Pre-ONT Open Thread

Here's a story that you might want to talk about: The claim that in October 2016, Hannity pointed an (unloaded) gun on Juan Williams and even lit him up with the gun's laser-sight.

Last year, after ending one of his many spirited on-air arguments with liberal contributor Juan Williams, Hannity pulled out a gun and pointed it directly at Williams, according to three sources with knowledge of the incident. He even turned on the laser sight, causing a red dot to bob around on Williams' body. (Hannity was just showing off, the sources said, but the unforeseen off-camera antic clearly disturbed Williams and others on set.)

For the record: Hannity's colleagues brought the Williams incident to the attention of Fox News executives, though it's not clear whether anything came of it....

The Fox News spokesperson also provided the following statements from Hannity and Williams.

"While discussing the issue of firearms, I showed my good friend Juan Williams my unloaded firearm in a professional and safe manner for educational purposes only," Hannity's statement read. "Every precautionary procedure that I have been trained in since the age of 11 was followed. I've had a conceal carry permit in five states for all of my adult life. Any other interpretation of this is outright false reporting."

"This incident is being sensationalized -- everything was under total control throughout and I never felt like I was put in harm's way," Williams' statement read. "It was clear that Sean put my safety and security above all else and we continue to be great friends."

I'm sure that Hannity didn't put Williams' in danger, though I guess it is possible that Hannity handled it in a way that would alarm a gun-fearing liberal. (And the three people who talked to Byers may well be gun-fearing liberals themselves; most people that work at Fox are in fact liberals.)

This kind of sounds like bullshit to me, but what do I know. I can see a gun owner trying to explain to a gun-fearing liberal that "guns don't work the way you say" and trying to show them, and then the liberal going "OH MY GOD A GUN!!!"

But it is a weapon, and people don't like seeing weapons in the wrong context or handled sloppily. Go to any gun range and commit any Gun Fault and just wait for the shouts to come pouring in.

Yeah, I know, I was wrong, and yeah, they were right (I think I carried my gun not quite pointed directly at the ground when moving to another station), but man, did I get an earful.

Now I always carry the gun with the barrel pointed directly under my chin, Martin Riggs style, just to show everyone how cautious and cool-tempered I am.

posted by Ace at 08:05 PM

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