Of Mice and Men, of Penises and Penis Substitutes

What can one say about a story like this?

To begin with, it is too bizarre for anyone to make up; that is the obvious comment.  If it is possible however for an aspect of this incident to be even more bizarre than the incident itself, it would be for me, the comment from the anchorwoman in the news video HERE  (you have to follow the link to watch, I couldn't embed the video) making the statement that:

"the man saw a mouse in his kitchen, so he did what came naturally, he grabbed a gun and fired off a round".

Now......I realize this IS Utah, where they have a very permissive attitude towards guns, but.........seriously?  You find a mouse in your house, so, like you do, you SHOOT AT IT?
 
I played the news video several times, trying to allow for the possibility of sarcasm, satire, SOMETHING on the part of the news woman.  If it is there, it seems to be very subtle, as she seems to be speaking very straightforwardly, not tongue in cheek about the shooting aspect of this incident

I live in a rural area, in a house that is over 100 years old.  We have an occasional mouse from time to time.  I can honestly say that it would never occur to me to start blasting away at ANYTHING indoors that might be classified in the  taxonomy order Rodentia.

So, now that we have the novelty aspects of this incident addressed (sort of), lets move on to the basics that this event has in common with other shootings.  The first one would be the obvious - someone did not follow those basic rules of firearm safety, regarding knowing where the bullet would go IF YOU MISS.  Now this is important to bring up, because in nearly every instance cited here - like shooting a bad guy stabbing a woman in Walmart, or an alleged rape victim who the progunners here claimed should have shot her assailant while sleeping in the tent of the rapist in a crowded Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City, or some of the personal incidents shared here like 'someguy's' "show and tell" comment about brandishing of a firearm as he opened his front door to confront pursuers of his wife, OR the incident of the Amish girl killed by the musket discharge a mile away, there seems to be a truly appalling, terrifying lack of comprehension for what that really means - being able to see where a bullet would go, hit or miss, as one of the rules of firearm safety.

So, I hope the more serious side of this story will underline for you progunners WHY it is that those of us who are more moderate in our appreciation of firearms do not particularly trust your judgment about firearm safety, no matter how many times you tell us how safe you are and how well you know those safety rules.

Because the reality is, you seem to see a good, justifiable case for shooting bad guys that far too often does NOT appear to take seriously enough - not NEARLY seriously enough - the possible trajectories of those shots you think should be fired.

So while this seems an OBVIOUS instance of poor judgment, it is the incidents that are LESS obvious that concern us, that make us desire intensely that you not have the option for poor judgment and lethal violence in our public places.  Because you clearly want, so very badly, to have an occasion where you can shoot your pseudo-penis fetish inanimate object at a bad person you try desperately NOT to acknowledge is another human being.

Now, it seems fairly clear to me that this roommate who shot the other roommate in the chest through the interior house wall of the bathroom is NOT someone who should ever have been allowed to own a handgun.  But it is not the shooter who was arrested here for putting the other guy into the hospital in critical condition, because.......you know, like you do..........he was negligent, reckless and stupid - and lets not leave out apparently blotto when he shot at the mouse and struck another person.  THAT gets a pass from the police?

It clearly is not an acceptable situation that one of these roommates was having a sexual relationship with a 13 year old.  But it appears to have been a bad sexual situation that also involved deplorable judgment - but NOT VIOLENCE.  No one was nearly killed here by the statutory rape crime, nor was anyone else put in danger by it.

This seems to me to be a serious misjudgment by the police in NOT arresting the roommate who did the shooting.  At the very least, they should have confiscated the guy's gun(s) in case the other critically injured roommate didn't make it.  What the shooter did would seem to be at the very least some sort of criminal act of negligence.

This incident seems to reflect some seriously flawed notions about the value of human life, and about the recklessness of some gun lunatics.

I wonder if the shooter just leaves his gun lying around ' just in case', you know, 'like you do'.  Maybe like the recent instances where hunting dogs that shot the hunters, the mouse will get a chance to shoot the shooter.

