How Not To Be A Gun Owner: Man Shot By Friend Playing With Gun On Facebook Live

While most gun owners are responsible, decent folks, occasionally some stupid people get their hands on guns. When they do, they do stupid things because, well, that’s what stupid people do.

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The latest example appears to be a case of playing with a gun and someone being shot in the head…while on Facebook Live.

Houston police said that three people were inside the car while the man, identified by friends as Devyn Holmes, 26, and a woman were playing with two handguns. The gun fired, hitting Holmes in the head, police said.

A video that was posted originally on Facebook and then on Instagram showed what happened before the gun fired. Friends confirmed that Holmes is seen in the video, wearing a white shirt and talking to a woman and another man that is in the car with him. A few seconds later, the woman is seen pointing a gun at the camera and waving it around in the car.

“You’re making me nervous,” Holmes is heard saying as he tries to still the woman’s hand who is handling the gun.

“It ain’t got no clip, bud,” the other man is heard saying.

A second later, the gun fired. Holmes slumped over and blood can be seen on his shirt.

Holmes is currently on life support.

The sad thing here is that this shouldn’t have happened.

It’s one thing for gun owners to tell other gun owners to get some basic firearms training, but it’s quite another for people to actually do it. They often think they know enough, though we clearly see some don’t.

There’s a reason why I advocate for firearms training in public schools. Teach people how to handle guns safely, something beyond the simple “don’t touch” we currently teach kids. Teaching “don’t touch” is fine for younger children, but when kids get older, they need to learn how to safely empty a weapon and learn the Four Rules of firearm safety.

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We need to stop demonizing guns in our schools over the actions of a few and instead teach all kids how to be safe around firearms. Maybe, just maybe, if that had happened, Holmes wouldn’t have been shot.

Or maybe not.

It’s impossible to say for certain. But I do know that if such an event occurred despite such classes, it’s a lot harder for someone to pull the “I didn’t know” defense. They would have been taught and had the lesson reinforced regularly. If they didn’t know, they chose not to know.

But that’s just fantasy at this point.

Right now, a real human being is only holding onto life with the help of modern technology. Charges have been filed in the case, but I’m pretty sure Holmes and his family would have rather had him not be shot.

This is a prime example of the kind of foolishness that none of us should tolerate and should call out repeatedly. I know a lot of gun owners are good about it, but this needs to be universal, and we need to have even non-gun owner call this stupidity out. Maybe then, people will at least stop recording it, if nothing else.

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