Man fatally shot while taking selfies with gun

[left-of-center2012]

19-year-old Deleon Alonso Smith was taking selfies with a gun around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday when the gun
accidentally went off, shooting the 19-year-old in the throat and killing him.
Smith has two young children and was starting college Wednesday.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/hpd-teenager-fatally-shot-while-taking-selfies-with-gun/35045298

[Human101948]

1. Now don't get emotional all you gun grabbers!

This young man had a Second Amendment right to self defense!

[Vinca]

2. It's a shame he was so afraid of himself.

[Logical]

3. How GOP of you to think this is funny! nt

[Human101948]

4. I think it's called "gallows humor..."

Because this is exactly the type of nonsense that the NRA gets away with all the time. And sadly the American public has bought into their logic.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/07/27/gun-control-americans-increasingly-see-more-guns-as-the-solution-not-the-problem/

[Eleanors38]

29. Funny, some call it lack of compassion.

[JonLP24]

38. It depends

Reading "Surviving Survival" is a great book in general in explaining how the mind works -- this one is it
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/surviving-survival-laurence-gonzales/1110864691

Each chapter deals with an individual person and their traumatic event and experiences afterword to explain this or that such as someone with Tourette's syndrome is a surgeon that can perform with precision in the operating room and explains how the mind works in how it relates to that and it was about keeping yourself busy, focused on things which can be used to deal with the aftermath of trauma. Its been awhile since I read the book so can't remember the exact circumstance but I'll say a diagnosis or receive the worst news ever and this woman's first reaction was to tell a joke can't remember exactly why with brain functions but very nature for humans experience very unpleasant events in a way that is comfortable for the reasons related to brain function with jokes or the human but they are truly affected or have the compassion related to which is why the gallow's humor in situations that are. Other times can be lack of compassion but in her case it was related to herself, from what I remember it was receiving the worst news ever for her.

Common in say military, emergency rooms, or situations like that. Probably not the greatest example

At his public execution, the murderer William Palmer is said to have looked at the trapdoor on the gallows and asked the hangman, "Are you sure it's safe?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallows_humor

[Bucky]

46. With this sort of thing happening so often, is it any wonder...

...that sometimes our compassion gets burned out?

[Eleanors38]

65. We do live in a jokester culture.

Given the lowest homicide, gun-death, and childhood accidental gun-deaths in many years, one might possibly suspect that MSM is reporting the hell out of the "events" which still occur.

[mythology]

55. I'll save my compassion for people who don't cause their own problems

Personal responsibility matters. He chose to do something stupid and paid for it. There are plenty of people who are victims of something other than their own mistakes. I'll feel compassion for them.

[Rebubula]

5. Sympathies to his family

Poor decision making is sometimes fatal....at least no one else was physically injured.

[Generic Other]

6. Aren't ya supposed to take selfies with your camera?

[world wide wally]

7. I certainly hope he was charged with...

something?

[sarisataka]

9. What charge would you like

Against a man who was fatally shot

[world wide wally]

37. Totally gross negligence?

[sarisataka]

49. Are you being sarcastic? n/t

[world wide wally]

50. You caught me red handed

[sarisataka]

53. I had to be sure

I have seen people seriously suggest pressing charges against a dead person before...

[yuiyoshida]

61. I see NOTHING!!!

[hifiguy]

62. Sgt Schultz is always a day-brightener! nt

[EL34x4]

8. Smith believed the gun was unloaded.

You don't "believe" a gun is unloaded. You VERIFY a gun is unloaded!

An unloaded gun will only hurt someone if you throw it at them.

[Adrahil]

11. I've met a number of people...

Who think a fun is unloaded if there is no magazine in the gun, or the magazine is empty. They forget about the chamber. Fatal mistake in this case, though he shouldn't have pointed it at himself in any case.

[EL34x4]

16. This is how people get killed.

You verify the magazine is empty and then you visually inspect that the chamber is empty as well. Do this and you can point guns at yourself all day long and you'll never get hurt, unless you drop it on your foot.

Point it at someone else and you might get shot though. Or at the very least, an ass-kicking.

[Travis_0004]

23. Still no

1 rule of gun safety is that you treat every gun as if its loaded.

If you just verified it 10 times, and you know its unloaded, you still always point it in a safe direction. If you want to play with a gun, go buy a toy gun.

[EL34x4]

34. Of course, this is the responsible approach.

Yet for many, asking people not to play with guns is kinda like asking teenage boys not to look at porn.

