No, Don't Do That

Stupid decisions by stupid people often lead to completely avoidable tragedies.

WXYZ Detroit: Detroit mother charged for unsafe storage of weapon after six-year-old killed in accidental shooting

Detroit mom decided to go to a restaurant and left her five, yes five, children ages 2 through 11 years old in her car, along with a firearm that was simply shoved under her seat and into the restaurant she went.

Left to themselves, the 11-year-old then retrieved the firearm and shot and killed the 6-year-old. 

Do not leave an unsecured firearm, shoved under the front seat, which is not a good idea even if alone, and especially not where kids can get it.

The mom should have had the firearm on her person, or at the very least taken all her kids into the restaurant with her and not left them alone in the vehicle.

But, she likely couldn't take the firearm in to the restaurant with her, as while the reporting is confused, it appears she was a felon in possession at the time, as she's been charged with 4 counts of felony firearm as in addition to the gun left in the car, other firearms were also found at her house. 

Tonya Charisse-Annie Johnson, 41, has been charged with:

• Firearms — Safe Storage Violations — Premises Under Individual's Control — Minor Present and Inflicted Death upon Self or Another
• Three counts of Second-Degree Child Abuse
• Four counts of Felony Firearm

In short, be responsible and do not leave your firearms where they are readily accessible to unsupervised children.

SIGnificant News

You've likely heard of the news story of the Air Force airman who, as it was originally related, was shot by his Sig M18 while it was in the holster untouched?

Apparently that's not quite what actually happened: 

Air Force Times: Air Force makes arrest in airman’s shooting death involving M18 pistol 

The Air Force has arrested an airman in connection with the July 20 death of another airman, which involved a Sig Sauer M18 and led the service to suspend the use of the pistol following the incident.In a Friday statement, a Department of the Air Force spokesperson said that the unidentified arrested person is accused of making a false official statement, obstruction of justice and involuntary manslaughter.

That story was the last straw that made the SIG P320 pistol non grata at ranges, competitions,  instructional firearms classes, and many law enforcement departments nationwide.  

As someone else noted on the internet:

The say 15 reported documented cases of UDs vs 4 million P320s in circulation. That’s a ratio of around 266,667:1; hardly a number suggesting a systemic design flaw. Let’s even be generous and say the number is closer to 100 incidents. That still only yields a 1 in 40,000 occurrence. To put that into perspective, the odds of being struck by lightning are around 1 in 15,000. 

Certainly puts some perspective on the problem.

Now, the SIG trigger when pulled makes the firearm go off, and the trigger doesn't much care what pulls it, be it an ill-fitting holster, a key (which is potentially what caused the Michigan State Police discharge in the FBI report), or your finger. If the trigger gets pulled past the point of no return and off it goes. I'd also say it's a tad lighter than the typical Glock trigger with less resistance to such a movement rearward into the firing position.

So far, there's been no real explanation for the undocumented discharges, nor repeatability of the problem, and Bruce Gray, who likely knows more about the SIG P320 than just about anyone alive is about to release a series of videos he has done extensively testing the pistol.  So far, he's only found one way to make it have an uncommanded discharge, and it requires placing a 45/10mm take-down lever in a 9mm SIG and a few other unlikely modifications in order for it to happen. 

So are SIG P320s unsafe or are we getting a lot of social media panic over it?  I simply do not know the answer to that at this time.

In terms of anecdote and not data, I've run thousands of rounds through my SIG P320s in competition and in casual/practice shooting at the range, drawing and holstering and carrying them live with zero issues.  Again, anecdote and not data, and certainly not definitive, nor proof of anything.

Remember when Glocks first came out and reports of negligent discharges from police officers and others unfamiliar with using the striker-fired action were unfortunately shooting themselves?  Remember all the claims that the Glock was dangerous, defective, and unsafe as a result? Is the issues with the SIG P320s the same sort of reaction, now heightened by social media,  or is there a manufacturing or design defect affecting a small number of the pistols?  We will still have to see.

SIG's public relations and handling of the issue certainly hasn't been the best.  

I do hope that Bruce Gray's analysis gets released soon and does lead to a definitive answer to the situation. For now, I don't have an answer to the question as to whether there is a real design/manufacturing problem affecting the SIG P3230 or if this is a real user-induced problem.

Your Cupholder Is NOT A Holster

Do not leave your firearm sitting in the cupholder of your car in plain sight and then compound the problem by negligently messing with it.  Bad things happen as a result:

The Detroit News:  Man charged after co-worker's accidental shooting in Auburn Hills

As the victim entered the car, Wright, who has a concealed pistol license, tried to take his handgun from the cupholder and place it in the backseat, according to the prosecutor's office. As he did, the gun was discharged, and the bullet struck the victim’s hip. 

