NBA Player Fires Gun Wildly

10/06/2006: Indiana Pacers guard Stephen Jackson apparently got into a fight, during which he fired a gun at his assailants.

Apparently, he–and other Pacers players–were leaving a strip club and got into a verbal melee that escalated into a physical one. In the process, Jackson was punched, then hit by a car. Jackson, in turn, pulled his concealed handgun and fired at the vehicle.

I’m very surprised that Jackson is not being charged. I say this for a couple reasons:

  • I don’t know what the law is in Indiana, but in Kentucky you cannot carry a concealed deadly weapon into a bar. That’s a no-no.
  • If he fired a gun at the car as it was fleeing, that might qualify as some sort of criminal recklessness. The only time you can fire a gun is if you have reasonable basis for showing that you–oir others–were in imminent danger. If the car was fleeing, he was no longer in danger. That shot was likely quite reckless.

It will also be quite interesting to find out if Jackson–or the other Pacers players–escalated the confrontation themselves.

If that is the case, then Jackson has done no good favors for those of us who are responsible gun owners–with concealed carry licences–who are anal about public safety.

Quote of the Day

10/06/2006: This one is a bona fide blast from the past, coming from Shirley Povich, reporter for the Washington Post, on 09 October 1956, the day after Don Larsen–a mediocre pitcher for the New York Yankees–pitched the first and, to this day, only perfect game in Major League postseason history:

The million-to-one shot came in. Hell froze over. A month of Sundays hit the calendar. Don Larsen today pitched a no-hit, no-run, no-man-reach-first game in a World Series.