Shooting Yourself in the Foot - Beyond the Cliche

In case you haven't already heard, Plaxico Burress, wide receiver for the New York Giants, (who won the Superbowl last year), shot himself in the leg over the weekend.

Giants #17 was at (can you guess?) a nightclub "early Saturday morning" (Which means after midnight on Friday night).

The details are somewhat unclear, especially since the shooting wasn't reported to the police until way later.

As I understand it, his gun, (which he doesn't have a license for) started slipping down his leg. He tried to grab it and inadvertently squeezed the trigger, resulting in a gunshot to his right thigh.

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So lets analyze this.

This idiot is at a club till the wee hours of the morning. Do good things happen in night clubs after midnight? I can tell you, No.

(Do you notice that celebrities never have shootings at the 9:00 showing at a movie theater?)

Good old Plaxico has had a few drinks, is dancing, and guess what? His firearm, that (again) he has no license for, starts to slip down his leg. Which means that it wasn't even in a holster, just jammed in the waistband of his jeans.

When it starts to slide down he gropes for it and accidentally pulls the trigger, firing a bullet into his right thigh.

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Lets focus on some specific factors of this incident. We have:

-Idiot

-after midnight in a nightclub

-alcohol

-unregistered gun

-unsecured gun, no holster

-safety OFF

Hmm.... Anyone surprised he got shot?

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To add to the situation, when he went to the hospital he tried to cover the whole thing up.

The police, who were finally notified later in the day, are now doing an investigation into the whole thing which has included a teammates car (If you guessed it was an Escalade, you're right!) being impounded, and the doctor who treated him being suspended from the hospital.

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As a consequence Mr. Burress has been suspended from playing football for the rest of the season, (as though he could anyway with a bullet wound), is facing fines of about $800,000.00, and legal charges for carrying an illegal weapon, which could land him in jail for 3 1/2 to 15 years.

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It absolutely kills me that guys like this, (because while he may be an idiot, he's not the only idiot who has done something like this), are making millions of dollars a year playing a game, and apparently think they are above the rules.

They carry weapons illegally, they run dog fighting rings (that's a different idiot), they do all kinds of things that leave common sense way behind, and are suprised when something goes wrong.

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We all make mistakes. We all screw up. But with a little common sense, a little planning, and maybe (just maybe ) a little adherence to the laws that are intended to keep us safe, we can hopefully make mistakes that cause us to lose a dozen eggs, a few bucks, or a little sleep, not millions of dollars, use of our limbs, and our personal freedom.

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(Idiot!)