Jeff at Alphecca has scooped me on a local story, or local enough -- seems the Connersville Police Chief was at his local gun store looking at nice, new Glock,* very much like the official one he carries every day, and somehow (ahem!), he managed to shoot himself in the leg with his own gun.
"Somehow." Well, NDs do happen, and he doesn't seem to have been badly injured; but there's a reason the "N" in Negligent Discharge stands for "negligent." As in "neglect;" as in, "they really are all loaded all the time."
One of the things that makes gun store employees cringe back from the counter and that prompts gun stores to post either "No Loaded Firearms" or "Holstered Guns Must Stay Holstered" is the "holster check:" J. Random Customer is looking at the latest-greatest, and wonders aloud if it'll "...fit the same holster as Ol' Betsy..." Next thing you know, he's hauled up his jacket and is unlimbering his sidearm in accordance with his usual habits, good, bad or indifferent as they may be. Sometimes this results in a "bang." Other times, it doesn't, or perhaps there's no loud noise and excitement until he re-holsters. Mostly it goes okay -- but betting on "mostly" is a game for suckers.
Even Police Chiefs can lose at it. I don't know if that's exactly what happened in Connersville but I wouldn't bet against it.
Carry it. Stop touching it. If you need to draw, draw; otherwise, hands off. Quoth Chief Councellor: “I need to pay more attention,” he said. “I know what the dangers are. It was pure carelessness on my part.”
Yep. Four Rules. --And a fifth bit of advice: stop touching it.
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* Now someone's going to say, "Well, Glock..." Except there's not really so much difference between a Glock trigger and a well-run DAO trigger, and no firearm is immune to careless handling. See what the Chief said? That. Take it to heart.
Update
1 week ago
14 comments:
Are there any statistics compiled as to gun type in these fondle and fetish accidents? If not, there *should* be.
It gets better. Read the source article: This is the second time he shot negligently shot himself.
Proposed Rule Zero: Read the four rules.
"Even Police Chiefs..."
Please see Tam's article here:
http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2014/01/quit-beating-on-nail-with-screwdriver.html
Anon: I knew what I was writing. Has my tendency towards sarcasm escaped you? Ain't no snowflakes special in my patch of the forty-acre woods.
Bear: Y'know, his subconscious may be tryin' to send him a message.
Oh. Sorry. It was not apparent in context that you were being ironic.
Hey, maybe Tam's news chirper was being sarcastic too?
We had two ND's on our store, both police offices. One ended up shooting the cash register and the other skipped around off the deck and into an employee's leg.
Case in Point, the second was a S&W auto loader. The Officer did the famed rack, dropped the mag and pulled the trigger to show it was clear.
Gerry
Racing stripe!
Bet you it was one of those jackets with the drawstrings on the side. The same type that cognoscenti know to cut the drawstrings off of before wearing with their gat.
My, even co-habs here at RC are touchy when out-snarked. Something in the water?
Well there's always the nuke.
We need to teach people that touching your gat in public is as socially unacceptable as touching your junk in public.
I don't want to visualize the posters though...
MY opinion: If you can't handle a gun; if you actually have to keep your hands off to avoid "accidents"; why have a gun in the first place? Obviously, such a person is not qualified to own or use one . . .
Anon 5:08: Ain't nobody immune. Seriously: when you are working and playing around your fellow chimps, hands off your gun unless you are intending to shoot. How darned hard is that? There are no special-safe snowflakes.
Hear, hear, Roberta.
The problem with cops (and I'm a cop) is that they're either armed cubicle workers whose firearms familiarity comes from quarterly qualifications or daily exposure to guns for years has dulled their sense of safety. In my agency (1000 sworn) it's surprising how few gun enthusiasts there are. What's not really surprising is how many bullet holes there are in garages, range rooms, legs, etc.
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