Florida man ‘lucky he didn’t kill somebody’ trying out concrete-piercing rifle ammo downtown

According to WESH, Orlando city leaders received video from a whistleblower of a man target practicing in a building that Crusader’s Contracting was hired to demolish. The whistleblower said that his boss “had many guns on the job site and would frequently shoot things in the basement and other areas in the building.”

Detectives were “working to figure out charges, if any,” an Orlando Police Department spokesperson told WESH. “At best, they will have Improper Exhibition. Punishable by up to 1 year in jail.”

Zach Hudson of Defensive Tactics Solutions, who spent 30 years as a police officer, pointed out that firing this type of weapon in an urban setting was extremely dangerous.

“[It is] very, very foolish,” Hudson remarked after seeing the video. “He is lucky he didn’t kill somebody.”

“This is a military grade weapon. This is a round designed to travel up to 800 meters. You are talking about a round that can go through concrete.”

Hudson also observed that the firing rate of the rifle suggested that it had been modified to be fully automatic.

“If those weapons has been modified in any way that becomes a federal crime,” he said.

I’d like to know how this guy obtained a military grade weapon, and why he thought he needed it. So many gun owners will claim they need guns to protect themselves or their families, but these people are not serving in the military or living in a warzone. They don’t need powerful equipment like this.  What’s the limit on weapons like this? The NRA wants no limits on the type of guns people can possess, but how far will they take that?  Should everyone be allowed to own their own ICBM? Should we all be allowed to own a tactical nuke?  That’s the logical implication of arguing that people ought to be able to arm themselves. If you don’t think people should be able to own a nuke, you need to explain why they can’t have it, but can have other weapons. This applies all the way down to a simple handgun.

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Indiana dad cleaning gun shoots 9-month-old son in the head, and himself in the leg

WTHR reported that 31-year-old John Hambaugh, III, was in his kitchen cleaning his gun on Wednesday when the weapon discharged. The round traveled through Hambaugh’s left thigh and into his 9-month-old son’s head, who was thought to be standing next to his father.

Neighbor Dawn Crecelius recalled that she felt helpless when the child’s mother ran out of the home with the boy.

“She was screaming, ‘He shot my baby! He shot my baby!’ and she was cradling the baby,” Crecelius said. “What do you do? What do you do? Cause there’s– you can’t fix that. You can’t help that. If he’s choking, you can help that. If he’s cut, you can help that. You can’t help a baby that’s been shot in the head.”

Hambaugh and his 9-month-old son were transported to Community Howard Regional Hospital in Kokomo. Hambaugh was expected to make a full recovery, but the child was listed in critical condition on Thursday.

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 A 3 year old Montana child is dead because of an irresponsible gun owner 

NBC Montana reports that Galen Hawk was charged on Friday with negligent homicide after killing Lonato Moran-Allen on Wednesday night. Bail has been set at $100,000.

According to court documents, Moran-Allen was pretending to shoot Hawk with a toy gun as he ran away inside of a Ninepipes-area home. Hawk reportedly pointed his handgun at Moran-Allen in response and the gun went off killing the boy.

According to Hawk, he didn’t think his gun was loaded and that he and the boy had only been “playing.” Hawk told investigators that he had spent the evening drinking whiskey and alcoholic lemonade prior to the shooting.

Following the shooting, Hawk attempted CPR on the boy  before rushing him to a hospital in Ronan where he was later died.

That poor young boy. He’s dead because this asshole treated a gun like it’s a toy and irresponsibly failed to ensure it wasn’t loaded.  Sadly, our culture teaches people that guns are fun and they’re toys to play with. Plus there are no requirements to be trained in the use of guns before purchasing them.

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“A young guy with a gun who doesn’t care about life.”

30 year old Perla Aviva and her husband had a regular every other Sunday routine.  Posole with the Raiders game. Tragically, this routine came to an end recently, after a gunman took the life of Aviva:

The tradition ended tragically this past weekend as the couple was returning home from Supermercado Mi Tierra on International Boulevard, about a mile from their East Oakland home. Police say an angry motorist sprayed gunfire into their black 1998 Toyota Camry, hitting 30-year-old Avina in the head as she sat in the front passenger seat.

Panicked, Gallegos drove the few short blocks to their Brookfield Village home to call for help, but Avina died in their driveway. A medical receptionist, Avina was the mother of four children ages 1 to 14.

“He was a coward with a gun,” 33-year-old Gallegos said with heavy eyes on Monday as he stared at the bullet-riddled Camry in their driveway. “A young guy with a gun who doesn’t care about life.”  As of Monday, police continued to hunt for the shooter and were trying to gather a description of the suspect and the suspect’s car.  The shooting happened about 12:30 p.m. as the couple drove in the southbound lanes of 98th Avenue, somewhere between the 400 to 600 blocks, police said.  Gallegos said details about what led up to the shooting were foggy, but he recalled another motorist not liking the way he drove and subsequent shots fired as the couple’s car was moving. When he realized his wife had been shot, he drove the short distance to their house, where authorities later responded and pronounced her dead, police said.

“I came to my home because I needed someone to call officers,” Gallegos said. A neighbor, Dwayne Jackson, 54, was standing outside across the street from the family’s home when Gallegos’ Camry sped by him.

“He pulled up really abrupt, halfway in the driveway and called to me,” Jackson said. “He said, ‘D, call 911. My wife’s been shot.’ We pulled her out of the car and I started giving her CPR, but I pretty much knew she was gone.”

This simultaneously saddens and angers me.  It saddens me because this woman, who was just trying to live her life and enjoy herself and her family, had her very existence snuffed out because of an irresponsible gun owner.  It saddens me because her husband and her four children will never know her loving embrace or hear her voice again. It angers me, bc yet again, someone had their hands on a weapon that should not have. It angers me, bc yet again, someone decided to take their anger and rage out on others through violent, and lethal means.  It also saddens and angers me bc this shit keeps happening. Again and again and again and again and again.  People are injured, maimed, and killed in tragedies like this. Lives are irrevocably shattered and lost.  Because of irresponsible gun owners. Because of a culture that glorifies guns. Because of a culture that fetishizes guns. Because of a culture that refuses to engage with the fact that gun violence permeates our society.

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It’s depressingly easy to find cases of irresponsible gun owners.  The Florida man who shot his pregnant wife in the back of the head and claimed self-defense, only to reveal that he wanted to kill her is the latest example of someone who should never have been allowed to own a gun:

Investigators determined that an argument between Sinclair and his wife began at around 6:30 a.m. on Sunday in their bedroom. The suspect said that he had thrown his wife’s phone into the toilet, and she had chased him around the house with a kitchen knife.

But Sinclair said that the victim could not catch him, so she locked herself in the bedroom. He explained how he retrieved a gun from underneath a recliner in the living room, and went to the bedroom to confront her. The argument escalated, until Sinclair said that Argrett lunged at him with the knife.

He pulled the trigger, and she fell to the floor. But she got up again, so he shot her in the head, he told investigators. Sinclair then waited three hours before notifying police.

Detectives, however, said that Argrett had sustained a gunshot wound to the back of her head at close range.

After admitting that he wanted to kill his wife, Sinclair was charged with first-degree premeditated murder, murder of an unborn child and tampering with evidence.

I will say this though: that charge of “murder of an unborn child” is bullshit.  People get murdered. Fetuses do not.