Weird, but with Guns

I wouldn't suggest for a moment that this in any way seriously pertains to gun issues, other than to note that it is a regular point of pro-gun folks to underline how law abiding gun owners are.  Sometimes yes they are; other times (like this) not so much.  The point?  That guns are weapons, weapons which are of a greater, more efficient lethal quality than other weapons that must be used at a closer range to be effective, or with greater strength and dexterity, or against which defensive actions are more effective.

But, mostly, this is just weird.

By Athima Chansanchai

Craigslist, no stranger to weird crime, is now the alleged hook-up ground for a very peculiar kind of fetish: cannibals and those who want to be consumed by them.
One would-be meal, not so happy with the idea after all, set up his would-be eater, who was in turn gunned down by police. True story, folks. Happy Monday.
In this "Criminal Minds" meets Hannibal Lecter installment of Digital Life, the Slovak Spectator, the AP and other outlets have reported that once the Swiss victim (so far unnamed in news accounts) realized that Slovakian father of two Matej Curko, 43, was serious about what he thought was just a fantasy (usually the sexually-charged kind), he turned the plan in to the police, who posed undercover to sting Curko.
But things did not go smoothly and a gunfight ensued May 10, resulting in a police officer and Curko, who legally possessed four guns and frequented a shooting club, being shot.   (my emphasis added - DG)  Curko died May 12, despite the efforts of 10 surgeons during a five-hours-plus surgery. The Slovak Spectator — which does feature the reassuring disclaimer that it "cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings" — reported that at the crime scene, "police secured a number of knives, saws and a body bag," which added to the email evidence against Curko.
It's not like this is the first time cannibals have gone online to find willing victims. Back in December 2002, German computer technician Armin Meiwes was arrested and charged with murder after it was revealed that he had found 43-year-old Bernd-Jurgen Brandes in 2001 through the Internet and had killed and eaten him.
If that wasn't grisly enough, Meiwes captured it all on his camcorder, reported BBC News.
He was later convicted of manslaughter, then murder, and sentenced to life in prison during a retrial in which "the prosecution made a graphic case that Meiwes was guilty of murder and argued he should never be released from prison."
In this current case, Curko reportedly found his almost-victim through Craigslist (though only Gather states that site specifically), who indulged the fetish for awhile, until he was probably too creeped out by the idea of being a last supper, preceded by wining and dining (at least on Curko's part) and a stab through the heart in the woods. This victim was not so ready to surrender his life after all.
While news accounts quote those who knew Curko describing him as "mild-natured" and "ordinary," Gather writes his demise as a good riddance:

It's a good thing he is gone, because police discovered freshly dug graves (more than one) on his property in the Slovak region. They greatly suspect that he has done this before, and there may be more victims.

Had he lived, Curko would probably have faced the same kind of societal taboo that doomed Meiwes to life behind bars: better to keep people-eaters away than to let them continue a compulsion they can't shut down, involving others who might agree to the deed.