Cops: Prank Goes Awry, Man Shoots Pal Dead
MANCHESTER, Vt. -- Police say a Vermont man who believed he was holding an air gun shot his sleeping friend dead in bed with a .22-caliber rifle.Guns are not toys. Even the diminutive .22LR is quite capable of killing someone. Guns should never be part of a prank - the video of the jerk "teaching" his wife how to operate a 1911 and then setting off fireworks nearby comes to mind - and this story is a prime example why not. Who knows exactly what transpired? Maybe the guy who did the shooting was told it was an air rifle and didn't check? Maybe he was told the gun was unloaded or had blanks? In any case, one man is dead, another has had his life permanently affected, and there are no winners, all because someone thought it would be funny to play with a gun.
Manchester police told WCAX-TV that the two friends were staying at another friend's home Thursday. Police say 23-year-old Nicholas Bell of Manchester was hoping to play a prank on his friend and wake him up with an air gun.
Guns. Are. NOT. Toys.
That is all.
5 comments:
idiot!
"Even the diminutive .22LR is quite capable of killing someone."
Even the air rifle he supposedly thought it was is quite capable of killing someone. This goes beyond stupidity, and should at a minimum be prosecuted as negligent homicide, if not outright manslaughter.
As you said: "Guns. Are. NOT. Toys. Not even air guns.
A friend went down south for a nerd convention once. While there, a teenager was being an idiot and shoved a gun in his face. Luckily for all involed, my friend noticed it was an air pistol as he swatted at it and reached for his own sidearm.
The dink with the bb gun whined, "It's just a toy man," as my friend tossed the thing into an alley.
"Mine's not, pi$$ off you idiot," replied my friend as he pulled his shirt back over his pistol.
Long story short, I am getting sick and tired of people treating air guns as toys. Some day, it may be a "real" gun as in this story, some day someone will get maimed by a pellet, some day you may get shot for your "prank."
Even blanks can kill you at point blank range.
As Jake points out, air rifles can kill too. Is gun, is not safe.
Playing with a air rifle (any rifle) as if it cannot do real damage is just all wrong.
Having hunted with .22cal pump air rifles I can say I treat it exactly the same as the .22mag I had or the 12ga. It was sufficiently powerful to send a 15gr pellet to 600fps and take rabbits at 20 yards. If it can do that it's not a harmless toy.
I wonder if alcohol was involved too.
Eck!
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