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Dick Cheney is a friggin moron.

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Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

13:46 / 13.02.06

Story Here

Basically, while quail hunting Cheney and his companions flushed some of the birds out of the brush. Cheney spun to fire at the low flying fowl, putting Whittington directly in his line of fire, and pulled the trigger.

Luckily they were hunting quail, which, being small, dont require lead or steal high powered shot to bring down. Had they been duck hunting Cheney would have blown the gentleman's head off.

What bothers me the most about all of this is that the media keeps calling it an "accidental" shooting. As a member of the NRA Cheney knows that there is no such thing as an accidental shooting, anytime you shoot someone you did not intend to it is negligent. Guns don't decide they are going to go off just for the hell of it, causing an accident, someone needs to have a round in the chanber, point the thing, and pull the trigger.

Every time someone died or is injured while hunting it gets call a tragic accident, but in every case it is the result of someones negligence.

Anyway, I'll stop ranting about gun safety now, and ask, what do you think the result of this will be? Will the Democrats jump all over it, or will they let the Republicans bury it, as they seemed able to do for the first 24 hours after it happened?

All Acting Regiment

13:57 / 13.02.06

Cheney is an idiot. I'll be back with something more constructive in a bit, but, yeah, Cheney's an idiot.

15:07 / 13.02.06

I don't know if there's much to be said on a political front... though it doesn't hurt that he looks like the immense tool-bag that he is. It is funny how things are being spun already... the situation being the victim's fault, being an accident w/o any liability or something common, etc. Having hunted white-tail deer for a number of years when I was growing up, I learned handling a gun and hunting isn't something you take lightly.

One problem I have is that he takes part in this live target practice that gets passed off as hunting. Granted, this is coming from the Humane Society and will be weighted in a particular direction but regardless it's totally lacking in any macho bravado, etc. that these types of people align themselves with.

15:11 / 13.02.06

Oh, this is rich.

Mary Matalin, an adviser to the Vice-President, said he felt "bad, obviously".

"On the other hand, he was not careless or incautious or violated any of the rules," she said. "He didn't do anything he wasn't supposed to do."

Is it me, or does that follow the script for every other CYA brief issued by these bozos?

They always follow the rules. Yessir.

15:15 / 13.02.06

I'm sure it was a friendly firearm...

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:16 / 13.02.06

Isn't there a rule about not shooting people in the face? I mean, you'd think...

15:32 / 13.02.06

Yes, accidental or otherwise, shooting someone in the face is assault.

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:34 / 13.02.06

Mind you, let's not get overexcited. This is the face. That's a very bulletproof area of the body. As our own police force has demonstrated. You really have to shoot somebody in the face quite a lot before they even really get the idea that you're cross with them.

So, this may seem a bit bad, but you know... face.

15:35 / 13.02.06

As a member of the NRA Cheney knows that there is no such thing as an accidental shooting, anytime you shoot someone you did not intend to it is negligent.

No such things as an accidental shooting? Is that politically motivated NRA rhetoric, or is it just your assertion, or both (I'm genuinely interested)?

I mean, I'm no fan of firearms, but I think I could argue the case for using the word accident under certain circumstances.

15:53 / 13.02.06

That's the NRA line: that there is no such thing as an accidental shooting, that all such incidents are caused by negligence in handling.

And I can see the logic in that. You squeeze the trigger, the projectile comes out: that is no accident. That is a gun doing what it was built to do.

The only exceptuion, I suppose, would be a malfunction in the gun that caused a spontaneous discharge absent a squeezing of the trigger. But that would be so rare as to be effectively nonexistent.

15:56 / 13.02.06

He's not going to convicted of anything for this, nor even charged, so is he really that much of a moron? He gets to shoot wealthy bankers (or was his victima actually a lawyer?) and get away with it...

15:56 / 13.02.06

In other words, accident = it's the gun's fault, negligence = it's the shooter's fault—in keeping with the NRA's notion that "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."

All Acting Regiment

16:05 / 13.02.06

But supposing the wrong person got shot. The fact that they were shot is surely accidental as it wasn't intended to happen?

16:11 / 13.02.06

Nope. Again, it's not the gun's fault: it's the fault of the one aiming the gun. The shooter was aiming improperly, or squeezing the trigger too early, or failing to observe the basic safety rule "Make sure that no-one's face is between you and the quail you are about to blow to smithereens." That's negligence.

