an example, not embarrassing us.
The firearm wasn’t loaded when she showed it to the reporter and cameraman. If you read her account, she didn’t point it at anyone, the reporter moved into the muzzle and then she DID move the muzzle away. Let’s not jump on the “hide your scary piece of metal because it might hurt someone” wagon please. And calling her a bozo? Dude, grow up.
I don’t know, it would seem to be a need to wave your gun around in front of reporters speaks of a need to grow up more than criticizing the person for it.
And yet you immediately (without her side of the story) and with certainty call her a bozo.
She wasn’t ‘waving her gun around’; she was responding to a specific request by those same ‘reporters’ to see her handgun.
I’ll refer the gentleman to the comment made some moments ago.
So Sebastian, maybe a better use of your time would be to publish a script for firearms owners to use explaining why we won’t show our handgun (a Gurkha Kukri-like story probably won’t get it!). One that reasonably describes why we don’t ‘touch it all the time’. One that points out all of the stupid restrictions placed upon firearms owners.
And make sure it’s a script that can’t be misconstrued or misrepresented by professional wordsmiths, like most anything else we do is.
I’m just not big on people pulling out their carry pieces in public or semi-public settings and fucking around with it, because that’s usually when bad things happen. I’m a firm believer that if someone asks to see your carry piece the safe answer is “no.”
Fiddling with carry guns is how people end up hearing unexpected loud bangs.
Pulling out your carry piece to ‘show it off’ to the press is just plain stupid. There is no way it can end well (as demonstrated by the coverage she is now receiving).
The audio is crystal clear too.
Henle: I didn’t see the laser part.
(Simultaneous) Klein: I pointed it at him.
(Simultaneous) Ruelas: She pointed it at me.
The lady has rocks in her head.