Things don’t go better with a gun: Random look at recent stories linked to use of firearms all seem to end bad and worse

You don’t have to read far to realize the notoriety of firearms is on target.
No, it doesn’t take a mass shooting for guns to make headlines.
Randomly, we looked at two recent days of news stories about firearms in West Virginia.
What we found did nothing to temper the reputation of guns or enhance the character of the people linked to these incidents.
You can make the case these stories range from bad to worse, but none of them end well, including:
A mother suing the State Police in the shooting  death of her mentally ill son in a Princeton parking lot. The man was holding a knife.
A Mercer County teenager who shot a dog in December and posted a picture of the dead dog  on Facebook along with a photo of it in a kennel.
A Wayne County resident who was caught with a loaded handgun in a carry-on bag at a Huntington Tri-State Airport checkpoint.
A man charged with threatening to harm a pastor and a church congregation while disrupting a service in Raleigh County. Five loaded firearms were found in his vehicle and others at his home.
A man and a woman fatally shot to death at a Taylor County residence.
No, we are not playing judge and jury in the lawsuit against the troopers who claim the man made “threatening and aggressive gestures.”
And the man who shot the dog he  took in,   pleaded guilty to cruelty to animals, though he claims the dog bit him and his sister.
As for the other cases, you don’t forget a handgun in your carry-on bag.
The man who pushed over the pulpit and menaced the congregation said several times while being processed he would return and finish the job once he got out of jail.
As for that possible murder-suicide, that’s probably the most common capital crime in the state.
While the guns did not commit these acts, the outcomes in each of these instances would be far different without them. Yes, law enforcement officers should be armed, but further training on how to handle mental health episodes is just as essential.
We did look for cases of firearms being brandished in defense of one’s life in West Virginia, too.
The nearest thing to that was a woman who claimed she pulled a gun on a foreign visitor who was attempting to abduct her daughter at a Huntington mall.
The man was later arrested at a food court but released after video  supported none of the woman’s claims.
Our point is guns are dangerous and better known for some bad quality or deed than anything else.