The gun itself is blameless and holy.

16:14 / 13.02.06

I find it interesting that no-one even wastes time seriously considering he'd be charged with a crime. There's no way there'd be any legal consequence from this, even though he shot a lawyer.

Interesting that the rich and famous can do such bloody stupid/dangerous/illegal things and just walk away - and that's the result people have come to expect.

(Of course I may be wrong, and the law may step in, but I bloody doubt it. )

16:17 / 13.02.06

Well I did raise my doubts over the probability of charging and conviction just a few posts up...

16:21 / 13.02.06

In other words, accident = it's the gun's fault, negligence = it's the shooter's fault—in keeping with the NRA's notion that "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."

Thanks for the clarification, Jack. I thought that might be the offical line, but Elijah's post didn't make that entirely clear.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

16:28 / 13.02.06

Thanks for getting to the more specifics before I could Jack, stupid atual work. getting in the way of the important stuff.

And yess, the term accident can be used in the case of a firearm malfunction, but rarely.

Recently after a huntung outing here in New Mexico a 12 year old was killed. He was in the back of his fathers pickup truck, and his dad was handing him rifles, one of which was still loaded, when the kid slipped on the wet truckbed he dropped the rifle and it went off, shooting him in the head. This was an accident caused by negligence on the part of the father, by not clearing the weapons before handing them into a vehicle.

Guns are dangerous, the creat a controled explosion. However, by applying the common sense of a magpie you can minimize the danger inherent in handling them.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

16:35 / 13.02.06

See, if this had happened 15 years ago it would have been a satirist's (or at the very least a TV comedian's) Christmas. Shooting at quail? Hits a guy in bushes?

Failing that, there's always the "Dick" joke.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

16:37 / 13.02.06

Which Dick joke?

The one about premature discharge?

17:20 / 13.02.06

This whole thread should be incorporated in the Lame jokes thread. Cheney himself is a lame joke. And a very unfunny one, if you ask me

Cheney hunting trips = Bush administration foreign police

17:27 / 13.02.06

Wouldn't it have been better if he'd accidentally shot himself in the face?

Yes, I think it would have.

unheimlich manoeuvre

17:37 / 13.02.06

It would of been better if Cheney was hunting Dan Quayle.

17:39 / 13.02.06

... though it doesn't hurt that he looks like the immense tool-bag that he is.

Yes, and not for the first time. Remember, when he was at the 60th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation last year, when he got criticized for his attire? And looking at the picture, what was he thinking, "I´ll go for some quail hunting, when this is finished" maybe?

Tryphena Absent

17:39 / 13.02.06

Guns are dangerous, the creat a controled explosion. However, by applying the common sense of a magpie you can minimize the danger inherent in handling them.

The problem is that people who handle dangerous items are as prone to forgetting to handle them properly as anyone else. How many of us have reversed a car without a seatbelt on, held scissors the wrong way while walking, failed to put out a cigarette properly?

The accident is in tripping, crashing, dropping the rifle, the problem is that usually you do more damage to yourself when you drop a rifle you've forgotten to unload. I don't limit this simply to guns of course, it's not even the reason I dislike them, it's far too easy to forget how dangerous items are when you use them all the time.

Tryphena Absent

17:42 / 13.02.06

Oh god, that picture actually made me awww at Cheney. Sponge my brain down. I just condemned myself to hell. It's just... he looks so hopeless and pathetic and look at him all bundled up in his coat.

Shit.

18:39 / 13.02.06

You know what would be really fun? If Cheney had shot Georgie Bush in the face. Of course it would take a few time to notice the difference...

19:06 / 13.02.06

You don´t want that. Than Cheney would be president.

19:11 / 13.02.06

Yeah, but he might get so excited it gives him another heart attack...

19:13 / 13.02.06

Who's the Speaker of the House these days?

19:34 / 13.02.06

Who's the Speaker of the House these days?

20:13 / 13.02.06

Oh, my God, we're doomed

20:36 / 13.02.06

Dude - at least Sam the Eagle is honest about being a complete muppet...

20:51 / 13.02.06

So it's not really John Goodman? They just made that one up, huh?

21:11 / 13.02.06

If the so-called Free World is to be rules by a muppet, I vote for Gonzo...

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