British man shot with BB gun

[Savaric]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,434311,00.html

Well I guess it was racial and not political. I thought maybe some redneck opened up on a college student.

A big ?? for me:

"Egwuatu managed to drive off while bleeding and call for help. A piece of metal was removed from his jaw from the attacker’s gas-powered ball-bearing pistol, the Mail reported."

England has gas-powered ball bearing guns? Rofl. I'm pretty knowledgeable with guns and have never heard of that. Interesting.

[Darion]

So the dude got shot three times with an air rifle and the BB got stuck in the skin on his jaw? I skimmed the article, did they have his mother whip up some milk and cookies to settle him down afterwards or what?

[Savaric]

I researched that a bit and apparently it's a just a god damn bb gun. Fuckin' Brits trying to make it sound more appalling.

Here I was thinking it was some illegal contraption that slings half-inch diameter ball bearings at high velocity.

[Darion]

I changed the name of the thread. Sorry Savaric, prior title was a little too misleading. I mulled closing it, but meh.

[Malacasta]

I don't know... there seems to be a different set of standards between violence on the left and right. Foxnews and her supporters whined loudly about how violent the left are when a pie was thrown at Coulter during one of her campus talks, or when some anti-war demonstrators put smeared paint on a marine recruiting office - In fact - Malkin wrote a whole book about the so-called left derangement syndrome - and yet - a person chases a man with a gun and shoots him three times including once in the face - and what? There's nothing wrong with that? If he had have been shot and blinded would he have been whining then? Maybe we all should shoot Rush in the teeth with an airgun or something to prove we've got the balls that you do, Darion?

[leira]

I don't know, I think I agree with Darion. I mean, if I was to see somebody wearing a US Army t-shirt, I don't think it should be a big deal for me to scream "Murderer" at them, and repeatedly stab them with a letter opener. I'm 100% sure people wouldn't refer to that as "repeatedely stabbed for wearing a US Army t-shirt", but would use the far more accurate "some guy got stabbed with a letter opener".

[Rijiny]

Getting shot with BBs hurts. My father has a permanent scar on his forehead from being hit with a BB in the face where it lodged in there. Just because its "less dangerous" than a real gun doesn't make it any less violent when someone shoots you with it with intent, they can still cause quite a bit of damage. Just because a pencil is less dangerous than a knife doesn't mean you wouldn't be pretty damn pissed if someone stabbed you with it.

It kind of annoys me when people pass off violence with "Oh suck it up, it didn't hurt that bad."

[Darion]

There's nothing wrong with that? If he had have been shot and blinded would he have been whining then? Maybe we all should shoot Rush in the teeth with an airgun or something to prove we've got the balls that you do, Darion?

I don't really understand what the last bit of this means, so I'm going to assume it's rhetorical/personal and ignore it.

And no, listen. The bottom line is, this man sustained no serious injury. It is very difficult to injure someone seriously with a BB gun - if the guy had been blinded I would sympathize. Just like, you know, if he had been shot with a real gun and thus actually injured.

As it is now, we have no idea what happened except that there were probably about three to five drops of blood and due to this being a non-story we have only the victim's vague statements as to the nature of the attack.

I don't know, I think I agree with Darion. I mean, if I was to see somebody wearing a US Army t-shirt, I don't think it should be a big deal for me to scream "Murderer" at them, and repeatedly stab them with a letter opener. I'm 100% sure people wouldn't refer to that as "repeatedly stabbed for wearing a US Army t-shirt", but would use the far more accurate "some guy got stabbed with a letter opener".

Yeah, except this isn't what happened and granted, I'm not 100% familiar with English laws, but I somehow doubt that a maybe-racially-motivated BB gun shooting is synonymous with repeatedly stabbing a soldier with a knife and thus your analogy and its barely veiled appeal to emotion are pretty poor.

Just because its "less dangerous" than a real gun doesn't make it any less violent when someone shoots you with it with intent, they can still cause quite a bit of damage. Just because a pencil is less dangerous than a knife doesn't mean you wouldn't be pretty damn pissed if someone stabbed you with it.

This is also a poor analogy for the same reasons. "Pencil:Knife" does not equate to "BB gun:Real gun" much the same as BB gun wounds do not equate to firearm wounds. You have also said that the danger level of handling a BB gun and a real gun is equivalent, which is ridiculous.

In fact, it is far more violent to get shot with a -real gun- than to get shot with a -children's toy-. This is because the former is made to kill people, while the latter can sometimes penetrate a soda can.

My main point was not to dismiss the violence of the attack, though I do believe this guy is a ridiculous nancy boy and I would wager he was treated with a band-aid and released, but rather to point out that this entire episode is a non-story. The article is about eight sentences and fluctuates between the attack being racial and political. It also doesn't mention if it was a dumb-assed sixteen year old that shot him, which it probably was.

[Thierran]

Air rifles can be extremely dangerous:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/s...re/4965744.stm

I've not read the article yet but i'd say the victim probably is being a pussy BUT that's not to say he couldn't have been seriously injured in the attack.

Maybe i'm completely wrong, I don't care, I just wanted to say that BB guns/air rifles can have surprisingly dangerous consequences.

[Rijiny]

Originally posted by Darion
This is also a poor analogy for the same reasons. "Pencil:Knife" does not equate to "BB gun:Real gun" much the same as BB gun wounds do not equate to firearm wounds. You have also said that the danger level of handling a BB gun and a real gun is equivalent, which is ridiculous.

In fact, it is far more violent to get shot with a -real gun- than to get shot with a -children's toy-. This is because the former is made to kill people, while the latter can sometimes penetrate a soda can.

It wasn't a poor analogy because just like a pencil, a BB gun isn't meant to shoot other people anymore than a pencil was meant to stab someone with, but even the most mundane things can become a weapon in the wrong hands. Using something to hurt someone makes that something a weapon.