GreNME
Philosopher
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2007
- Messages
- 8,276
That's not irony. (Insert obligatory Inigo Montoya line)
If it happened at a class on firearm safety, that would be irony.
Nope, this counts as irony as well. It may not be irony you appreciate, but it's irony nonetheless.
Brilliant mis-characterization. Nothing like an ignorant comment to make the case against yourself.
Against myself? Pray tell how. Someone brought a loaded gun to a gun show-- a pretty stupid thing to do on its own-- and it resulted in someone getting shot. We don't know any of the details, but would you say the loaded gun entered the gun show accidentally? Of course not: someone openly flouted the restriction, and no true scotsman arguments aside I doubt whomever brought this loaded gun was the only person to do so. Most drivers consider themselves good drivers, but that doesn't mean they don't speed, pass on the right occasionally, and perform 'rolling stops' when they're in a hurry and there's little or no traffic-- all while using the justification that it's okay for them to be loose with the rules because they're a good driver, unlike the idiots who get into accidents. It's a common selection bias that practically everyone has regarding things they identify with or sympathize with, whether it's the gun enthusiast or the dog owner or the parent who swears that their little snowflake wouldn't "do something like that" or the most common example of the car driver who self-identifies as a good, safe driver while agreeing that most drivers out on the road are sloppy, irresponsible, or even dangerous.
Don't mistake that for me being anti-gun or even anti-gun-show. The behavior I'm being critical of is displayed in people who own guns just as much as it's displayed in those who don't own guns. The applicability of my pointing this out, if you want to be particular, is that the failure to acknowledge this self-selection bias keeps the inevitable chronic gun debates going when topics like the above (or the kid who mistook a gun for a Wii controller) crop up.