Really, don't do that.   Have the firearm properly secured in a holster or at the very least in a secure and safe location in the car where you don't have to move it when you have a passenger accompany you in the vehicle.

The victim was injured, which is bad enough, but thankfully not killed by this stupidity.   

You cannot afford to become complacent with handling your firearm, nor its proper storage.

"Stop! Don't Touch!" Is Good Advice For Children - And Some Adults Too

You can't make this kind of stupidity up.

So, a fellow with apparently no safe experience handling firearms picked one up that he found, then almost undoubtedly pulled the trigger, all while pointing it in an unsafe direction.

What could possibly go wrong?  Oh, yeah, that:

The Detroit News: Employee accidentally shoots self, two customers at Eastern Market: Police

An employee at a restaurant in the Eastern Market area mishandled a firearm Wednesday afternoon, injuring himself and two customers with a single shot, Detroit police said.

Speaking to reporters at the scene, Detroit Police Assistant Chief Charles Fitzgerald called the incident one of the "craziest, silliest things I've seen in quite some time" and added that the employee had "absolutely no business handling a gun."

Just before 1 p.m. a 52-year-old employee inside a restaurant in the 2900 block of Russell was handling a gun which, he told police, he had found in an upstairs area at the business.

He managed to shoot himself in the hand, and  managed to hit two customers, one in the forearm, and one in the wrist with the same shot. The idiot has a better hit percentage than the NYPD.  

The Eddie Eagle Program would have been a good start for this fellow. Then again any adult should have had the basic sense to not even mess around with something he had no idea how to handle.  

No, Don't Do That

A completely avoidable death from lousy gun-handling:

The Detroit Free Press: Man kills himself in Hamtramck parking lot, police say it was an accident

As the news notes, a man sitting in his car prior to heading into a marijuana store managed to shoot himself in the leg while removing his handgun from his holster. While he missed the draw, he likely successfully hit the femoral artery and he subsequently bled out.

We will leave for the moment that if he's using marijuana, he cannot under federal law posses a firearm, regardless of the fact that the electric lettuce is now legal in Michigan.  Federally that's still a no-no. We will also note that marijuana use tends to make you less than fully present at times.

My bet is the marijuana store had a no-firearms policy which is why he was trying to remove the firearm from his person.  I'd also bet he had on a flimsy nylon type holster and he managed to depress the trigger while trying to pull out his firearm while seated, with tragic results.

Quick Tip:  Have your handgun in a good quality holster that covers the trigger.  Then, if you're removing your firearm in a car,  or anywhere else for that matter, remove it and the holster together.  

Don't take it out of the holster, keep it in the holster with the trigger covered in nice solid kydex (or high quality leather in good condition if that strikes your fancy). There is no need to remove the gun from the holster when you are out and about unless your life or someone else's life is in imminent danger.  

Keep the gun where it belongs - in the holster.  The life you save may be your own.

No, Really, Don't Do That With Your Pistol

Texting while driving is bad.  Shooting yourself while driving is even worse.

Fox 2: Man accidentally shoots self with unholstered pistol while driving on I-94

The fellow had a CPL, but apparently lacked the sense to carry in a holster. He apparently then "shifted" the firearm while driving and shot himself in the leg.

No information is provided as to what kind of pistol it was, but I'd suspect it was a striker-fired pistol of some sort, and with the trigger unprotected by a holster, he likely nudged the trigger enough while moving the firearm in his pants to cause it to fire.

Firearms and holsters are like peanut butter and jelly - a great combination and one is not great for carrying alone by itself without the other. 

Shoving a firearm down your pants without a holster to protect the trigger is highly sub-optimal.  

Then playing with it as it likely moved from where you shoved it as you don't have it in a holster makes it worse.  That messing about with it opens opportunities for you to discharge it in a manner you would not expect nor desire. In addition, not having it in a holster and having it move about as it may will cut down on your ability to effectively access it should you need it to protect your life - having to find it after it has fallen down your pants leg and potentially got stuck there probably doesn't give you quick access to it at your moment of need.

If you carry a gun, have a quality holster for it that not just protects the trigger but also protects you and keeps the gun where you placed it so it doesn't go flopping about just anywhere.  

If you can afford to carry a gun, you certainly should afford to carry it in a decent holster.  The leg (or other body parts) you save might be your own, or your passengers, or an innocent in another car.

