Last week, I wrote about a case where a man was arrested with a modified flare gun. At the time, I noted how it was evidence that gun control was never going to work because this was a safety device that was turned into a weapon.

It was also a little bit of a weird story, to be fair, and I like writing about the weird stories sometimes.

What I didn’t expect was to have a repeat performance anytime soon. After all, while the weird stories might pop up from time to time, they tend to be a little spaced out.

So imagine my surprise at learning that the weird story in question wasn’t the only flare gun incident in that week.

A man is in jail charged with firing a flare gun at a woman.

The incident happened in Athens last week.

The two homeless people were in an argument on the street near a sporting goods store.

The woman says Preston Drury fired the flare straight at her, hitting her in the chest.

She suffered burns to her upper chest, and facial injuries from the shrapnel.

Drury says the woman threatened him with a pocketknife, but police found no evidence supporting that claim.

Now, let’s break this down for a moment.

You can get a flare gun on Amazon for less than $100. They don’t require a background check of any kind and they can be shipped right to your door. They can be purchased at outdoor stores as well. 

And why wouldn’t you be able to? They’re a safety device. You should be able to get them just that easily because otherwise, people would figure it wasn’t worth the hassle right up until they needed one. That’s a recipe for bad news.

Yet when someone wants to use something like that as a weapon, they will.

It should be noted that Drury also apparently had a firearm on his person, which is a problem since he’s a prohibited person, but he could also get a flare gun without breaking the law. If he’s convicted of this crime, he’ll be able to get another one as soon as he’s out of prison.

Every convicted felon can, and while it might not be as lethal as a traditional firearm, a flare gun can kill a person.

So tell me again how gun control will make all of our problems go away? Tell me how making it harder for me, a law-abiding citizen, to get a firearm wul stop crime when the criminals can resort to using a safety device if nothing else.

You can’t. 

That doesn’t factor in the reality of criminals still getting actual firearms regardless of the laws in place. Throw that in and it’s clear that the idea of disarming criminals is a lost cause. It’s never going to happen.

So yeah, this was a weird one last week, followed up by another one this week that actually happened last week–dizzy yet?–all to prove a point that if criminals can figure out a way to hurt people with it, they will.

Unfortunately, no one who needs to learn this lesson will.