Hattiesburg Police Department spokesman Lt. Jon Traxler said a Thursday night shooting started with an argument between three men and ended in a shootout in the parking lot.Now let's see what we can understand from this story without reading too much into it.
The three shooters fired at each other multiple times, striking only a female bystander's hand, producing minor injuries, Traxler said. He said the bullet only "grazed" the woman's hand.
Police responded to the scene at about 8:20 p.m. and charged Earene Williams, 25; Joshua Hilliard, 23; and Gary Underwood, 23; with aggravated assault. Each is held in the Forrest County Jail on a $25,000 bond per charge.
Williams also is charged with possession of a firearm after felony conviction, for which he is also held on a $25,000 bond.
1. Only one of the shooters was charged with being a felon in possession of a gun. That means the other two were lawful gun owners up until the incident. That means that some unspecified percentage of so-called gun owners are really dangerous characters like these guys - let's call them hidden criminals.
2. Three out of three, or 100% of the shooters were such poor shots that they missed their targets entirely. I'm not gonna say from close range because that was not mentioned in the article. What the article does say is they did hit at least one innocent person in the process, luckily not seriously. That means that when gun owners use their guns for legitimate or illegitimate purposes, a certain unspecified percentage of the bullets hit the wrong targets.
What's your opinion? Are they fair conclusions to be drawn from the story? Is there anything else?
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