Caught this over at the MDA Facebook page:
I know that you love to dance in the blood of martyr every person you can who has died from a gunshot wound. Hacks gotta hack. I get that. I don’t want to make light of a family’s suffering, but this post of your is kind of beyond the pale.
“Eric Tusing, 27, was reportedly playing Russian Roulette with a gun he thought was unloaded when it fired, killing him.”
Really!?! You are going to martyr as a “tragedy” a young man that played Russian Roulette? You do know how that “game” is played, right? What the point of it is?
This was a case of terminal stupidity. Not and accident, not unintentional, just dumb. There is no gun control that would have stopped this from happening. If an adult is willing to point a gun at their head and pull the trigger… well… if the natural law of self preservation didn’t prevent this, there is no law of man that would have either. Especially since the news article you cited said:
“They say the kids have always grown-up around guns and learned to always assume a gun was loaded.
That’s when he accidentally shot himself not knowing the gun was loaded.”
So this guy KNEW safe gun handling and did this anyway.
Let me redirect you to another article from a few years back that has just a little bit more integrity than this one.
“Bungee Jump Kills Local Man, Police Say Cord Was Homemade.”
When a guy about the same age ties a bunch of elastic cargo straps together and jumps off a bridge, that’s not a accident or a tragedy either. There is no consumer protection legislation that would have stopped that. You just can’t protect some people from themselves.
I feel bad for this family. I can’t imagine the heart ache of having to bury two sons. One son getting shot by a dropped gun feels dubious to me (drop testing is an industry standard, but maybe it was an old or defective gun), but at face value will accept that as accidental. The son who shot himself playing Russian Roulette? Do not, do not, do not, use his lethal idiocy to try and restrict my civil liberties.
These 2 links are interesting. The first one is Mr. Tusing’s obituary, giving his brother’s name. http://www.jonesfh.com/obituaries/Eric-Tusing/#!/Obituary
The second one is a news article about the brother being shot. It’s very brief, but it doesn’t say anything about a dropped gun.
http://www.kwwl.com/story/8185518/eastern-iowa-teen-dies-after-shooting
The first shooting; “Eric’s half brother Tristan died while at a friend’s house in 2007 when a gun fell to the ground and shot him the back.” I smell someone covering up what really happened. Chances are, being young, they were playing with the gun when it went of and everyone got their story straight before the law showed up.
Shooting 2; “27-year-old Eric Tusing was in Burlington, joking with friends about playing Russian Roulette.
That’s when he accidentally shot himself not knowing the gun was loaded.” It will never be released to the public, but you can bet that drugs and/or alcohol were involved.
Like I said, dubious.
[…] No, victim of own stupidity. […]
This sucks. In many cases suicide is a very hateful and vengeful act. A co-worker and very good friend of mine just lost a step-son to suicide. Gunshot to the head. (plinker load thank God. No exit wound so mom could say goodbye.) He had some demons. We all probably do.
It can be hard for family to believe/admit that a loved one has committed suicide, Never the less. Healthy happy people don’t play Russian Roulette. So today I attended a Memorial service for my friends step-son. And a 50th birthday party for the wife of a dear friend of mine.
My life is pretty damn good.