Eldrin Bell: Fail.

There’s a lesson here, and it isn’t pretty.

[Clayton County Commissioner Eldrin] Bell was one of 600-800 people attending strip club franchise owner Jack Galardi’s invitation-only, annual Fourth of July party in Butts County on Saturday. Galardi’s empire includes Pink Pony South, a recently opened strip club in Forest Park.

Bell said he took advantage of a firing range on Galardi’s 500-acre Flovilla ranch to try out a friend’s new “high caliber” handgun.

“Fire jumped out between the barrel and the cylinder [the cylinder gap] and really cauterized, burned my thumb,” Bell said Monday. “It looks ugly.”

–Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It’s probably not as bad as this [very graphic], but I can imagine it smarts.

Repeat after me:  never put any part of your hand near the breech when firing a gun.  That’s where the hot gases escape.  I figured this would be common knowledge, but Mr. Bell isn’t the first person to get bitten this way.

He goes on to explain:

“It was a huge gun, a caliber I’ve never witnessed before in my police career,” he said. “I’d never handled a handgun higher than a .38-caliber.”

That’s a bit strange, considering he was Chief of the Atlanta Police Department through the 1990’s.  Evidently, he didn’t bother to qualify with the Smith & Wesson automatics his officers were carrying at that time.

Still, anybody with any training knows that both hands should be on the grip.  With a revolver, the thumbs should cross each other and sit behind and beneath the cylinder latch.

And what was he doing at Jack Galardi’s place anyhow?  Galardi is currently suing Clayton County for $65 million, a lawsuit which stems from illegal roadblocks being placed outside one of his clubs there.

“To those critics who say what were you doing there you say what I say it was a public event, it was 600, 800 , maybe 1000 people, children, constituents from Clayton County, very public affair (…) This is the invitation. You know — great food, barbeque, moon walk for kids.”

…and Muffins the topless waitress!  Let’s all give her a big hand, folks!  She just turned 18, and she needs bus fare back to Peoria!

Apparently, Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill is investigating the matter.  While we’re at it, let’s all enjoy some left-wing hysteria about the .500 S&W Magnum:

“It is unfortunately only the latest example of dangerously reckless marketing by America’s virtually unregulated gun industry.”

Never mind that the ammunition is ~$3.00 per round, or the fact that the guns are far larger, heavier and more expensive than criminals would find practical.  In the eyes of the Soros crowd, if an object has the slightest potential for misuse, it must be banned based on what people might do with it.

And so far, people only seem interested in hunting and target shooting with it.  Go figure.  No human being has been injured by a .500 Magnum in the five years it’s been in existence.

Of course, I forget: only our duly appointed government officials really know how to use firearms safely.