You may think its unloaded, but thinking does not make it reality. Then going on and pointing said "unloaded" gun at another person and pulling the trigger leads to tragedy.
The Detroit Free Press: Deputies: Off-duty Detroit police officer shoots girlfriend in Lyon Township
Basically the officer, while demonstrating firearm safety and how to safely handle a firearm to his girlfriend managed to shoot her with an "unloaded" gun. The girlfriend does verify his story and also believed it was unloaded.
This safety demo ended with her taking a thankfully survivable round to the chest.
From the article, it sounds like either he forgot the one up the pipe or racked to clear it with the magazine still inserted and then dropped the magazine, inadvertently loading it before carrying on with his demonstration.
Again, making sure a firearm is unloaded before demonstrating with it is vital.
Since people clearly are fallible when it comes to making sure the firearm is unloaded, it is even better use a blue or SIRT gun in demonstrations or at least to insert a trainer or training barrel into the gun if you have to show how to manipulate it and prevent it from being shot.
In short there's a whole lot of inexpensive, and useful tools out there to completely avoid these kinds of negligent accidents.
5 comments:
I am the only person with access to my firearms. None of them are stored loaded, the only exception would be the nightstand gun. While not actually stored, it is not on my person either. It is loaded every night, and then unloaded and secured every morning. When I pull one out of the safe, the finger is off the trigger, the muzzle is in a safe direction, the action is cycled and left open, and the chamber is visually verified to be empty. If I am handing the firearm to another person, the procedures are the same with the added action is already open and I require them to eyeball the chamber for themselves. No magazines or ammo are present unless I am loading for carry or bed, or at the range. The only firearm I need to demonstrate loading and unloading to most people is my M1Garand. For that, I have a full clip of M40 dummy rounds specifically made for training I got from my Dad from his Navy days.
About 35 years ago, I had a negligent discharge. Totally my fault in a moment of careless complacency where I did a couple things wrong that caused it. Luckily, no one was hurt and nothing was damaged. I call that "my one," as in everyone gets "one." I strive to never have another.
Everyone gets issued the perfect safety tool - it's between their ears.
It's not hard - you just have to follow four rules, but you have to do it ALL of the time.
No free pass for pointing an "unloaded" gun at his girlfriend AND pulling the trigger. Rules 1, 2 and 3 violated.
As a PSA, once again:
The Four Rules
1. ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED
2. NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT PREPARED TO DESTROY
3. KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET
4. BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET
Courtesy of Jeff Cooper
Not surprised.
Many years ago I watched a pair of LEO coworkers struggling to get a pistol from a new type of retention holster.
I asked if the pistol was unloaded, and one answered, "I pulled the magazine out, and it won't fire because of the magazine disconnector."
The only problem was that our service pistol doesn't have a magazine disconnector.
I ejected the live round and left them to struggle.
Sadly, cops are worse than untrained people.
Familiarity breeds contempt and all that.
Wiltold Pilecki: Yep, developing good safety habits work. taht way when the inevitable negligent discharge occurs, you hopefully have it pointed in a safe direction.
DaveS: True, and the 4 rules need to be followed, but far too many people don't utilize the safety that's in between their ears, so additional training aids are needed to reduce the likelihood of a negligent discharge.
John in Philly: Ouch, that could have gotten exciting. Good job getting the round out of the picture.
B: Yep many are unfortunately minimally trained and as you say, familiarity breeds contempt. Combine that with insufficient ongoing training, and you get negligence like this episode.
Post a Comment