Master Criminal Sentenced After Videos Posted Of Him With Gun

The more I go on in this life, the more I become convinced that when you talk about criminals, you probably need to differentiate the type of criminal you’re talking about. The hardened sociopath is truly dangerous but rare.

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Then you have people who are probably just too stupid to know how to follow the law…or at least not get caught.

A convicted felon uploaded videos of him shooting a gun at a Maine firing range despite being banned from possessing firearms has been sentenced to over two years in prison.

Twenty-six-year-old Dane Mitchell was sentenced Monday at federal court in Portland to 27 months in prison for being a felon in possession of firearms. The Portland Press Herald reports the Boston man pleaded guilty to the charges last August.

Authorities say Mitchell and another person traveled to Gray in April 2017, where they rented firearms and fired the weapons at a shooting range — uploading videos to Snapchat. Boston police identified Mitchell and the shooting range from the videos.

Yes, take a minute there to process the stupid. It’s OK. Yes, the movie Idiocracy is shifting from fiction to documentary status, so take a moment. It’s even OK if you want to weep for humanity. Believe me, I understand.

That said, I’m sure the police are fine with Mitchell being stupid. It makes their job much easier, to be sure.

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Don’t get me wrong, either. I want people like Mitchell to post their criminal misdeeds on the internet for all to see. I like the idea of the police catching them before they can do something to hurt someone.

But I’m also convinced that anyone who does this is probably more of a threat to himself or others more by accident than intention. It’s almost like someone like this lacks the brainpower to discern that things like laws exist and that they should probably not break them.

This isn’t me excusing his actions. I’d argue that locking him up is not only appropriate but beneficial to humanity as a whole. He probably should remain locked up for being a complete and total moron, even.

He’s not alone, either. There have been others who posted evidence of their (alleged) crimes online. None of these master criminals have been accused of moonlighting as members of MENSA, have they.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t negate the problem. Stupid people can still hurt and kill the innocent. Stupid people can still think they’re justified in hurting others for their own gain. Stupid people can still create widows, widowers, and orphans. They can do all of that and more, which is why we shouldn’t count on the police to catch the stupid people before they can do anything to us.

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Look, if I’m looking down at the business end of some thug’s weapon, the last thing I care about is whether he’s a sociopath, an idiot, or something in between. All I know is that I’m in a dangerous spot and am probably about to get hurt.

But the upside with the stupid ones is that they tend to get themselves caught pretty easily. Especially by posting pictures proving their criminal acts on social media.

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