Guns don't kill people, middle-class gamers do.

[hirez]

Yesterday was mostly spent pottering about Chepstow with some unusual suspects and it all turned out utterly splendid. I wonder if the one-way-system pub crawl is a thing, and if not it should be.

Anyway.

Part of the gig was minding an assemblage of artfully constructed steampunkery in the castle. For reasons which I suspect the estimable autopope of

Comments

[whotheheckami]

I can't state how strongly I agree with your sentiments. I learned fire arms safety at home on the farm, at cadets and in the RAF. I can't pick up a weapon (oo-err) without checking that it's in a safe condition.

[hirez]

Quite.

And also quite obviously, unless it's a break-barrel weapon, peering up the business end will avail you naught because it's bloody dark. Mind, since these people don't know quite what they're looking for...

[sarah_mum]

It's not just you. I was minding the 'shooting shack' this afternoon and sharply instructed smalls to fire only in one direction (i.e. at the targets) and not to point gun-shaped things at each other.
Some steampunk fellamechap rocked up with his own nerf gun to have a go and did exactly the barrel squint you described. He got a lecture from me so short and sharp (and including the words 'fool' and 'example to children') that he asked if I was as drill sergeant for a day job!

[hirez]

Very fine indeed.

I have made this F-O because I fear some silly bugger might try to make this into something it's not.

[autopope]

You'd think some of them would have clocked that if you want to look down the barrel of a gun you haven't personally made safe (without letting it out of your sight, either) you'd use a fucking mirror. Yes/no? (Digging splintered glass out of powder-burned fingers is likely to be unpleasant, but less so than the alternative.)

[hirez]

It's probably not in the version of Gears of Warcraft they play. Maybe there's some 'downloadable content' where someone with the voice of R. Lee Emery tells them very loudly how not to be a danger to themselves and an embarrassment to all around them.

I can't speak about other weapons, but then general drill for checking shotgun barrels is to break the weapon open, at which point you'll find nothing, or the spent shells will spring past your right ear. Because obviously no-one is mental enough to leave the blasted thing lying about with a pair of live shells in situ.

[nalsa]

Fuck it, Darwinism in action. Yeah, there may be some mopping.

(low fools tolerance values today.)

[hirez]

Ye-es.

Or you could find the out-of-the-betacam version of the R. Budd Dwyer news conference. Which I really don't recommend.

[nalsa]

Oh, the one that Bryson references. No, I'm not hunting that one down.

[margotmetroland]

my very thoughts