Police: Man accidentally discharges gun, injures 4 Marquette students
MILWAUKEE June 22, 2016—Police said a man accidentally discharged his weapon and injured four Marquette students at Sobelman's restaurant Wednesday evening.
David Sobelman said his restaurant at 16th and Wells streets was on lockdown after the shooting, which took place around 7:30 p.m.
Police said the shooter, a man in his 20s, accidentally fired a gun in the vestibule at Sobelman's front door. Debris from the bullet hit four Marquette students who were standing nearby.
The students, three females and a male, were only dealt minor injuries and didn't go to the hospital.
The man left after the shooting, police said.
Sobelman said the shooter and his friends got into a car and "disappeared."
"You have to be pretty stupid to shoot yourself with your own gun," Sobelman said.
Police are unsure if the man injured himself and do not have anyone in custody in connection to the incident.
An investigation is ongoing.
WISN ABC June 22, 2016
I contacted Milwaukee police last week for more details, but the shooter hasn't been found or come forward yet.
This incident happened 10 days after Donald Trump wished more Orlando clubgoers had been carrying concealed guns. While the NRA said that Trump's suggestion, "defies common sense" they did however say that carrying guns in restaurants was okay.
Here we have a case of someone doing exactly what is suggested by the gun people after every mass shooting. They listened, brought their gun with them while out in public, and then screwed up. This is yet another great example of why people should not carry concealed guns at these retail businesses.
This story could have been written up by anti-gun activists and shared all over social media. It could be posted in comments section after mass shooting stories where people say, "Someone in that club/restaurant/store/school should have had a gun!" But it wasn't.
(BTW, please do share this story. And when you do, note the multiple methods gun rights activists use when attacking it--which will prove part of the point of this piece.)
What was written up multiple times by right-wing media outlets was the story below. It is an example of why people should carry concealed guns at retail businesses.
Deputies: CWP holder injures Spartanburg Co. nightclub shooting suspect
Deputies with Spartanburg County said a man faces multiple attempted murder charges after opening fire outside a nightclub early Sunday morning.
The shooting happened around 3:30 a.m. at Playoffz nightclub on Inman Road in Lyman.
Deputies said 32-year-old Jody Ray Thompson pulled out a gun after getting into an argument with another man and fired several rounds toward a crowd that had gathered out in front of the club.
"His rounds struck three victims, and almost struck a fourth victim, who in self-defense, pulled his own weapon and fired, striking Thompson in the leg," Lt. Kevin Bobo said.
Bobo said the man who shot Thompson has a valid concealed weapons permit, cooperated with investigators, and won’t be facing any charges.
"Thompson was still on the scene when deputies arrived, but the initial scene was chaotic," Bobo said. "It wasn’t until victims and witnesses were interviewed, and video from the scene was reviewed that Thompson was identified as the suspect."
Thompson was charged with four counts of attempted murder, possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, and unlawful carrying of a weapon.
Bobo said none of the victims' injuries were life-threatening.
Thompson is being held at the Spartanburg County Detention Center.
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Below were the headlines the pro-gun media outlets used based on the event. These stories were widely shared and promoted on social media. Notice the focus? Heroic concealed carrier saves the day.
Media Silent as Concealed Carrier Stops Mass Shooting in Progress at a South Carolina Nightclub, -- Free Thought Project, The Liberator
Man Opens Fire in Nightclub, Shot by Concealed Carry Holder-- Epoch Times
MASS PUBLIC SHOOTING AT NIGHTCLUB IN SOUTH CAROLINA STOPPED BY CONCEALED HANDGUN PERMIT HOLDER -- Crime Prevention Resource Center
Hey Media: Another Nightclub Shooting, This Time No Massacre --Media Research Center
Concealed carrier takes down shooter at South Carolina nightclub --The Washington Times
Tens of thousands of readers posted these headlines on their Facebook pages commenting, "See? See? I told ya so! This is exactly why I carry! That could have been me! IN YOUR FACE GUN GRABBERS!!"
What we didn't see during the same time period was an outpouring of articles about gun accidents at businesses. If people didn't like this one, people could have chosen to promote any of the other 12 gun accidents at businesses that happened around the same time. (Gun Violence Archive) As an example, I've linked to a few and created headlines for them.
