Don't Bring A Golfball To A Gun Fight

While I have rarely stated my beliefs when it comes to the Second Amendment, I think that most of you out there that read my meager offerings to the blogosphere have probably figured that I firmly support the right of our law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. The only kind of gun control I advocate is the kind that means being able to hit your target.

That being said, I am also a firm believer that there are Laws and then there are Rules. Rachel Lucas gives us a recent example of telling the difference between Laws and Rules, and one young man that either forgot or was never taught the difference. That oversight got him killed.

I saw a post about guns on HuffPo so of course I had to read it, and it’s about some 17-year-old kid in Albuquerque who got shot and died. Which is sad and bad; let’s get that out of the way. But check it out. The HuffPo piece explains that Ryan Vigil (the kid) was a member of an anti-gun-violence group (making the whole story ever so ironic) and was just a special, awesome, super, perfect, spectacular human being, basically.

It also explains that Vigil was driving around in a car with some friends throwing golfballs at people. One of these golfball targets was a meth user who went back to his house, got a gun, found the kids driving around again later, and shot Vigil in the head.

Rachel goes on to explain that it was obvious the Huffpo writer really didn't understand that the kid, pulling what was described by the writer as “an ill-advised schoolboy prank”, was really committing acts of assault, criminal acts by anyone's definition. It's too bad this kid forgot that some of the people he was assaulting just might be armed. He forgot the Rule that states: Don't throw golfballs at gun-toting meth heads. The price for that error was a bullet through the head.

It's a shame that an otherwise good kid died because he got a terminal case of the stupids. He didn't live long enough to learn from his mistake.

Of course you know someone somewhere will use Ryan Vigil's death to call for tougher gun control laws. Never mind the meth head was probably carrying his firearm illegally (assuming the meth head has committed crimes in the past, convicted felons aren't supposed to possess firearms), gun control laws wouldn't have prevented him from carrying a gun. Criminals usually don't pay attention to those laws, so more such laws would have no effect on the criminals already illegally carrying guns.

In any case, the kid did something stupid. The consequences of his criminally stupid acts was death. He and his friends found out the hard way that there consequences for one's acts. As one commenter to Rachel's post wrote:

I am sorry for the loss of a child. However, having said that, when are people going to realize that when they do stupid shit someone may have an issue with it? Why is it so hard for people to understand that when you make a conscious decision to do something stupid, you may have to pay a price for your stupid decision? Whatever happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Am I fighting a losing battle against the world at large when I constantly remind my three daughters that their decisions have consequences, good and bad? People need to quit making excuses for bad choices and bad behavior. ‘Nuff said.

Indeed.

(H/T No Looking Backwards)