# "My speargun accidentally went off." **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 9, 2013, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895 "2013-05-09T15:23:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/21 "2013-05-09T19:39:36Z")
That’s a hell of a way to get a tonsillectomy. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/22 "2013-05-09T19:42:48Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Tonight on Fox: XTreme Dentistry! FTR, my speargun never goes off in my wife’s mouth by accident. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/23 "2013-05-09T20:27:01Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > _“Hinn neenee neene neewhaa. Nuee leee meene neene na. Nuuumuuu wheee dee nuhh.”_ Sorry, I don’t speak speargun - try again. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/24 "2013-05-09T21:20:45Z")
Wasn’t this a plot on Gilligan’s Island? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/25 "2013-05-09T21:42:40Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Honestly, how can you not know your speargun is loaded? Yeah, he should have stuck with his first story about mistaking her for an orca. ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/26 "2013-05-09T22:24:16Z")
Being able to tell the difference between a whale and your wife is no fluke. Maybe she tried to krill him first. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/27 "2013-05-09T23:06:09Z")
My father-in-law once accidentally shot himself in the stomach with his spear gun, while cleaning it. It fired, ricocheted off a screen door, and came back at him point first. It was deflected by his NRA belt buckle, and only scratched the skin a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/28 "2013-05-09T23:21:21Z")
Of all the Bond movies to roll-play, why pick\* Thunderball\*? ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/29 "2013-05-09T23:32:26Z")
He thought he’d reel her in with that ‘roll’ play, **Battle Pope**. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/30 "2013-05-10T05:30:12Z")
I don’t get the _point of this thread. Allow me to blow a hole_ in this thread and \*spearhead \*the discussion that this isn’t really all that funny and we shouldn’t be making light of it. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/31 "2013-05-10T05:40:14Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Honestly, how can you not know your speargun is loaded? > > I think they should prosecute, on the eminently supportable grounds that he either intended to shoot her or is so mind-bogglingly stupid that it’s fair to prosecute him anyway. Eh? The article didn’t say anything about not knowing if it was loaded, just that it went off by accident. Still pretty dumb, but not mind-boggingly so. Anyways, “remember that one time you shot me in the mouth with a spear-gun” will probably be the end of every marital argument in that household for decades to come. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/32 "2013-05-10T05:44:57Z")
I don’t get the _point of this thread. Allow me to blow a hole_ in this thread and \*spearhead \*the discussion that this isn’t really all that funny and we shouldn’t be making light of it. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/33 "2013-05-10T06:13:29Z")
> [@simster](#): > > Sorry, I don’t speak speargun - try again. I thought the PD were questioning her in humpback whale ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/34 "2013-05-10T12:22:30Z")
If she’d humped back I doubt he would have shot her. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/35 "2013-05-10T12:33:54Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > So. . .is the guy an idiot or a bad shot? Yes ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/36 "2013-05-10T17:45:36Z")
Back in the day I remember some spearguns having some pretty scary hair triggers. Maybe moderns ones are a lot more failsafe but it wouldn’t surprise me if he had a crappy hair trigger model. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/37 "2013-05-10T17:53:08Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Back in the day I remember some spearguns having some pretty scary hair triggers. > > Maybe moderns ones are a lot more failsafe but it wouldn’t surprise me if he had a crappy hair trigger model. The thing is, and maybe there’s some kind of speargun I don’t know about, but how could it possibly be loaded and the guy not notice? Wouldn’t the barbed pointy thing coming out of the end be a dead giveaway? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/38 "2013-05-10T17:53:59Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Anyways, “remember that one time you shot me in the mouth with a spear-gun” will probably be the end of every marital argument in that household for decades to come. Especially the ones about her leaving ambergris lying around the house. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/39 "2013-05-10T18:04:59Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > The thing is, and maybe there’s some kind of speargun I don’t know about, but how could it possibly be loaded and the guy not notice? Wouldn’t the barbed pointy thing coming out of the end be a dead giveaway? I wasn’t saying he didn’t know it was loaded (which means he was being stupid). I am saying given my experience with them back in the day it wouldn’t surprise me that it actually DID go of accidentally and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not likely, but not lotto level improbable either IME. She may have been a victim of this quirk of human behavior. People (or at least some) tend to point at the thing thats just got their attention. And the whole point of a speargun is to point and that may have been an ingrained response on his part. I believe years ago there was a Olympic gold discus thrower. He was practicing and his girlfriend/wife? was talking to him and he threw it right into her face. And think every maritial arguement is going to end with “Now honey, remember when **I** shot **you** in the mouth. Just sayin” ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895/40 "2013-05-10T18:06:40Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Eh? The article didn’t say anything about not knowing if it was loaded, just that it went off by accident. Still pretty dumb, but not mind-boggingly so. OK, I’ll type this slowly. YOU ARE NOT TO CLEAN A LOADED WEAPON – EVER – ANY KIND OF WEAPON. Anyone who does so is a grade-A moron, upgraded to grade A+ when it goes off. This is something we learned, as a race, back at least as far as the introduction of the crossbow, and have had reinforced constantly ever since. I don’t know why he couldn’t tell, or didn’t care, if it was loaded or not, but he’s required by fundamental principle to check that before cleaning it. Saying otherwise is like being surprised something fell down instead of up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-speargun-accidentally-went-off/657895.md?page=3)