A few days ago I linked to a story of an Arizona man who is facing charges after his pistol discharged in a Wal-Mart. Now we have the video where you can see this guy walking around the store, gun in hand, and drawing the firearm, dropping the magazine, and putting it back. The video also shows some other highly odd behavior.
I’m going to go out on the limb here and suggest this guy either has some mental or developmental problems. It would seem he was wearing a Department of Corrections uniform shirt, and attended training with them for a brief period of time.
This guy is facing six counts of endangerment, which is a felony in Arizona if it involves a “substantial risk of imminent death.”  I would say this case pretty clearly fits that bill, so this guy is going to be a prohibited person if he’s convicted on just one of the counts, unless the prosecutor wants to plead him down to a misdemeanor. I don’t think that should be the case, considering we have video of his gratuitous gun handling. The evidence would appear to be strong enough there should be no need for a plea deal.
As Forrest Gump’s mother said,” stupid is as stupid does.”
Can you really say anything else?
I really want to know why he was trying to break into the locked cases. That was just a little more than “odd” behavior, especially when he then goes searching behind the employee counter in the electronics section – as though looking for a key. He may well have problems, but there’s really no excuse for any of that behavior.
Great. As if we didn’t have enough kvetching over Constitutional Carry, this guy shows up.
Stupid?
Yes.
Criminal intent?
No (at least doesn’t seem to be the case).
Reckless endangerment?
Absolutely.
I’m sorry … but that guy is flat-out stupid.
Range Officers worst nightmare.
I hate to admit it, but there are some people who can’t be trusted with freedom. This guy is one of them. When treated with proper respect, and the 4 rules are properly applied, firearms aren’t really all that dangerous. I carry one every day and don’t have a problem. I knew an old man who carried for nearly 50 years on a daily basis, first as a soldier, then as a law enforcement officer, then as a retired law enforcement officer, and because he had the proper respect for his firearms he never experienced an unintended discharge[1]. Then we have this guy at the walmart. Basicly playing with his gun in public. Respect? Nope. 4 rules? Nope. I guess the only answer is to remove his rights.
I find it funny that the whole bleeding heart crowd runs around cheering when firearms rights are taken away, but when I add “and castrate the idiot so that he doesn’t have a chance to breed” they act like I’m killing kittens… with my teeth. I guess his reproduction rights are more important than everyone elses rights to not be shot by a shithead who plays with his gun in walmart. Yet another reason that you won’t catch me anywere near a walmart.
s
[1] As a funny side note. I was talking to Frank (the old man) one day about a year before he left this ol world of ours and mentioned the 4 rules. I got a blank stare. SO, I recited them. Franks reaction? “Thats just silly” Apparently Frank was against codifying something that should have been obvious.
I just have to wonder… was this the first time this guy carried a pistol in public?
I wonder because I just can’t imagine the guy was doing this regularly for any length of time without the police getting called.
I think this guy is going to be a seeing a lot of old friends at DOC in the near future.
“I really want to know why he was trying to break into the locked cases. That was just a little more than “odd†behavior, especially when he then goes searching behind the employee counter in the electronics section – as though looking for a key.”
If that’s the case (I haven’t watched the video, and don’t have time at the moment), I have to wonder why he’s not also being charged with attempted robbery (or something similar) and use of a firearm in a crime? That just seems odd.
In the video, they don’t officially call it that, they just note a very odd combination of events – he starts out in electronics at the locked case, then walks to hardware to retrieve something that isn’t visible on the tape, he fiddles with the door with the unknown object, then he moves behind the employee desk and ducks down to look around until called out by an employee. My guess is because he wasn’t violent with the locked cases enough to break them or the locks, they just focused on the gun handling. I think that’s reasonable. I just still find it odd in how he behaved.
Strange Strange Strange
(IMO) To answer the question about the locked cases, the reason hes probably not being charged for attempted robbery is because breaking into a locked store case doesn’t constitute attempted robbery (depending on the state). However, there are probably other laws on the books in his state that would make his attempted break in illegal, but it wouldn’t be attempted robbery ( more than likely )
All I have to say is this: Luckily no one got hurt.
People like this gives “people like them” ammo against us, and rightfully so. Just makes our jobs a little harder.
Looks to me like he was going to rob the Walmart. And happens to be utterly incompetent. I’d wager his mother’s boyfriend works for the department of corrections. And that’s how he got the shirt.
Lock his ass up. He was a mental case and needs to be made an example out of.
Jeff Cooper once said, “A safe gun is a holstered gun”. And this idiot proved the point.