Irresponsible Gun Owner of the Day: Dwain Haggard [not shown]

I was giving Mr Paper Target hell today when the chronologically-challenged gentleman in the lane next to me finally awoke from his stupor and fired his handgun. (And missed the target’s center from five feet away. Needless to say, I drove off before he did.) Despite the fact that I’d been unleashing Zeus’s thunderbolt for a good twenty-five minutes, I flinched. I made sure I hung out at the range for a while after my session; a shooter does NOT want to create a subconscious stimulus – response pattern between gunfire and muscular contractions. Somehow, I don’t think that the children in Dwain Haggard’s American History class will head to the range after their instructor accidentally discharged his replica muzzleloader. But I bet it looked like the entire classroom hit a speed bump when the damn thing went off. Ever the educator, Haggard clearly knew a teachable moment when he saw one. Let’s talk about the importance of taking personal responsibility for your mistakes. Or, alternatively, not. “Haggard says he can’t explain how the weapon was loaded,” the AP reports. “He says he usually fires a cap during the demonstration, but this time there was a loud bang and the room filled with smoke. The ball shot through the ‘o’ in the word ‘North’ on a wall map.” As opposed to, say, the heart of one of his students.