Self-Correcting Stupidity

Posted on | September 2, 2015 | 26 Comments

Houston mourns the loss of a promising young man:

A man posing with a gun and taking selfies was killed when the gun went off and struck him in southwest Houston, police said.
Family members said the victim is 19-year-old Deleon Alonso Smith.
Investigators said Smith was taking selfies with a gun at an apartment in the 9800 block of Forum Park Drive and Bissonnet around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday when the gun accidentally went off, shooting the 19-year-old in the throat and killing him. . . .
Family members said Smith has two young children and was starting college Wednesday. . . .
Police said Smith believed the gun was unloaded at the time.

It’s so sad that this aspiring scholar — already a father of two at age 19 — won’t be starting college, where he might have studied Basic Principles of Not Shooting Yourself in the Neck.

Category: Crime

Comments

26 Responses to “Self-Correcting Stupidity”

Mike G.
September 2nd, 2015 @ 3:30 pm

And they said Darwin’s theory of evolution was so much poppycock. It appears that when one does stupid things, stupid things happen.
Jeanette Victoria
September 2nd, 2015 @ 3:35 pm

One less thug to assassinate a cop
texlovera
September 2nd, 2015 @ 3:35 pm

A gun is ALWAYS loaded.
Neo
September 2nd, 2015 @ 3:44 pm

“… killed when the gun went off and struck him in southwest Houston …”

There is nothing worse than being struck in your “southwest Houston”
CrustyB
September 2nd, 2015 @ 3:48 pm

A gentle giant, a gentleman, a future Rhodes scholar…
JeffWeimer
September 2nd, 2015 @ 3:49 pm

If Obama had a son….
Steve Skubinna
September 2nd, 2015 @ 6:48 pm

“Accidentally went off.”

People in the business of carrying guns on the job know this as a “negligent discharge.”
Steve Skubinna
September 2nd, 2015 @ 7:00 pm

“One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don’t know.”

– Captain Jeffrey Spaulding
Daniel Freeman
September 3rd, 2015 @ 12:31 am

Alas, his suicide by selfie does not qualify for a Darwin Award due to having already procreated.
totenhenchen
September 3rd, 2015 @ 5:17 am

Natural selection continues to function no matter how hard the government tries to stop it.
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September 3rd, 2015 @ 6:10 am

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Critical Eye
September 3rd, 2015 @ 6:35 am

What was Pournelle’s catchphrase? “Think of it as evolution in action”.
Trespassers W
September 3rd, 2015 @ 9:01 am

Oh, absolutely. My dad–former Army MP– shot our freezer cleaning a 22 rifle that he was sure wasn’t loaded. Chagrin doesn’t quite cover his reaction.
Bob Belvedere
September 3rd, 2015 @ 9:33 am

…Then we tried to remove the tusks. The tusks. That’s not so easy to say. Tusks. You try it some time. …As I say, we tried to remove the tusks. But they were embedded so firmly we couldn’t budge them. Of course, in Alabama the Tuscaloosa, but that is entirely ir-elephant to what I was talking about.
Bob Belvedere
September 3rd, 2015 @ 9:33 am

Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.
Quartermaster
September 3rd, 2015 @ 1:31 pm

Looks like you dunhaddit.
Quartermaster
September 3rd, 2015 @ 1:32 pm

One has to wonder how such things happen since you have to disassemble the weapon to clean it.
Quartermaster
September 3rd, 2015 @ 1:32 pm

I think it was something like that.
Daniel Freeman
September 3rd, 2015 @ 2:39 pm

Here we call that “too stupid to live.”

ETA: That may sound cruel, but in Oregon, the public often ends up paying for the rescue — which often ends up being a body recovery. I guess you could say that we’re shaming carelessness in order to get less of it.
unclezip
September 3rd, 2015 @ 3:24 pm

Yeah. But a lot of stupid is taught, and he won’t be around to pass it on.
Trespassers W
September 3rd, 2015 @ 3:42 pm

Newer guns, perhaps, but not this old 22.

And I should clarify: he was preparing to clean it. Not like it went off when he had the brush pushed down the barrel. If I recall, it happened when he laid it down on the workbench.
Quartermaster
September 3rd, 2015 @ 7:43 pm

Always clear a weapon before storage, or working on it. Some people, who know better, have screwed up. The owner of Walker Arms in Alabama was once asked by one of his Gunsmiths if he had cleared a weapon when he took it in for work. He said “yes,” and the Gunsmith holding the weapon kicked out 5 rounds of .30-06 from the rifle.

Sounds like that rifle needs some serious work, however. From what you describe the sear is worn.
Steve Skubinna
September 3rd, 2015 @ 7:46 pm

Hooray hooray hooray!
Trespassers W
September 3rd, 2015 @ 8:23 pm

As I said, it’s old ; we used it when I was a kid (too many years ago) for gophers and plinking tin cans. I don’t think it’s been used at all in at least 20 years. I wouldn’t use it now without having a gunsmith check it over first.
johncunningham
September 4th, 2015 @ 12:34 am

There is the ancient maxim–“keep yer boogerhook off the boomstick until ready to fire”….
theoldsargesays
September 4th, 2015 @ 5:30 pm

Not to worry, his baby’s mama or mama’s will carry on the family tradition.
Living to an age older than their father’s will be considered an accomplishment.