"Worker shot in legs when gun fires in cubicle“ (The Denver Post, 01 Nov 07). This headline is not particularly jarring for a jaded 21st century newspaper reader. Gunfire in an office cubicle? Old stuff! Is this a by now overly-familiar scenario of a disgruntled co-worker or dumped lover seeking revenge? Hardly! The story announced by the headline is the humorous stuff of waking dreams.
"Fort Worth, TX: A 47-year-old insurance company worker accidentally fired his gun in his office cubicle, shooting himself in both legs, police said. The man, who wasn’t identified, had put his .45-caliber gun into his jacket pocket and then draped the jacket of the back of his chair Tuesday morning, said Brett McGuire, Lake Worth police chief. The gun discharged as the man settled into his chair. The bullet passed throught the man’s legs and a bookcase before lodging in the wall of a cubicle.“ Wow! Just by sitting down in his chair, this fellow managed to shoot himself, without even putting a finger on his revolver!
"He 'just felt the need to carry it,' McGuire said. 'He wasn’t having problems with his bosses or co-workers that we know of.‘ Police have no record of the man being licensed to carry a concealed weapon. He also appears to have violated his company’s policy against taking guns to work without company officials‘ permission. Detectives will wait until the man recovers from his apparently non-life-threatening injuries before deciding whether to pursue changes, McGuire said.“
If we look at this occurrence as if it were a dream, what might it be telling poor Mr. Cubicle? What might it be telling us, the readers of the news story? Perhaps something about guns and violence? Maybe something about unintended consequences, to remind us that we seldom can be sure of what any step that we take will finally result in? Or is it a contemporary spin on the famous Mae West line: "Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?“ In this case, would it be: "Am I just glad to see myself?"