Many gun owners like to handle their guns, work the action, pose in the mirror and, yes, take selfies. The key here is to be able to determine if a gun is loaded or not which will greatly minimize the chance of something bad happening. If you cannot do this, you have no business picking one up.

Yes, treat every gun as if it is loaded but if you're not planning on killing something, at least make sure it's not loaded first.

As my Commanding Officer says, "be smart while you're being stupid."

[JonLP24]

43. To be very honest

the first time we got M16s in basic training right after the arms room and they go to great lengths and train & demand you check that they aren't loading most of us were running around inside fake shooting each other, most people are there not long after high school but you can actually get Article 15 for pointing it a soldier whether loaded or unloaded if caught I guess but it was first time thing or not all the time. I'm sure most of us never seen that before which for some reason handguns always scared me the physical appereance did but the M16s looked like more like a toy to me but it isn't but can't remember if I was or wasn't (19 at the time) others were doing that for fun but very short lived type of thing.

[sarisataka]

52. If we had run around

fake shooting each other in boot camp, we would still be doing pushups, even though I retired six years ago...

[cwydro]

18. This posing with guns nonsense that seems to be a fad of kids on Facebook

who wanna seem tough...well, it's just pathetic.

And obviously dangerous.

[KamaAina]

10. And the Darwin goes to...

Deleon Alonso Smith!

[msanthrope]

19. No....he'd already contributed to the gene pool. nt

[KamaAina]

20. But he won't be doing it again.

[lpbk2713]

12. I hope he didn't do it in the presence of his children.

OMFG

[sarisataka]

13. The first time this story

Was posted in GD it was hidden for including the comment

But thank you for thinning the herd.

But then it was only a 4-3 hide...

[Xyzse]

14. Oh, I was wondering why it was hidden.

Thanks for saying. I was quite confused.

[Snobblevitch]

15. This is another example of why every

youth should participate in gun safety education.

[EL34x4]

17. In a country with nearly 400 million firearms,

it might not be a bad idea to at least teach kids how to safely verify if they are loaded or not.

[Glassunion]

22. So a family doctor can't ask the family if they have guns in the home,

but every child should have to participate in a firearms course?

[Snobblevitch]

30. I don't care if a doctor asks about gun in the home,

as long as I can choose whether or not I wish to answer the question.

I did not write anything about mandatory firearms safety education.

It is likely this young man would be alive today if he knew how to tell if a gun is loaded and ready to fire. He may have also been smart enough to not point the gun at himself.

[world wide wally]

39. Either that or he didn't have a gun

[Snobblevitch]

57. But he did.

Right now, the story is that he found it. The reality is, there are a lot of guns out there. Nothing is going to change that. Education would reduce these tragedies.

[Lizzie Poppet]

21. "...the gun accidentally went off..."

It drives me nuts when journalists write that. It's damn near impossible. Unless there was a mechanical failure, that just doesn't happen. And mechanical failures are astronomically rare. Because guns are subject to huge stress in normal use, gun designers tend to over-design every component.

This guy's own foolish negligence has robbed his kids of their dad.

[Stuart G]

24. Now ...this man was extremely stupid. . Very sad.

How does one justify so many guns, with no gun rules?. I don't know. A set of very simple rules...two..
1...empty guns around children
2. licenses require a short course on gun safety..(with graphic pictures of those who had these kinds of accidents with guns)..

maybe a couple more...but what else can one say?..very sad...

[sarisataka]

26. 3 rules...

ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction. This is the primary rule of gun safety. ...
ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot. ...
ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.

"licenses require a short course on gun safety..(with graphic pictures of those who had these kinds of accidents with guns)"
When I teach my gun safety courses I actually use full color pictures of gunshot wounds (though not of children).

[Stuart G]

27. Thank You for posting...Rule 3 would save a lot of lives.

So many needless deaths because of not following simple very easy to follow rules.

[ileus]

25. Did it have a LCI? It only takes a second to do a press check.

RIP ze

[workinclasszero]

28. Good thing he had a deadly weapon to protect himself

Oh wait......


Feel bad for his kids.

I'm sure the NRA would prescribe MOAR GUNZ!!1!!1!1 to remedy this situation.

[world wide wally]

42. It's too bad that a "good guy with a gun" didn't stop him

[lame54]

31. he should have used a camera

[Liberal_in_LA]

32. RIP

[Rex]

33. This is what happens when people forget the firearm is not a toy like their phone.

So sad 19 and his entire life ahead of him.