Remember The Rule To Know Your Target And What Is Beyond?

There's a reason it is a rather important firearms safety rule.

In short, there's now at least one Detroit police officer (and I suspect many more)  that certainly needs some remedial firearms training and improved proficiency.

The Detroit News: Officer accidentally shot by partner aiming at dog, Detroit police said

Vicious dogs are an ever-present problem in Detroit.  From feral dogs to criminal's pit bulls and rotties to just plain negligent owners who don't properly train and control their dogs there's sadly a lot of bad and dangerous dogs out there. 

Bad dog related stuff, as a result, happens all the time, and police often do have to shoot dogs that are attacking them or others.

But, shooting your partner instead of the dog charging at the two of you is really not an ideal solution to an attacking dog problem.

Another Completely Avoidable Police Firearms Accident

Unfortunately, people who handle firearms everyday often become complacent when handling firearms. 

This can lead to really avoidable accidents - such as in this case someone who had the smart idea of bringing a fully functional firearm and live ammunition to a role play training exercise.

The Detroit Free Press: Civilian injured in shooting during Michigan police training exercise.

That a live firearm and live ammunition was present anywhere during a role playing exercise raises a whole lot of question as to safety and planning (or lack of same) that went into that exercise:

A person taking part in a police training program in Taylor suffered a gunshot wound and was hospitalized, Michigan State Police said.

The shooting happened Sunday afternoon during the exercise at a Taylor city park for the city's volunteer auxiliary police program.

The civilian was a "role player" in a training scenario when an auxiliary officer in the training fired a shot from his service revolver, hitting the person in the abdomen, state police said. The person was taken to a hospital in stable condition.

If you're role-playing a scenario with other persons, you should be using blue guns or simunitions (and all the safety gear that requires) for your role play, not live weapons.

The Rule of "Treat All Guns as Though They are Loaded" gets ignored and an awful lot of these totally avoidable incidents occur.

Hooray! The Gadget Is Back!

The Striker Control Device is now going to be manufactured and offered for sale by Langdon Tactical.

If you have a Glock, it offers a valuable additional level of safety when re-holstering your firearm, and especially so when carrying your Glock in an appendix holster.

If you carry a Glock, it's a highly recommended enhancement. 

It's great to know that Langdon Tactical, a highly reputable company, will be carrying the torch for Tau Development Group and keeping the SCD available for Glock users.

Yes, You Need A Light At Night Along With Your Defensive Firearm

Positive Identification of a potential threat at night is vital, and for that you need illumination.

Otherwise tragedies like this happen:

10WBNS: Sources: Man fatally shoots 16-year-old daughter after mistaking her for home intruder

Mistakes like this continue to happen and there's absolutely no reason for them to happen.

"Know your target and what is beyond" is not just a suggestion. 

And before you get all "Hurr Durr a light will give away my tactical position."  You're likely in your house at handgun range.  You're unlikely going to be  acting like a silent ninja at 3am when you hear breaking glass or your home alarm goes off, more likely you're going to be stumbling around grabbing your stuff,  and making some noise dialing 911.   Walking around through a pitch dark house when you think there's an intruder somewhere there is dumb. There's nothing tactical about it.  

Pointing a gun at and pulling the trigger on an unidentified shadow is a recipe for disaster.

A good light will let you most importantly accurately identify and hit your target -- if such target even needs to be hit to defend yourself. As a potential bonus, a good quality light may even temporarily blind or disorient your opponent as well.

Have a light so you don't have a completely avoidable  tragedy.

 Take a low light shooting course, it's rather illuminating as to why you need a light and what a light can do for you.

Update:  Eaton Rapids Joe also offers some cogent thoughts on the matter.

Deterring Dry-Fire Disasters

Had a call from a client this morning.

A good, solid, experienced shooter.  Lots of trigger time and dry-fire time.

He had been dry-firing at home in his basement and had put his pistol down on his table.

He picked up the pistol to shoot it again, aimed at his target, squeezed the trigger and .  .  .

                                     BANG!!!!!!

The incident was described to me as time standing still, he could hear the 'tink' of the brass that ejected hitting his table, he saw the dust fall from the ceiling and only then had a nice ringing in his ears.

His immediate reaction was WTF!?!?!

He had picked up his carry gun he had taken off and put on the table and which was identical to the gun he had been dry firing, rather than the gun he was dry-firing. 

Ooops.

