The rules of shotgunning the passenger seat in a car.

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Shotgunning is the practice of orally staking a claim on something. In this case the passenger seat in a car. Unfortunately over the years this practice has been abused and significantly devalued. If the abuse continues at this rate soon it will become a relic of a past society. To stem the tide of abuse here, in full, are the complete rules of shotgunning the passenger seat in a car.

  1. Shotgun can only be called if the car is in view.
  2. The two minute rule applies, therefore if the seat is not taken up inside of two minutes of the call the seat is then considered free.
  3. Shotgunning can be done on any seat, even if it is taken. However if the seat is taken the person seated still has rights on the seat. In this case shotgunning only gives the shotgunner first rights on the seat after the person leaves. In this case the shotgun call only lasts for 15 minutes or 2 minutes after the person seated leaves their seat, whichever is shortest.
  4. The following people can overide shotgun: Pregnant women, the disabled, the severly ill and the elderly; no special reason is needed for these people to overide the rules.
  5. The driver can over-ride shotgun in the following circumstances:
    1. if the driver is severly ill.
    2. if the driver needs someone specific to map read or navigate.
    3. if the driver is driving for work or for a charity or voluntary organisation, where special laws and insurance regulations apply
  6. The driver can allow the following people to over-ride shotgun:
    1. Their partner
    2. Close relations
  7. The driver cannot for any reason allow any other people to over-ride shotgun. This includes people they fancy, people they promised could ride up front and people who they want to impress.
  8. The driver can disallow the following people's shotgun call:
    1. Those under the age of 16
    2. Those who are eating food or drinking 1
    3. Those who obviously fancy the driver but the driver has no interest in them
    4. Those who speak incessantly about their cats
  9. The driver cannot disallow people for any other reason. This includes people they hate, people that smell and people that talk continually about mundane things (excluding those who fall under rule 8.4)
  10. Car owners (when they are not the drivers) can over-ride shotgun if they want to ride up front (though this is considered to be incredibly poor etiquette. They can also over-ride shotgun in any situation where they feel the car may come into some damage because of the shotgunner. 2
  11. The winner of a simultaneous call of shotgun is the person who is closer to the car. If the distances from the car are too similar to call, then the winner shall be decided by best of three scissor-paper-stone.3

These are currently the authorative rules of shotgunning. They are not open to discussion, although amendmants will be made if clarification is needed.

Amendments

Amendment 1: Clarification, suggested by Ben
Amendment 2: Addition to cover owners of cars, suggested by Seb
Amendment 3: Addition suggested to cover simultaneous shotgunning cases, suggested by Ben

Right Now

(8) AYWKUBTTOD - Another Morning Stoner

There are 11 expressions of opinion about what was written.
Mark wrote this at 10:39, Mon, 02/02/04, Link
Filed in Shotgun

Your Comments

Mr.Moony

Im loving the new helpfull skin of this site. Tips on plumbing, scary movies and now shotgunning! I recommend one on the ultimate day trip

Written by Mr.Moony at 12:43, Mon, 02/02/04

Sparticus

Thank you. I think if you have an idea it's a lot easier to write to it. Plus it makes it easier when the redesign comeths...

Written by Sparticus at 13:14, Mon, 02/02/04

Benjamin

Glad you've clarified these rules. No more shall shotgun arguments be had! Although I am somewhat dubious about the rules regarding people who fancy others. Surely this is more important than getting a seat?

Written by Benjamin at 14:27, Mon, 02/02/04

Mr.Moony

It may also be worth mentioning the Car owner. Surely he could chose what ever seat the wanted or else the shotgunner wouldnt be allowed in the car. Not all cases included the driver being the owner. (although most will)

Written by Mr.Moony at 15:25, Mon, 02/02/04

Sparticus

Good point seb, expect an amendment to follow soon.

Written by Sparticus at 18:14, Mon, 02/02/04

Benjamin

What if two people call shotgun at the same time? There needs to be some kind of arbiter in such situations, prehaps the oldest person present could be used.

Clause 6.1, what is the definition of "partner" ?? There's so many definitions of that nowerdays.

Clause 8.2 - should drinking be included here?

Clause 8.3 - could be abused by drivers who don't want someone to sit next to them and so claim that that person fancies them.

Written by Benjamin at 22:46, Mon, 02/02/04

Sparticus

Partner is deliberately ambigious I feel, this is to cover all eventualities. I think that if the driver is willing to say outload that the person is their partner, then that is good enough. Drinking perhaps should be added to 8.2 . Rule 8.3 is beyond abuse though, because the driver would have to declare that they felt that the person calling shotgun fancied them. This situation is so unlikely (unless it is incredibly obvious that the shotgunner fancies the driver) that this ruling will almost never be called.

Written by Sparticus at 09:32, Tue, 03/02/04

Benjamin

You missed a ")" in point 10.... that's pretty poor for a web programmer like you!

Written by Benjamin at 17:11, Wed, 04/02/04

Sparticus

It's the lack of "Fatal Error on Line 143" that gets me every time.

Written by Sparticus at 17:46, Wed, 04/02/04

zoe

Assuming shotgunning isn't just a different word for bagsing (though the difference between the 2 seems subtle at best)...

2 points:
*clause 1 is ambiguous: how does one "call shotgun"? Is it essentially the same as bagsing, except one says "I shotgun the passenger seat" (?!) rather than "bags front seat"?
*you include no mechanism for disputing a shotgun. Shouldn't there be an equivalent to "I bagsed it first!"
"did not!"
"yeah I did, you just didn't hear me"
Or do you consider disputing a shotgun abuse?

Written by zoe at 05:39, Sun, 15/02/04

Sparticus

Zoe makes an excellent point. I hereby state that "any shotgunning done out of hearing of any person shall not count".
And Shotgunning is pretty much the same as baggsying (sp?) however I appreciate the need for clarity. I shall update soon to reflect these amendments.

Written by Sparticus at 15:03, Mon, 16/02/04

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