Paging Mr. Darwin

In my hometown of Gainesville, Florida, a man was hospitalized after trying to shoot a squirrel with a .40 S&W cartridge taped to the end of the barrel of a BB gun. The cartridge exploded, striking him with fragments.

This genius, a felon prohibited from owning real firearms, claims he was trying to kill a squirrel for dinner. Well, the BB gun involved, a Crosman 760 Pumpmaster, is capable of killing a squirrel without additional help. Or it would be easy enough to catch squirrels in a havahart trap, for that matter.

*Sigh* Will They Never Learn?

As much as it might be tempting to look over the top of a high waterfall, DON'T DO IT!

God bless the man's little daughter for trying to save him, only to fall herself. She could probably use your prayers.

I think this is a pic of the falls; I haven't ever been there:



(photo via alleneasler.com.)

Meanwhile, Here In Charlotte...

...yesterday's heavy rains resulted in local flooding, which ended the criminal career of yet another Usual Suspect® when she made the mistake of fleeing into a swollen creek.

Mr. Darwin, take a bow.

The Magnetic Pull of a Watery Precipice

A couple of hikers have apparently been swept over Yosemite National Park's Vernal Fall waterfall.

317 feet in a straight plunge. 32 stories, basically. Why would someone do such a thing, walk up to spray-slick rocks to look over the edge? We have a park nearby here in North Carolina, South Mountains State Park, with a similar, though less high, waterfall, and people die there every year or so. Why?

A Fatal Case of TUI

Otherwise known as Tubing Under (the) Influence.

I'm GLAD He Violated Rules 1 & 2

Rule 1 of Jeff Cooper's rules of safe gun handling:

All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.

Rule 2:

Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist that this particular gun is unloaded, see Rule 1.)

Over in Sanford, NC, Randall T. Butler violated both rules.

Capt. Jeff Johnson says there is nothing to indicate foul play.

Johnson says some friends were in Butler's girlfriend's home when he showed them the safety features of his .22-caliber pistol.

The captain says Butler showed them the safety and how the gun would not fire. Johnson says after Butler pulled the trigger and it didn't fire, he showed them the slide action, put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger again.

Johnson says Butler apparently failed to re-engage the safety.

Oopsy. Gotta hate it when that happens. Except in this case, as Sean at An NC Gun Blog reports, Randall T. Butler was a paroled felon, who legally had no right to own a gun at all. So you won't see tears of sorrow running down my face for Randall T.

Thank you, Mr. Darwin.

Don't Go In the Water...

...if you don't know how to swim.

Natural selection at work.

If I Lean Over Just A Little Bit More...

...I'll fall off the top of the waterfall and drop 80 feet to my death.

And so he did. Despite warning signs that say things like danger of death.

I've been up there. The river disappears over a massive, sloping rock, and you really would like to get a glimpse of the water falling eight stories in a nearly vertical drop. Don't be tempted. The rocks are wet with spray, and a light coating of algae makes the surface so slick that just stepping on to the rock can start you sliding toward the edge.



17 years old. What a waste.

His Own Personal Rapture

a 17-year-old boy was so happy that the Rapture didn't come...that he jumped into the Kalamazoo River and apparently drowned.

Sing it, Johnny:



Leadbelly sang about drowning, too:



As did Bobbie Gentry:

Happy Birthday To Meeeeeeeeeeeee...

...*SPLAT*

Mix: 1 21-year-old UK man boy;

Lots of alcohol, and

1 30-foot high bridge, and you get:

The newest temporary resident of the Exeter morgue.

OK, Class, Quiz Time!

Today's test question: What happened to 21-year-old Detron Jenkins when he went riding down the middle of the road at night on a bicycle without reflectors or lights, wearing all-black clothing?

Detron done got his ass run over, that's what.

And this was after a sheriff's deputy pulled him over earlier that night and warned him about riding his bicycle in such conditions.

Why, yes, it did happen in South Carolina!

Well, It WAS South Carolina, After All

A teenager was shot at a rifle range when he walked downrange while shooting was still going on.

Full details aren't available, but it's hard to imagine a scenario in which you walk out to the targets while a range is hot. It was neglect of range rules one someone's part, anyway.

I swanny, I feel the collective IQ drop ten points every time I cross into South Carolina. Sara and I often drive there on weekends because we know we'll see something so gut-bustingly funny that entertainment is guaranteed.

I Hope He Enjoyed His Last Birthday Celebration...

...because he won't be seeing another.

His last words were probably Hey, y'all, watch this, I'm goan slap that there train! Hee hee!

h/t Sara.

Meanwhile, In Arkansas...

(I can already hear my readers saying uh oh!)

Meanwhile, in Arkansas, the family of the ironically-named Darwin Aaron nearly died after eating gar eggs.

Only after Darwin, his brother Russell and his son Carson were all puking their guts up did Aaron's wife, Tiffany, think to look up gar eggs on the internet and discover that eggs of all gar species are poisonous.

In case you haven't ever seen one, here is a pic of a longnose gar:



I didn't know that gar eggs were poisonous, either, but then I've never been seized with a sudden desire to eat either the eggs or the gar itself. In Florida my grandfather Robert Ivy Evans (Pah Paw, we called him) used to fish for gar at night, and when he got them up to the dock he'd blast them with a shotgun, then would use the dead gar for fertilizer in his garden. We considered them trash fish.

No Trial, No Reports To File

A burglar in UK was electrocuted while trying to steal copper cable from an electrical power substation.

I love it when Mr. Darwin takes a hand.

Darwin Award Nominee

The late Ronnie Blue of Hamlet, NC, was scavenging for metal at the Ft. Bragg artillery range when he stepped on an artillery round, which exploded.

There Was An Earth-Shattering KABOOM!

Alcohol, Darkness And A Croc-Infested River: What Could Go Wrong?

The bridge is too far to walk, let's just take a short cut by swimming across the river.

Darwin strikes again.

Darwin Award Nominee of the Day

Never stick a lighter into a fuel tank to check the level.

Yah, he really did that. Says he ended up with burns on his face and hands, probably looked like Wile E. Coyote after a failure of an Acme product:

Ignorance of the Four Rules Is...Occasionally A Good Thing

As all law-abiding gun owners should know, there are four rules of gun safety that were formulated by USMC Colonel Jeff Cooper, the first of which is A Gun Is Always Loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.

Philip Collopy, a crime boss in Limerick, Ireland, apparently never learned these four rules. While explaining the workings of a Glock pistol to his henchmen, Collopy removed the magazine from the pistol, then pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger. Oops! There was still a round in the chamber, and Collopy blew his brains out, recorded for posterity by a phone camera. (No, video not available to the media).

Here's a pic of the late Mr. Collopy:

Philip Collopy, Maroon.

Mr. Darwin Takes A Hand

It was just not Alaa Agabriya's day. First he ignored a WARNING MINEFIELD sign while on a picnic with his friends, and after his foot was blown off by an exploding mine, Mr. Agabriya was picked up by a rescue helicopter, only to fall to his death before the rescuers could hoist him aboard.

Here's a pic, you can see that Mr. Agabriya is a little longer in his right leg than the left:

EPIC FAIL