Media Silent as 72-year old Accidentally Fires Gun at Sandusky Sam's Club Gas Station
Concealed Carry Student Accidentally Shoots and Kills Ohio Gun Shop Owner
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Hey Media: Another Gun Accident, This Time by a Gun Safety Instructor
Preparing to Stop Hypothetical Mass Shooting, Teen Shoots Self at Motel
Bus Driver with Gun Accidentally Takes Down 6-year-old Boy At Grand Canyon Train Depot (Warning autostart video)
Now each of these stories can and will be taken apart, analysed and dismissed by the guns everywhere people to show just how they aren't relevant and the benefits of carrying concealed (especially now!!!) outweigh the downsides.
"These are all anecdotal!! The CDC data says... there are X million cases of successful gun use! Why are you only looking at the bad things?! Why don't you talk about the X millions of concealed cases where nothing happened or times when the day was saved!?"
They will also turn on the concealed carrier who screws up, they will attack their status and cut them from the herd. "They weren't a licensed, trained CWP ... These aren't representative of licensed, trained CWPs ... The vast majority of .. I'm trained and I would never..."
Finally, they will attack the person who wrote the story. I joked about this in my piece What If We Pushed Body Armor Like The NRA Pushes Guns?
Gun Lover Argument Team ACTIVATE!
When I see the mainstream media taking about the power of the NRA and their supporters they often are talking about how they work the legislators. While that is a huge part of their success, another huge part is how they work their own active base and the media.
They train their own people to push certain ideas in real life and now via social media. They push stories up the ladder of their own media until they hit the wider media food chain --giving those stories greater importance than they would warrant if based on actual verified aggregate data. Eventually they infect the general public with their twisted ideas.
Right now I'm focusing on the problems of concealed guns being carried in and around retail businesses. The gun lobby has worked very hard to make carrying concealed guns legal everywhere. Now they are working on making carrying guns in businesses socially acceptable, and are claiming that they are essential to the safety of their customers.
They want to convince the people running businesses that if they don't allow guns, they will regret it. "If you don't allow customers to carry guns in your store, you will be sorry. Check out this story of a nightclub in South Carolina! A mass shooter came in and the concealed carry customers saved the day! I'll bet those people in Orlando wished they was someone like me with a gun in the club that night!"
The Spartanburg story pushes a few ideas the NRA wants to propagate:
Concealed gun carriers are the good guys. They are responsible, well-trained and safe. Allowing them to bring guns into a business is a good thing.
If you do NOT allow a concealed carrier with a gun into a business, the business owners are actually endangering the lives of all its customers, because:
- When, not if, the "bad guy with a gun" comes into a business the guy with the concealed gun will be in position, have the skills, experience and judgement to save the day. (See Spartanburg story)Left unsaid is that the only method to really stop gun violence is to shoot back at the bad guy. Saving lives by any other means doesn't work. The only reason it ever does work is because a gun wasn't available.
- Businesses that won't allow customers with concealed guns in the store are turning the store into a "gun free zone" In states where NO Guns Signs are required to show the businesses' intent, putting them up makes the store a target for gun carrying criminals. (It also makes them a target for in-person gunsplaining with Gun Lover Argument Team members.)
The gun lobby needs business owners and the public to buy this narrative. They don't want them to know about all the gun accidents. They especially don't want them to hear about the cost of liability lawsuits. They don't want anyone to focus on any of the bad things that can happen while a concealed carrier is waiting for a hypothetical mass shooting.
Flipping the Narrative
We can demonstrate that accidental gun discharges in retail businesses by non-criminals are a regular occurrence. We can show with data that these accidents, by law-abiding concealed carriers, are foreseeable.
We can share and promote stories of gun accidents in businesses and look for trends that aggregate the data "Look at all these people shooting while shopping!"
Demonstrating that this is a problem and a trend to the general public is great, but we can never underestimate the persistent power of the Gun Lovers Argument Team. The people we want to reach are those who run the businesses and their insurance companies. They are the one's who have the power to make changes. We know they are going to hear about the few gun successes, they need to hear about the thousands of gun fails.
