Don’t let the heartbreak of a public failure to fire happen to you. We’ve all experienced the embarrassment of hearing that impotent ‘click’ at the range. The inability to perform on command can be horribly humiliating, especially when your friends are there to memorialize the event and potentially post it for all the world to see. It happened to Andrew Joseph “Punchy” Lobban of Ocala, Florida last week and his friends reportedly “punked” him over the FTF they captured on video. So he did what pretty much anyone would do in that situation…he killed them all. “Lobban had gone to a local shooting range with one of the victims, likely (Josue) Santiago, said (OPD spokeswoman Sgt. Angy) Scroble. At some point during that visit Lobban tried to fire a gun and it misfired…” . . .
The incident was taped, and the video was shared among all of the victims, all of whom worked with Lobban as bouncers at the Ocala Entertainment Complex.
Obviously Lobban learned his lesson and took some time after the embarrassing range mishap to clean his heater. It sure seems to have worked when he met up with his friends again.
And while three of his acquaintances are now dead, it isn’t as bad as it looks. Really. Punchy only meant to kill one of his victims.
Lobban told investigators that he only intended to shoot Josue “Sway” Santiago, 25, of Ocala, the report said. The other victims — Benjamin Larz Howard, 23, of Belleview, and Jerry Lamar Bynes Jr., 20, of Ocala — he shot by accident, Lobban reportedly told police.
. . .
Each victim was shot once in the head, with Santiago and Bynes, whose nickname was Junior, sustaining fatal wounds to the back of the skull, the affidavit states.
Accident? Hmm. Sounds to us like he hit exactly what he was aiming at. But maybe, in addition to learning to keep his gun in better working order, Lobban could use some more range time to work on his accuracy. Not that he’s likely to get much of that where he’s headed.
So remember to keep your firearm nice and squeaky clean. Make sure that when it comes time to pull the trigger, it goes bang — every time. Especially when your friends are with you at the range. No one needs that kind of humiliation in their life. And to think it all could have been avoided with some Hoppe’s No. 9 and a little Rem Oil.
