“We do not believe Michael intended to hurt his grandchild, but the act was not very smart,” Houchin said.

A Texas grandfather who was about to officiate a wedding in Nebraska errantly shot and wounded his own 12-year-old grandson when he tried to fire a gun in the air to get the attention of guests Saturday, according to authorities.

Odessa, Texas resident Michael Gardner, 62, is facing legal trouble after the Pietta 1860 snub nose revolver went off around 5 p.m. and accidentally struck the young boy in the shoulder at Hillside Events, Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office chief deputy Ben Houchin said during a press conference Monday.

The gun fired a blank round that had black powder in the casing that was glued together, the sheriff’s official said.

Before the attention-catching shot, guests were scattered around the Denton, Nebraska venue because the nuptials started late after someone forgot the wedding rings, Houchin explained.

“When he decided to cock back the hammer of this revolver it slipped and it shot his grandson in the left shoulder, causing an injury,” Houchin said, later adding. “What we believe is the glue injured the child.”

The injury was non-life threatening, though the boy still required hospitalization.

“We do not believe Michael intended to hurt his grandchild, but the act was not very smart,” Houchin said.

Gardner was still slapped with a child abuse charge because of the carelessness and the injury to the youngster, the chief deputy said. He surrendered to authorities Monday.

“It’s just kind of neglectful to take a gun out that has blanks and fire it amongst people,” he said.

  • ZeroCoolOPEnglish
    92•1 year ago

    Top three mythological creatures of American folklore:

    1. Bigfoot
    2. Mothman
    3. The Responsible Gun Owner
    • @zzzzzz@lemmy.mlEnglish
      29•1 year ago

      I don’t think that’s fair. I’ve taken gun/hunting education classes from some volunteer instructors that seemed to me to be about the most serious, responsible people I’ve ever met.

      • ZeroCoolOPEnglish
        36•1 year ago

        Cool beans. Everyone considers themselves to be a “responsible gun owner” right up until the moment they shoot someone or themselves. It’s not a matter of if but when it’s going to happen.

        Edit: Gun nuts and apologists line up here to get blocked.

        • @BluJay320@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          22•1 year ago

          I’m not a fan of guns myself, but this is quite a reach.

          There are certainly many, MANY more irresponsible gun owners than responsible ones out there. But to say that there are none is just objectively false.

          Do accidents happen? Yes, and they can happen to anyone. The difference is that a responsible owner’s accident isn’t going to end up with a person getting shot.

          • @RaoulDook@lemmy.worldEnglish
            17•1 year ago

            No, there are far more responsible gun owners than irresponsible ones. There are roughly 100 million gun owners in the USA. If “most” of those people were irresponsible then there wouldn’t be 100 million of them left. We only hear about the irresponsible ones having accidents or committing crimes, which is a tiny percentage of the overall 100 million.

              • @RaoulDook@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1•1 year ago

                Well considering that car accidents and other accidents not involving cars are typically the 4th or 5th leading cause of death in the USA, versus homicides of any kind being farther down than 10th to 15th place (varying by year)… it would be even More Responsible of you all to not drive or be a passenger in any motor vehicle, and to wear impact-resistant personal armor at all times to prevent injuries from falling. You could wear your protective suit and stay indoors at all times to be Even More Responsible.

                Also considering that heart disease and cancer are the permanent top causes of death in the USA, to be Most Responsible you should do all of the above (never travel and always wear your protective suit and stay indoors) and eat only a healthy diet with plenty of cancer fighting vitamins for every meal.

                • @nilloc@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
                  1•1 year ago

                  I’d be inclined to agree with this argument if any of the other causes of death were from devices that are only designed to kill things.

        • @theluckyone@lemmy.worldEnglish
          17•1 year ago

          Excellent example of a “No True Scotsman” fallacy. Well done! Bit of a shame you’re trying to use it in an actual debate, but you do you.

        • @zzzzzz@lemmy.mlEnglish
          13•1 year ago

          That’s an absolutely absurd claim. The fraction of gun owners that ever shoot a human being is very close to zero.

        • @awwwyissss@lemm.eeEnglish
          3•1 year ago

          Actually, as someone who doesn’t have a strong stance either way, maybe I’ll just block you.

        • @HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1•1 year ago

          I have some friends who are adamant anti gun folk and I get that. It’s what the numbers say is ideal. I used to be pro gun (grew up in a very conservative cult), then anti gun, now I’m somewhere in the middle with “yeah it would be better to reduce the amount of guns but this is kind of where we’re at” and feel like a more pragmatic approach to getting us towards a gun free utopia (read: idealized society that can never be achieved) is probably best. Unfortunately it requires national cooperation and my country, uh, that is not what they do. On a personal level tho I somehow have become the person who gets to inherit all the guns in the family and except for the cool, inoperable civil war rifle we’ve had them all destroyed. That thing’s a show piece though. It’s a historical paperweight. It’s more dangerous as a club (even the bayonette is dull) than as a gun.

        • DandroidEnglish
          1•1 year ago

          Go ahead and block me too.

          You’re saying all gun owners have incidents at some point, but that’s just availability bias. You don’t see stories on the news of the millions of gun owners who never have incidents.

          I have also taken gun safety classes and never had an incident. My guns live in a safe and are only taken out when it is time to use them for sport, which hasn’t been in over a decade, actually.

          No responsibile gun owner would use a gun firing to get the attention of a group, so the “all gun owners are responsible until there’s an incident” argument doesn’t really hold water here. The guy in the story broke several gun safety rules here. Rules that in my 10+ years of gun use I have never broken once.

          Edit: not sure why this old post showed up in my feed. Oh well.

          • ZeroCoolOPEnglish
            2•1 year ago

            Go ahead and block me too.

            Done. And no, I didn’t read the rest of your multi-paragraph little hissy fit over a MONTH OLD POST. I despise gun nuts because they’re always the type of person like you that will butt into a months-old conversation you weren’t part of in the first place because you go around the internet compulsively defending your gun fetish. Fuck off, Cletus.

            • DandroidEnglish
              1•1 year ago

              I didn’t realize it was a month old. Lemmy’s algorithm is bad.