[Omaha Steve]

35. Archers always know when the bow is loaded

Maybe a firearm law that requires an indicator that easily shows the weapon is loaded...

Nah. It would save to many lives.

[Lee-Lee]

36. Virtually all handguns made now in fact come with a loaded chamber indicator

Or have the extractor configured to look differently when there is a round in the chamber to serve as such. It's been required for more than a decade on any guns sold in California so when a new handgun is designed they include it.

So your snarky remark really just showed you probably are not educated enough on the subject to be talking about it and making suggestions...

[Omaha Steve]

41. Is this enough to make a comment?

Retired Omaha Police Dept.

It isn't required here. Just a permit to purchase from the local county.

Obviously it wan't on this young man's firearm or he still didn't know what it meant.

I registered hand guns as part of my duties. Several times the person registering their hand gun didn't know there was a round or full clip ready to use.

OS

[Lee-Lee]

44. Since you don't even know what a loaded chamber indicator is

and that virtually every modern firearm has one I hope you get some better training- there is no excuse for someone whose duties include handling firearms to not be aware of that.

Unless, of course, you are aware and were just misrepresenting the facts to make a point...

[Omaha Steve]

45. Let's go with every modern firearm has one

What happened in this case?

[cwydro]

47. I'm thinking this poor misguided wanna-be-tough-guy did not know much about guns. Period.

That's why he is now dead.

[Lee-Lee]

51. A person with zero clue how to safely handle a gun

According to the story they "found" the gun a few hours earlier.

At 19 I will bet he had never handled one before and had no clue how to safely it- he probably dropped the magazine and thought it was unloaded because that's how it is done in movies.

See my other post in this thread about why there should be mandatory firearms safety training in schools- at a minimum teach safe handling a be how to unload and make safe a gun, so that if a person finds themselves with one unexpectedly they can be safe.

Details are sketchy in the story, but I would wager a few hours spent in a firearms safety class in high school probably would hand prevented this.

All the safety features in the world can't cover for a lack of basic understand of how something works- not can they stop just plain stupid acts like putting a gun to your head for a selfie.

So, a combination of no clue how to be safe and just being stupid is what happened here.

[Omaha Steve]

63. So, a combination of no clue how to be safe and just being stupid is what happened here

Agree. It happens everyday.

[Lee-Lee]

40. As mentioned earlier, mandatory firearms safety training in schools would stop many deaths

No, you can't stop stupid all the time.

But every person, no matter how much they may hate guns, needs to know how to safely handle a gun and unload it/make it safe if one comes into their possession.

There was a time when it was much more common knowledge- more households had guns because the country was more rural and the draft exposed far more to firearms and firearms training. But with the changing demographics and less than 1% of the country serving in a volunteer force that has changed.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

54. Wow

I'm sure the NRA would love that. Force people who have ZERO fucking interest in handling a firearm to HAVE to so a few "get over it" and start getting into the idea of buying one.

If a gun "somehow" came into my possession, I'd call the cops and leave it alone till they got there. Simple.

The only people for whom there should be mandatory classes are the ones who choose to buy one. For kids in school, you see it, DON'T FUCKING TOUCH IT.

[EL34x4]

58. If you see a gun, don't touch it!

Kinda like "Just say no!" and "abstinence only" sex education.

Why should my kid have to learn about contraception? He won't be having sex until he's married. That's how I raised him!

Why should my kid learn about gun safety? We don't own guns in this house and he would never go to any home where there was a gun present.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

59. An awful comparison

But you are correct in a way. Lot of houses full of stupid gun humpers out there you could walk into. Shame it's national epidemic of scared, stupid people afraid of their own shadow and leaving their masturbation toys around like you'd leave a lamp or potpourri out. Again, that's who the MANDATORY classes should go to.

[EL34x4]

64. Gun humpers, for the most part

already have an understanding of basic firearm safety.

It's people like Deleon Alonso Smith, whose friends say "found" the gun, who could've used a lesson.

[Quackers]

48. Peace to you

[SheilaT]

56. It's quite difficult to have any sympathy for someone this dumb.

Too bad he'd already reproduced. At least he won't be having any more kids.

And the headline does make me wonder if they're now making guns/cameras of some kind. If so, not a good move on the part of whoever is making that combo.

[hifiguy]

60. Someone explain to me the appeal of taking pictures of

yourself waving a goddam gun around. You think it makes you look like a badass of some sort? Wrong. It's not cool, hip, whatever. It is just fucking STUPID, and stupid is as stupid does.