I'd like to say that was an original idea of mine, but a casual google search of mouse with gun images turned up these, AND a photo of Paul Kunzler.  Ain't the internets grand?





From the HuffPo and KSL news:

Paul Kunzler Arrested: Utah Police Call Mouse 'Hero' In Rescue Of 13-Year-Old Rape Victim

Thanks to a crafty mouse, police in Utah arrested Paul Kunzler for the alleged rape of a teen girl.






The disturbing misdeeds of a Utah man accused of raping a 13-year-old girl were exposed this week when the man's roommate accidentally shot a third roommate during an impromptu mouse hunt, police said.
Paul Daniel Kunzler, 34, is being held without bail in the Salt Lake County Jail on suspicion of two counts of rape, three counts of sodomy and three counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child.
The bizarre case began to unfold about 2 a.m. Tuesday, when police were dispatched to a call of an accidental shooting at a home in the 2500 block of W. Brucemont Drive in Taylorsville.
"When officers and fire personnel arrived, they discovered a 28-year-old male that had been shot in the abdomen," Taylorsville City Police Sgt. Tracy Wyant told The Huffington Post.
Wyant said that the incident took a bizarre twist when the victim's 27-year-old roommate explained the circumstances of the shooting.
"The victim's roommate had witnessed a mouse run across a counter and shot at the mouse with a 9 mm handgun," Wyant said. "The round went through a wall and into an adjacent restroom, striking the victim."
The victim, who suffered a punctured lung and other internal injuries, was transported to a local hospital in critical condition. He was later upgraded to fair condition.
According to police, alcohol was determined to be a factor in the shooting.
The already bizarre case took another unusual turn when police conducted a search of the home, which is shared by four adult male roommates, to ensure no one else had been injured by the shooting. It was during that welfare search that authorities made a shocking discovery in the basement.
"[Officers] discovered a 13-year-old female hiding in a closet," Wyant said. "It was quickly learned that this 13-year-old did not belong to any of these adult men."
Through police questioning, detectives learned that Kunzler had allegedly been sexually involved with the girl. That alleged abuse, police said, had been going on for about four months.
"At this point, it appears the young female victim had been sneaking out of her home, which is about 12 to 15 miles away from where this incident occurred, during [the course of] this relationship," Wyant said.
The victim's parents told police that they were unaware of the situation. Investigators believe the victim met Kunzler through a common friend. Other than to say the victim is not related to Kunzler, police are not releasing any further details on the association between the two.
Kunzler's three roommates have denied knowledge of the relationship. One of the men, Zach Baker, expressed his surprise during an interview with KSTU-TV.
"I'd never seen the girl there before and I don't know how long she'd been there. They said she'd been hiding in a closet and that creeps me out," Baker said, adding, "I knew the guy was weird, but I didn't expect anything like that to happen."
According to Wyant, detectives are still trying to determine what, if anything, anybody knew about the relationship between Kunzler and the young girl.
"We don't know yet," he said. "Certainly, that's one part of the investigation that we are looking into. Obviously, if we can prove the roommates or anyone else was aware of the sexual abuse and did not come forward, we will certainly look at filing charges on those individuals."
The roommate who fired the handgun has not been arrested. The prosecutor's office is examining the incident to determine whether any criminal charges should be filed against him.
Wyant said the case is the most bizarre one he has been involved in during his 15-year career. Prior to this, another recent case had been the talk of the town.
"The day before [the shooting], we were in the national news because we had a case where a lady sprayed an ice cream truck driver in the face with a cleaning chemical. Now we have this. It's like, what the hell is going on?" Wyant said.
And, what of the mouse -- the small mammal at the center of the entire case?
"I've had more inquires on the mouse than anything," Wyant said. "It is my understanding he missed the mouse, and it fled."
Regardless of the details, the creature is considered by some to be a rodent of great valor.
"We had one call suggesting the mouse receive an award," Wyant said. The veteran police officer added, "I guess the mouse is the hero in this matter."