I'm still a bit mind-boggled after reading this report.
New details have emerged after a shooting injured two women at Guaranteed Rate Field during a Chicago White Sox game on Friday night.
On Tuesday, ESPN Chicago reporter Peggy Kusinski said that the gun was snuck into the stadium by one of the women who was hit. The shooting was "an accidental discharge" by the woman whose injury was previously identified as "a graze wound."
"She reportedly snuck the gun in past metal detectors hiding it in the folds of her belly fat," Kusinski said in a post on X.
Police previously said that a 42-year-old woman "sustained one gun-shot wound to the leg" and a 26-year-old woman "also sustained a graze wound to the abdomen."
There's more at the link.
I'm not surprised at the way she tried (and apparently succeeded) to conceal her firearm. I've worked in prisons, remember? Most prisons these days have body orifice security scanners (like this one, for example). They're essential equipment because of the many weird and wonderful things inmates try to conceal in body cavities (including shanks and small firearms, and no, I'm not joking about the latter!). If the lady (?) in question had great big rolls of body fat, they'd work to conceal a small firearm just as her body's orifices would. It's a yucky, nasty thought, and I'd hate to have to handle that firearm afterwards ("Double gloves, STAT!"), but it happens. (I wonder whether body orifice security scanners will have to become standard equipment at stadium entry points? If this goes on, they might . . . )
Nor am I surprised that the gun went off. She was probably fiddling with it, adjusting how it was nestled into her body fat to make it more comfortable. (I don't see how it would have gone off through the working of her body fat alone, unless she had muscles in her fat rolls that the rest of us are lacking. That's a mental picture I didn't need!)
What does surprise me is that she felt it necessary to sneak a gun into a baseball stadium in the first place. If she felt that seriously threatened by potential attackers, she shouldn't have been exposed in a public place at all. She should have been hunkered down in a more secure location. Besides, carrying the gun in that way meant she probably couldn't have got it out in a hurry, possibly having to remove some of her clothing in order to draw it: so it wouldn't have helped much if she'd needed to defend herself. Its presence also exposed her to potential arrest by cops summoned by security personnel if they'd found it, which is a needless risk.
No, carrying it into a baseball stadium, and particularly in that way, just doesn't make sense . . . but then, people who'd do things like that seldom make sense. Logical thinking is foreign to most of them. That's why so many of them are in prison. Sadly, now that the story has come out, I suspect we'll see more people try to do the same thing. They don't need a reason except that "Hey, if LatorraShaniquaHoneychile can do it, I can too!"
I suspect we may have to add sports stadiums to the list of what John Farnam calls "stupid places", as in his time-honored advice: "Don’t go to stupid places. Don’t associate with stupid people. Don’t do stupid things." The lady (?) in this incident broke all of his rules, and probably a few more besides - and she'll doubtless inspire others to do the same.
*Sigh*
Peter
15 comments:
As my beautiful lady says, "We have the best seats in the game".
At home, it's on TV, my BBQ or such is going.
I've lost interest in big public events like this years ago.
Even when I see my Grandkids doing sports, I am aware of how I park for easy exit and other useful things like exits and people watching.
I suspect that she did not want to leave it in her vehicle due to risk of theft. Many firearms are stolen from vehicles. It is probably the least secure place to leave one.
@Eaton Rapids Joe: And her fat rolls were more secure???
Oy.
"What does surprise me is that she felt it necessary to sneak a gun into a baseball stadium in the first place."
Most of the "forbidden" places I carry a firearm into are low risk and probably not where it might be needed. It is going to and from on the street, in the parking area, or in my other stops and travels where the stupid is.
Now it is easy to mock, and she had the ND so she was clearly doing something she shouldn't have, but consider...
- she might have taken public transportation to the park and not wanted to be disarmed along the way, then moved the piece to a hiding place before entering the park. No way to legally carry at a pro sporting event after all, not even a pocket knife.
- she might have had it in her purse, and not known about the security check. I didn't the only time I've gone to a game in the last 15 years. Too far back to the car, no car to store it in.
-she might not want to walk to and from the parking area unarmed. Most stadiums were built on otherwise undesirable land, and are surrounded by sh!tty and dangerous neighborhoods.
- she might have simply forgotten she was carrying until she got there, and them moved it to 'deep concealment.' People end up in this situation at airports all the time, and everyone knows you can't carry onto a plane.
Clearly she made at least one bad decision, probably several, but there might have been more going on than just entitlement/stupidity.
nick
No pics of the perpetrators, but I'm wilking to bet that...well, y'know.
@Peter:
Who would want to search through her fat rolls for a firearm?? It would be MUCH more secure than a car!
I've avoided big city stadiums and concert venues for years now - traffic, paying for parking, high ticket prices, stupid and annoying security, etc make the experience unenjoyable.
But then there's the crime issue since nearly all of them are in bad neighborhoods also...
This site is a great source for all the fun doings around Chicago. https://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/. Real cops behind the scenes. The top cops really pushed the original story of the shot being fired outside the stadium and dropping into the stadium to injure these people. Stupidity knows no bounds.
Another note: the amount of surveillance around event venues is a lot more than you think. Not just video cameras but stereo cameras that can track cars (or people) and radar systems that can see much farther than cameras in the dark. Inside the venue they can track individual phones and queuing at bathrooms and food sellers to redirect patrons in real time to ones with shorter lines.
We are working with a venue operator and based on what I've heard about their plans I won't be going to any events there.
I try really hard to not go any place I can't be armed. When I worked for a hospital in downtown Detroit, I made the decision that my life is more important than my job.
Might just have been carried under her breast, without a bra. For that matter, there are a couple holsters for small guns that mount to a bra. Sounds like it was not a bra holster, though.
Some Negligent Discharges are due to someone who makes a grab for a dropped gun. I'm guessing this incident will fall into that category.
All current production handguns are supposed to be drop-proof regarding accidental firing. Let it go, a scratch or two should be the only result, unless you are unlucky to do so in front of a cop, and it is noticed.
That's an image I DID NOT NEED... sigh
Don't forget that this shows yet another hole in security and how pointless all of their inconvenience and hassle is...
There's a part of me that wants to ask, "How much fat does it take to hide a gun from a metal detector." There is another part of me that does NOT want to ask that question. And I'm pretty sure I don't want to see the pictures.
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