Luckily, he still had the gun pointed in a safe direction at a wall when the shot went off.  It went through the drywall and then stuck behind it and did not exit anywhere.  Some ringing in the ears and that was the extent of the damage. Apparently no one outside the house heard the shot go off in his basement either.  No physical harm nor legal repercussions for the negligent discharge.

"That'll never happen to me",  you say.

Hopefully not, but you're human, and at some point in the future you are likely to make a mistake.  Whether through complacency, carelessness, or clumsiness, you may very well put a hole where it was neither intended nor desired.

The idea is to mitigate the damage from that future moment of negligence that may hopefully never take place but is just waiting for you to slip up and for the opportunity to happen.

When dry-firing, make sure there is no live ammunition in the room where you are practicing. Unload and clear the gun you are going to dry-fire in another room before you even go to the room you are dry firing in.

Make sure there are no live firearms or ammunition in the room you are dry firing in, as in none.

Before you begin to dry-fire, check again that the firearm is unloaded in chamber and magazine, really look, and check again, and then check one more time.  

Make sure any practice magazines for reloads are similarly completely empty of live rounds, which should all have been left behind in the other room, right?

Make sure when you dry-fire that you still do not point the firearm at anything you do not want to destroy, and you have a solid backstop at all times. This will save you from complete disaster when you've managed to still manage to get a round chambered even after you swore up and down that the gun and magazines were empty.  My client's incident is now having me rethink my habit of aiming toward the TV with targets arrayed in front of it while dry-firing.

If the gun leaves your immediate possession or you've put it down, and it is not in your hand or holster, stop and start your safety checks all over - check it again to make sure it is unloaded and you didn't just pick up its twin, or Murphy came by and did a swap of pistols  - or more likely you did it in a fit of absent-mindedness.

If you practice under the impression that you will have an incident someday and you need to do everything possible to prevent it from happening and causing irreparable damage, you'll be a lot safer than saying "That'll never happen to me."

Yet Again - Firearms Are Not Toys

With 7 million new gun owners just this year, and with lots of pre-exisitng owners already that may have a careless or ignorant attitude about firearms safety, or who learned everything they know about firearms from the movies or TV, it is sadly not unexpected that stupid events like this happen:

The Detroit News: Oakland County man accidentally fatally shoots himself

A 50-year-old man died when he accidentally shot himself in his head after a witness asked him to to "stop playing" with a gun last weekend in Pontiac, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office said.

Guns are not toys and you do not "play around" with them.

Since the Four Rules of firearms safety seem to be too much work for some people to learn, let's begin with two really basic and what should be obvious ones if you lack the time and attention span to learn 4:

First, Do not point a firearm at your head (or other part of your body) - Ever.  

Regardless of whether you think it may be loaded or not, Do Not Point A Gun At Your Head (or other part of your body) - Ever.

Second, Do not pull the trigger of a firearm pointed at your body - Ever. 

Regardless of whether you think it may be loaded or not, Do Not Pull The Trigger Of A Gun Pointed At Your Body - Ever.

These rules also apply to all other persons and objects who you do not intend to shoot or do not want to get shot as well. 

 Now that you've got that down, go forth and learn the 4 Firearms Safety Rules, please. They're really not hard to learn and follow and you can avoid these tragic accidents by learning and following them.

In short, this is a completely avoidable and incredibly stupid fatal accident.

Alternatively, this may very well have been a suicide given what we know about people's mental health in this age of Covid isolation. 

Explaining the event as the person dying by "accident" especially when an inanimate object can potentially share the blame, is often much more bearable for the survivors to take and comprehend rather than knowing the person deliberately took their own life.

Either way, it's still an absolute waste.

Treat All Firearms As If Loaded, Part The Umpteenth, Now With Lying To Your Prospective Attorney

Get a call from a prospective client, whop as it turns out is facing a Reckless, wanton use or negligent discharge of a firearm charge.

This is a misdemeanor and depending on what he did exactly is either up to 90 days or up to a year in jail and a decent fine of between $100-$500 attached.

His story starts with:

"My gun was defective, I dropped it and it went off in my garage."

He then went on to embellish it that he thought it was unloaded - yep yet again, thought being the operative word.

Then he went on to state the slide was stuck shut and he was going to take it to a gunsmith to work on it when he dropped it on the garage floor and it went off.

He then called the police on himself and then made a very full detailed statement to the police and then was charged. Apparently the round went through his garage and put a hole in his neighbor's garage so depending on the damage done the fine and potential jail time can differ.

Asking some questions about the event, he first can't remember even the model of the handgun in question, and he finally states it was a Ruger.

Anyone at this point want to guess where this is going?

