News Roundup

• From the "Stop Touching It!" Department - A man in Georgia was injured when he shot himself while re-loading his gun after leaving a gun show.  Most gun shows require that all guns brought in be unloaded before entering the show.  Ladies and gentlemen, guns, like a lot of things in life, are more likely to go off the more you touch them.  One of the things I've had to teach myself and I've seen in a lot of shooters is that once it's in the holster, leave it alone.  Granted, he wasn't fooling with it, but the point is the same:  The more you touch it, the more likely you are to get a bad surprise.  Also, when you're loading, unloading, wiping, looking at, and considering buying, follow the Four Rules.  Negligent discharges happen to everyone.  Keeping it from being pointed at you or anything else you don't want shot will keep embarrassment from turning into pain.
• From the "An Arm and a Leg" Department - Experts are predicting that the cost of a gallon of gasoline will top $4.00 a gallon soon, and may go higher.  This weekend, my gas was a handgun caliber. I paid $3.57 a gallon for gas.  Soon, it may be $3.80.  I hope it doesn't go to $5.00.
• From the "More Balls Than Brains" Department - An Austrian man is planning to try to freefall from 120,000 feet up, break the sound barrier on the way down, then parachute down to a soft landing.  Since he's replicating research jumps done in the 1950's that were part of the early space program, I don't know what he hopes to accomplish other than be able to say he did it.  I wish him luck, but I caution that there's not a lot of difference between "controlled parachute landing" and "authorities are combing the hills for the larger bits".
• From the "Hey Mom!  Guess what!" Department - A helicopter with mechanical problems recently made an emergency landing at an elementary school in California.  Thankfully, no-one was hurt.  This must have made for some interesting "How did school go today?" conversations around the dinner table.  Something tells me it was pretty hard to get little Johnny and Susie to concentrate on diagramming sentences that afternoon.  Might as well just put them all in the lunch room and watch movies.