Ugh, more bad press "potato gun" kills 21 year old

[paaiyan]

Hey man, V was a good movie. But seriously, I don't go around yelling "Vive la Revolucion!" all the time. I don't expect any kind of apology or retraction from the news station, or anyone for that matter, and I doubt joanna expects it. The video would be just one more thing out there advocating safety when using spudguns. Getting it featured by youtube would ensure lots of views, therefore bringing it up more often in future searches. We aren't trying to "take over" youtube, just use it to our advantage.

Viva la Revolucion!

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

if the news realsises their mistake, they wont make it again.

No offence but in my mind that's a pretty naive point of view. In a media industry driven by ratings, reporting the truth or what's right usually takes a back seat to reporting something which will sell. Idiots fragging themselves is big news. Diligent spudgunners having a good, safe time in their backyard isn't.

I say let sleeping dogs lie, the press has no shortage of idiots to pick on

[paaiyan]

if the news realsises their mistake, they wont make it again.

No offence but in my mind that's a pretty naive point of view. In a media industry driven by ratings, reporting the truth or what's right usually takes a back seat to reporting something which will sell. Idiots fragging themselves is big news. Diligent spudgunners having a good, safe time in their backyard isn't.

I say let sleeping dogs lie, the press has no shortage of idiots to pick on

Wow jack, left his name at the scene of the crime. Nice. Bit off-topic, did anyone hear about the "Canadian motorcade" that Chaser in Australia tried?

[joannaardway]

No, I am not expecting a retraction from the station. It would be nice, but the odds are very long.

But as spudguns have got some press, it would be wise to use the upped (if only temporary) awareness of them that will result to show they are not as black as the television paints them.
Ideally, we needed to respond within hours not days, but you live and learn.

Paaiyan's point is a good one. If we were to make the video safety orientated, rather than just a counter to Ryan Meerdink's accident, then next time something like this happens, if the video can get a fairly high standing, should the press do what it did this time (I'm sure you all spotted the Youtube search they did), then having a "Spudgun safety" video near the top would be an immense advantage to our cause.

In that case, we wouldn't be directly competing with the TV networks, but it would be a very good first line of defence, and if it was general enough, we could have a decent "statement" available to the public instantly.

Now, I doubt that any of you could argue that strongly against that course of action.

[paaiyan]

Yup, with that video out there, especially if it's hitting the tops of searches we can say, "Hey, I told you so." And that's always a good stance to fall back on.

[joannaardway]

The other advantage is that hopefully, there will be less accidents in the first place.

Less accidents, and a reasonable defence (well not perfect, but certainly better than anything else that currrently exists) to negative press. Sounds like a good move to me.

[paaiyan]

No, it wouldn't be a perfect defense, but it's better than the one we have now, which is next to nothing. I mean at the moment we can say hey, the information is here, and that's great. But if we put a video or two out there, we can say hey, we reached out and told them, here's how to be safe.

[joannaardway]

Well, at least then we have a couple of people who like the idea.

Anyone else's thoughts?

[thespeedycicada]

i like this idea and i have a youtube account that i never use so i could post it i really dont care if i get banned or some thing.So i say lets do it and telll the world that spud guns are not dangerous things that should not be banned! and i know that they arent banning them but there is a chance this vid will reduce the possibility of a banning.

[paaiyan]

I'm not so sure that the video would reduce the possibility of them banning spudguns if something were to happen, the idea is to try to reduce the liklihood of something happening.

[thespeedycicada]

Well i just thought that if less spud gun related injurys happen less chance of them getting banned.Lets say some kid named bob wanted to build a gun out of cell core and use welding gas as a fuel but he wants to know if someone on youtube did the same and poof the spudfiles vid pops up he watches it and realizes he could of killed himself and one less gets killed/injured and less people dead from spud guns than thats less bad press and less of a chance to get spud guns banned. but its just my theory.

[Redcoat]

Wow jack, left his name at the scene of the crime. Nice. Bit off-topic, did anyone hear about the "Canadian motorcade" that Chaser in Australia tried?

Yes, it was on the radio and everything, they're in gaol now.

What happened is Because APEC is in Sydney a Parody TV show decided to try and get through security by dressing themselves and some hire cars up to look like they were Canadian delegates to the APEC. They got arrested.
Waiting for the vid.

But, I still haven't got a reply yet from my email i sent about 4 days ago.
I think they just don't think i'm worth it.
.
I hope they get their cummupence.

[paaiyan]

I've seen raw video of the arrest, but not of them in action.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

I still think it's too much of a fuss.

More people are killed by bees every year than are killed in spudding accidents - do beekeepers go out of their way to point out that beekeeping can be safe if carried out responsibly?

[clide]

I kinda agree with jack, a very similar accident happened a few years ago and I haven't heard anything since. Only difference was that the guy was older and there wasn't an ignorant news station spewing misinformation.

Plus there are a ton of other cases like screwdriver boy and frog boy that were much stronger arguments against spudguns and still nothing was heard after the original story. Frog boy was even on a national TV show.

Besides, there is no way a video about spudding safety would be very popular on YouTube. Most of those people want to see guys shooting their buddy in the nuts with them, not hear a lecture about how safe they can be.