Asking even more questions regarding the event and discussing the importance of accurate information in order to defend him from the charge, he starts hemming and hawing on the circumstances.

Then he finally states:

"Ok, it didn't actually fall and go off, I had pulled the trigger but I was sure it was empty and the slide was stuck so I couldn't check".

Yes, you may do a facepalm at this moment, I sure did on hearing it.

Look folks, lying to an attorney who will try to defend you from criminal charges is just not a good idea. It makes your defense that much harder and we're on your side. We'd rather have the truth and deal with it than try to defend you on a false premise you fed us that then blows up in your face in court.

Please do not lie to your attorney. The freedom you save may be your own.

After talking I explain what will likely happen process-wise and my need for a retainer (actually a ridiculously low one for this type of case but anyways), and he states he's going to try and handle it himself.

Good luck with that. I can guarantee the prosecutor will lose all sympathy with the guy once he starts lying, and if he rejects a deal and tries to defend himself in court the prosecutor will have him for lunch, and the jury will see right through it as he doesn't lie well, at all.

Once again, please don't lie to the attorney you want to retain to protect your rights. It doesn't help.

Treat All Firearms As If Loaded, Part The Umpteenth

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.

Stop Playing With It, Part The Umpteenth

The Detroit News: Police: Man finds gun, accidentally shoots self

Yes it's a tale of Detroit Dude, a close relative of Florida Man, but still:

A 20-year-old Detroit man is recovering after shooting himself with a gun he apparently found in a heat vent outdoors on the city's west side.

. . .

Witnesses told police that after finding a handgun in a heat vent in the area, the man was playing with the gun when it went off and shot him.

Yet another reason why basic firearms handling safety and the 4 rules should be taught in schools as part of health class.

Guns aren't for "playing with". Unfamiliar firearms you happen to find that were probably hidden in a heating vent are even less so.

The gun didn't "go off" - He was probably clowning around with his finger on the trigger or otherwise fiddling with it while pointing it at his bodily appendages, and he had a negligent discharge as a result.

Stop Touching It - Part The Umpteenth

I can't think of a single reason why this would have been a good idea, and considering the outcome, it certainly wasn't:

The Detroit News: Cops: Man shoots self, woman while unloading handgun

A man and a woman more than 30 years his junior are recovering after both were wounded when the man attempted to unload a handgun on Detroit's west side early Monday morning, police said

The shooting took place about 1:30 a.m. in the area of West McNichols and Telegraph, said Dontae Freeman, social media manager for the Detroit Police Department.

The man, 56, and the woman, 25, were sitting in a Chevy Malibu when the man attempted to unload the gun, Freeman said. In so doing, he shot himself in his left hand, and shot the woman in her right arm.

Who the heck at 1:30 am, while parked and seated in the confines of a vehicle thinks to themselves -
"Hey, this is a great time to handle and unload a firearm".

Apparently it's no longer nobody, ever, as this doofus apparently did so.

I suspect either alcohol or showing off how cool he was had something to do with it.

Seated in a car at oh-my-gosh-early in the morning is neither the time nor the place to be handling a firearm without a darn good reason.

I can't think of any valid reason to be fumbling around and trying to unload a firearm while inside the confines of a Chevy Malibu. It really doesn't lead to a good outcome, especially while ignoring basic safety rules such as "Never point a gun at something you're not willing to destroy" and or course the classic "Keep your darn finger off the trigger until ready to shoot, yes, that includes you sitting in the Chevy Malibu".

They really need to teach basic gun safety in schools, along with some common sense.

This Is Why The NRA Requires No Live Ammo In The Classroom

The Detroit News: Instructor accidentally shoots man in Livonia gun class

A Detroit-area firearms instructor has accidentally shot and wounded a man attending a gun training class.

. . .

the 44-year-old instructor was conducting a class for people seeking concealed pistol licenses when he “pulled his gun out of its holster, pointed it at the door separating the two classrooms and fired a round.”

A 39-year-old Detroit man in another classroom was struck in both legs.

Following the standard gun safety rules, this could and should have been avoided.

That instructor is likely in some trouble as a result from not following the rules.

If you're teaching a class and you're not on the range, use a bluegun or SIRT for shooting, stance, and drawing from a holster demonstrations in a classroom, not a live pistol. Pulling a live pistol off the range in a class is a definite no-no.

When you're on the range, know your backstop, keep the firearm in a safe direction always,keep your finger off the trigger, and don't put holes in things you don't intend to put holes into.

If you're in such a class when an instructor starts waving a live pistol around, politely asking for a refund and leaving is a good idea as well.