Gun control advocates like to say that gun rights advocates think everyone should have a gun. Not true! While everyone has a natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, they do not have a natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to use those firearms in any way they see fit. Murdering someone with a gun, for example, is a no-no. The antis like to conflate ownership and misuse, implying that regulating ownership is the best way to curtail or eliminate misuse. Yeah right. Anyway, here’s a very bad man doing bad things with a gun who’s proven – at least twice – that he shouldn’t have a gun [via usatoday.com]. . .
Just before noon on September 17, landscaper Robert Hendrix was working at a home on Palo Verde Drive in Avon Park [and] accidentally got grass clippings on Max Horton’s vehicle. Horton, of Avon Park, started arguing with Hendrix, pulled out a gun and ordered Hendrix to get on his knees. Horton told Hendrix he was going to kill him.
At the same time, fellow landscaper Johnny Barnes made a move towards Horton. Horton fired off one round from the handgun at Hendrix then turned his attention to Barnes. At this point Hendrix was able to get up and disarm Horton. Hendrix and Barns tackled Horton and held him until police arrived.
See? Now that’s a flat-out irresponsible gun owner. No two ways around it. Should the government have stopped him from owning a gun before this incident? Well yes. But only because this wasn’t his first firearms misuse.
Horton received minor injuries when tackled and was transported by EMS to Highlands Regional Medical Center’s Emergency Room for treatment. Hendrix could not be taken to Florida Hospital because he had previously made verbal threats to staff members in September 2013, telling them he had a gun in his vehicle and they would be sorry if he went to get it.
If true, back in 2013, Horton should have been charged with a felony of some sort, tried and convicted. Then he would have been a prohibited person. And then the grass clippings incident would have never happened. Oh wait. Unless Horton was in jail or under some sort of supervision, how could the government have stopped the nonagenarian from getting a gun?
There’s your trouble. And there’s our Irresponsible Gun Owner of the Day. One of very few, but a sterling example of the fact that sh*t happens – a reality for which legal, law-abiding gun owners should not be punished.