Missouri senatorial candidate Lucas Kunce is probably about to be a two-time loser in his bid to become a senator. That makes me giggle, mostly because Kunce has an anti-gun history that he tried to downplay at a recent campaign event.
He was joined by former New York Republican congressman turned anti-gunner Adam Kinzinger at a backyard gun range for a shooting event. In the process, they managed to shoot a reporter, and now it turns out there's more to the story.
How so?
Well, unsurprisingly, the brilliant minds behind the event didn't bother to listen to the organizer. Allegedly.
Chad Everett Downs, the man who claims to have set up the gun range and who has told reporters he lives across the street from the range, commented on a story about the incident in a Facebook group. He said he was there and that Kunce and the reporter did not listen when they were told where they should stand while shooting. Downs, who may not be allowed to own a firearm due to felony charges, then said that it was perfectly normal to get hit with fragments while shooting steel.
...
After a user asked if Downs was the person in a picture with Cunce and a KSHB reporter, Downs replied by saying, “Yeah. Those dudes were told where to stand. They didn’t listen.” Downs said when you shoot steel, “you always get frag. I’ve been hit probably 250 times.”
He then started arguing with another member of the Facebook group, saying: “so behind the firing line is bad?? Yeah your training sounds pretty intense. You’re basically a Navy Seal.”
“I just gave them a place to shoot. Told them what I thought, then they did what they wanted to,” Downs said. “Do you know someone who’s been killed by a small fragment??”
“[Y]our range your responsibility. That is the lamest cop out l’ve ever seen in my life,” one of the Facebook users replied to him.
Now, as much as I'd like to just dog Kunce and Kinzinger, especially after Kunce posted this tweet about the incident, we do need to be fair here. Downs is currently facing 17 counts of felony perjury, so there's reason to doubt that he's a particularly honest man.
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Especially when The Daily Caller reached out to speak with him and he wanted $5,000 from them.
So there's reason to think that he might well be talking a lot of smack. Meanwhile, he probably should have kept his mouth shut because he's currently a prohibited person, yet reportedly pointed out which guns being used at the event were his.
So to call him brilliant would be hilariously wrong.
That said, when we see how both Kunce and Kinzinger have reacted, it's also not overly difficult to think that maybe, just maybe, they're big enough idiots to ignore advice and do what they want.
It should be remembered that the event had tannerite on the table where participants were shooting. Tannerite is a product that can be legally sold that explodes when impacted by a bullet, and they had it on a range that looked to be about 10 yards deep, as well as shooting steel targets at that range with AR-15s. That's a recipe for getting hit with shrapnel, and if Downs had experience with that sort of thing, it's like he would have advised them against it.
I have no problem believing that Downs may well have told them not to do it and they figured they knew better. Kunce has tried to position himself as a firearms expert, once offering Mark McCloskey--the man who had an AR-15 in his hands as he confronted a mob in Saint Louis--gun training.
And if that's actually what happened, there's no way on this planet he should be permitted in the halls of Congress without a visitor's pass.
