Originally published at: Florida man shoots landscaper blowing leaves - Boing Boing
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Let me guess, “stand your ground” applies?
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No, this was (sadly) just plain asshole behavior.
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We all know the applicability is based on the melanin content of the landscaper.
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A more reasonable man would have shot the actual machine, putting it out of everyones misery. That could at least be defended as a public service.
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A little like shooting or punching a computer monitor because you don’t like the data it shows… But what’s sad is that a worker doing an annoying job is injured and nobody will talk about just banning leaf blowers. They are horrible, they do mostly bad things for very little useful gain, and there are alternatives. I would like them banned, but you don’t shoot the proverbial messenger.
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I can think of one handheld device that is even noisier than a leaf blower and should be far more strictly regulated in the name of public good.
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most of the leaf blowers I see being used are being used to blow leaves inot the street - not into nice piles on the gutter to be picked up and removed, but just wantonly into the street to be ‘someone else’s problem.’
Leaf blowers are a great metaphor for some of America’s cultural problems, and a shooting over the use of one is really Pure America.
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The only thing stopping a bad guy with a leaf blower is a good guy with a leaf blower.
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A guy got shot for being, at best, mildly irritating whilst doing his job, and you’re talking about banning leafblowers, not guns? Are you missing the /s tag?
(Tho I suppose there’s likely more chance of banning leafblowers than guns)
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It entitles you to shoot the offending leaves.
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I use an electric leafblower because of a shoulder injury that causes raking to be too painful. I don’t blow leaves into the street though. I use it in vacuum mode to make fine mulch for the garden.
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What’s the brand and model you use? This sounds great. We use ours to pile them up for bagging. But I would like to avoid that.
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The strap that comes with it is a bit awkward but the missus modified it for me.
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We have a 60 year old Silver Maple on a very small lot, it’s a monster.
I have a Kobalt (Lowes brand) 40 volt blower, it doesn’t vacuum but for weekly lawn cutting cleanup or after a storm it works great.
But come fall I have a jet powered gas blower to blow all the leaves out from the nooks and crannies onto the open lawn where I mulch them with my Toro Super Recycler.
I also blow all of my leaves back onto my lawn from the vacant lots and my neighbor’s lawn so I can mulch them.
There really aren’t any other options because I ain’t cutting down the tree my great aunt planted from a sapling off my neighbor’s tree 60 years ago. That’s a crap ton of leaves to let naturally decompose.
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just remember is not the leaf blower that blows leaves, but the person who uses it irresponsibly! Think of the lives that a leaf blower has saved! The millions of jobs lost if leaf blowers are banned! It would be an inconstitutional ban!
Also, surprised no one said anything along the lines that this was a blown out of proportion response.
… I’ll show myself the door
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It HAS to have happened before, now that I think about it much. Or, a miracle. It’s just not credible that it hasn’t.
I don’t understand leaf blowers. 20 years ago I moved into a home with a large garden and several trees so I bought a “leaf sucker”, a kind of electric powered vacuum which shredded leaves as it ingested them. They made great compost.
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Vacuuming leaves is definitely preferable to blowing them from one property to the next. Well done! 
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Gee, it’s almost as though if humans are given the option of using guns to settle absolutely any issue, that’s exactly what they’ll do. When it comes down to it, humanity as a species just isn’t better than that. We’re collectively too stupid and impulsive to handle the power of murdering with the click of a trigger. Lots of us, maybe even the majority of us, ARE better than that, but as long as guns are freely available there are going to be morons using their bangsticks when someone blows leaves their way or gets their fast food order wrong, to say nothing of mass shooters. If self-driving cars ever become safe, affordable and reliable, I’ll say the same thing about automobiles- sure, most of us can responsibly handle one, but there will ALWAYS be a few assholes who’ll drive drunk and kill someone as long as the option is there. So as soon as the option becomes unnecessary, take it away. And guns have been unnecessary for a long, LONG time.
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