Definitely some unusual occurrences this week, including two in-hospital #GunFAIL incidents, bringing us to a total of three in the last three weeks. We also had three armed criminals shoot themselves this week, which isn't all bad, I suppose. Though I will note that one of them shot himself while the police were after him, and the sound of the shot prompted an officer to draw his own weapon, fire nine shots, and miss every time (unless you count hitting a nearby park bench and a tree).

Then, there was the gent who was apparently gobsmacked to find himself under arrest simply for attempting to exercise his Second Amendment rights in front of the White House. He didn't mean anyone any harm, you see. He "was only going to fire a couple of shots," and where's the harm in that?

In a continuing trend, we count four home invasion shootings this week. And in a new twist, two home protection scenarios gone wrong: one woman who shot herself in the legs with the shotgun she'd brought to confront the person she thought was beating at her door, and one man who was asked by a friend to stay with his girlfriend to protect her while she was home alone, and then ended up shooting that friend when he came home, mistaking him for an intruder.

One follow-up on a previous story. Remember that rolling Wild West shootout in Milwaukee? Check out this interview with one of the participants. Like the White House guy, he too is baffled about his arrest, though at least he has a potentially legit "takes two to tango" excuse for his confusion. But check out his post-shootout thinking. He's kinda, sorta, maybe, almost convinced that his decision to return fire and chase his attackers across town, firing from car to car all the way, was possibly not such a great idea. Still, he's pretty sure local law enforcement wanted him to do it, anyway. And that's Responsible.TM

Tough time for the teenagers this week. The kid victims of #GunFAIL this week were 2, 5, 9, 11, 12, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 16, 16 and 17. Only three of those kids were accidentally shot by adults, by the way. Five shot themselves, and six were shot by other kids, the youngest shooter being six.

UPDATE: One thing I neglected to point out: Walterboro, South Carolina (pop. 5,360*), makes a remarkable fifth appearance in the GunFAIL series this week. Previous incidents there were reported in January, February, March and April. So they'd been having a good run, recently! But, old habits die hard, I guess, and July finds them back on the list.

Details on this week's stories are below the fold.