Stupid People Will Be Stupid

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dgerwin11

New member
The Thread below reminded me of more idiot actions that could have turned out real bad.

Years ago, when I was a fast food manager, a customer pulled up to the drive through window. He was a friend if the cashier and thought he would pull a prank. He pointed a BB pistol at the cashier. What he did not know was the car behind him was an unmarked city police car. 2 cops with drawn weapons approached him and demanded he put down his weapon. Luckily he complied. But he did have to go home and change his drawers.
 
*sigh* he's lucky he wasn't shot. Good thing it went that way, but just foolish as all gets out.

So many things could have gone wrong with that one.
 
The cops, being trained (and based on the short description), got it right. Very, very similar scenarios have ended in tragedy. With the number of untrained people carrying, it's likely just a matter of time until the next well meaning person takes tragic action, or the perp hears someone yelling at him and turns with the gun toward the voice.....
 
A few years back I was at a stoplight. A car in the lane to my left had a woman driver, and there was a young male on the sidewalk directly to her left, who was trying to ask her to roll down her window, she wouldn't even look at him. Peripherally, I see him pull his shirt up and point at his waist. By the time I turned my head to look he had dropped his shirt back down.
Later I read thru the police blotter and sure enough, someone had called 911 about a young male brandishing what turned out to be a bb gun.
I've often wondered just what I would have done had my eyes actually seen it instead of peripherally noticing it and not knowing 100% that he had flashed what appeared to be a firearm.
 
In the UK the only weapons used (legaly) without a license are what you call BB guns limited to 12ft/lbs I have met a few adults who have been shot by them when they were children. I am glad it is harder for us to get firearms because I know too many adults who I would not trust with a supermarket trolly.:)
 
He was lucky he wasn't shot. I'm glad the police resorted to verbal commands and that he complied. No one was injured and no lawsuit ensued.
 
The problem with playing with realistic-looking fake guns in public, be they toys, BB guns, or Airsoft, is that not everybody around you is going to be in on the joke, and some of those people may have real guns.

I would not have faulted the officers in the OP for drilling the kid with the BB gun. After all, presented with all the information they had under the circumstances, any rational person would have concluded that there was an imminent threat to the life of the innocent drive-thru worker. There's no legal requirement for them to let the bad guy get off the first shot to prove it's a "real" gun.

The kid could have paid with his life for a dumb prank.

I dig my Airsoft guns and BB guns as much as the next kid, but leave the toys in a controlled environment where everybody's aware of what's what.
 
Most of the plastic toy guns I see today have that orange tip on them. My nephews were messing around and showed me the "gun" they were playing with.

Sure enough, a plastic gun with the orange tip broken off. I asked them why it was broken off and they said because it did not look real. I used a hammer and a vice to solve the problem and explained why it was not supposed to look real. Then I explained to their parents why I smashed the gun and told them I would buy the kids another so long as they did not modify if.

Years ago, while stationed in Korea, we got a report of a maintenance van riding around the area and someone was pointing an M-16 out of the back side of the van. When we pulled up, the idiot inside pointed it at us.

Things did not go well for them. Yes, it was a plastic toy, very realistic. After everyone was cuffed and stuff, and complaining it was "only" a toy our commander checked out the M-16. He was extremely upset and smashed it "accidentally" as he was taking it in to evidence.
 
I would argue that he was not stupid (a term I use way too often) but short sighted. More than likely he never thought about how this little joke could go bad. We all have to learn at our own pace. Some can and will learn from others mistakes while others will have to repeat the experiment to appreciate the outcome. Please don't get the impression that I am defending the actions of the prankster, I'm just offering him an out because I'll bet he is a whole lot smarter today!
 
Some would say you have too much faith in people, olddav. :D

A few months ago, I was driving to pick up my wife from her work, shortcutting through our residential neighborhood since she works only a mile from our apartment. The driver of the vehicle in front of me, had a pistol in his left hand, outside the window, and would raise it to point at houses he was driving past.

I slowed down, took a plate number, and then noticed the barrel had an orange tip.
I still called a non emergency police line, and reported it. I left out the part about seeing the orange barrel though. It was stupid behavior from an immature punk. I have no idea if anything came of that call, whether or not they caught up to him or were able to locate him based on the vehicles registration.
I haven't seen that vehicle in the neighborhood again though.
 
45gunner said:
Ya can't fix stupid.
Click to expand...

That is SO true. It's a terminal condition.

I should know. I taught HS science for 21 years in large public schools. Some folks are just plain dumb and there's nothing that can change that. It's genetic, like being short or tall.

Your best bet is to just avoid dummies, but it's not always possible.
 
I must confess, I assumed he has the ability to learn from experience. If not he can expect long hard life or maybe ....
 
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