One dead after gun range shooting at ASC in Houston

[Lucky45]

11:07 PM CST on Wednesday, December 19, 2007
KHOU.com staff report

The shooting happened at a gun range located within George Bush Park. A man is dead after a shooting at a gun range in a county park. Constable deputies on scene said the shooting appears to be accidental.
A Pct. 5 Constable spokesman said an unidentified man was shot once in the chest as he was either loading or unloading a rifle from his car.
The shooting happened about 6:40 p.m. at the American Shooting Centers range located within George Bush Park in the 16500 block of Westheimer Parkway in west Houston.

This is the second shooting this week at a gun range, so you need to watch your six at these ranges. Safety is number 1.

[TX Rancher]

I may be reading the report wrong, but it sounds to me like the guy shot himself while either putting his rifle in the vehicle, or taking it out.

If so, then watching his six wouldn’t have mattered…

But your point on watching out while at the range is a good one.

[longtooth]

It is that I must watch "MY 6" because someone might be shooting themselves in the chest w/a rifle that is going to exit & go somewhere else or miss themselves & go where it may.

[M9FAN]

Sad. Especially at this time of year...

[HighVelocity]

When I worked at Southwest Rifle Range in Sugar Land back in the 80's, the exact same thing happened to a man while puting a rifle into the truck of his car. A few people thought it was a well planned suicide but iirc it was ruled accidental.

[propellerhead]

Snagging the trigger while placing or removing a rifle out of a car is unlikely. But why would you point the muzzle at your chest? Why would you have it loaded? Do people get overconfident in their gun handling?

[jbirds1210]

That is very sad. I realize that we are unable to control what people do in the parking lot, but ASC has always struck me as a pretty safe place to shoot. This is horrible for the family of this person and the range staff.

Jason

[htxred]

That is very sad. I realize that we are unable to control what people do in the parking lot, but ASC has always struck me as a pretty safe place to shoot. This is horrible for the family of this person and the range staff.

Jason

yea, but there were a few times where people at ASC scared me so i try to stick to Marksman in south houston, its usually regulars that go there, i always seem to go when the older crowd is there so i feel pretty safe. not to mention the people there are awesome.

i've been tryign to make shiloh a regular for me but its a bit out of the way.

i think its a good idea to constantly remind everyone the basic rules of gun safety, so stuff like this doesnt happen.

[lawrnk]

Another reason why I stopped going to public ranges.

[Lucky45]

Snagging the trigger while placing or removing a rifle out of a car is unlikely. But why would you point the muzzle at your chest? Why would you have it loaded? Do people get overconfident in their gun handling?

I don't think it is unlikely. I have seen and could believe that he was pulling his rifle out of the trunk or a rifle case by the muzzle the gun. Then when dragging it towards himself, the rifle is pointing at his torso and the something gets hooked on the trigger. It would go bang and he would take a bullet to the chest. I think this accident was due to poor gun handling and travelling with the safety off. You need to hold a gun by the handle, PERIOD. I had someone get mad with me recently because I chastized them about picking up a semi-auto pistol by other means than the handle. It will go off if you inadvertently touch the trigger.
PS. This brings up a question for me. Should a firearm be with the safety OFF, if it is not on your person????

[htxred]

sometimes i dont understand why anyone would load a round in the chamber and not have the safety on. its beyond me. its not like you can forget, the safety is right there infront of your eyes, accessible by thumb. hell, i dont even load a round in the chamber in ANYTHING other then my CCW.

[G.C.Montgomery]

...Do people get overconfident in their gun handling?

In a word, "Yes." It's more than just over confidence...It's becoming so complacent that you don't keep your mind involved in what you are doing. When it comes to firearms, the big issue is people convince themselves that "it isn't loaded" and shortly thereafter they do something stupid. I had a friend ask to examine one of my pistols once and within seconds, he had a negligent discharge that poked a whole in a cabinet and pretty much cleared the bladders of everyone in the show room of a large firearms retail establishment.

There are a number of things that went wrong to cause it but it boils down to neither of us were paying attention to what we were doing. I was receiving weapons and placing them in transport mode (charged magazine, empty chamber) for the trip home and at the same time, I had three different people attempting to have a conversation with me. I'd had the presence of mind to have those folks hold their questions until I was done handling the weapons and had them stowed for transport in my bag. Once I was done with that. I resumed a conversation with a friend and fellow student. At the same time, another friend (a competent shooter by any measure) asked about one of the pistols I'd just placed in my bag. I gave him permission to examine it and this is where it went downhill, quickly.

I made the assumption that he would, as he should, assume all firearms are loaded and being a competent shooter, he didn't need to be told how to handle the firearms. He assumed, having seen me condition check the three firearms in that bag several minutes earlier, that all the guns were unloaded. As I continued my conversation, I thought I could hear my friend going through the "normal" condition checks. I made yet another assumption that he got the process right. He made the assumption, having seen me verify that the weapon was unloaded at some earlier point, that pistol was in storage mode (empty magazine well, empty chamber). So when he condition checked this pistol, he skipped a painfully important step. The same step we've all seen go wrong in the video of the DEA agent in Florida who was the only one in the room professional enough to hand a Glock 40. And the result was similar. I'd concluded my conversation with the third individual and turned to my friend just in time to hear a round skip out of the magazine and into the chamber. I didn't have time to raise a protest before he'd mindlessly pressed the bang switch and the pistol worked as designed. A very large, 45 caliber bullet weighing 230grains, travelled at 850fps through the air and into the exterior door of a cabinet just six feet away. The bullet traversed the empty space in the cabinet, exited the back of the cabinet and embedded itself in a cinderblock wall behind that cabinet. Because he'd maintained the rule of keeping the firearm pointed in a safe direction, all the other screw ups added up to minor property damage. It could have ended much differently.

We were stupid and over confident. I was stupid and over confident. I am human and I will make errors...Knowing this, I can never assume I know everything.

[Photoman]

Do people get overconfident in their gun handling?

Just sloppy and/or ignorant. The public ranges are overrun by people that don't know squat about safe gunhandling. At least that's what I see every time I go to a public range.

[Dan20703]

Another reason why I stopped going to public ranges.

AMEN!!

[Stupid]

You obviously have not carried a Glock or a Sig or a XD, or some of the HKs - BTW, that's why I don't carry any of them.

What i don't get is why someone feels the need to have a LOADED rifle.

sometimes i dont understand why anyone would load a round in the chamber and not have the safety on. its beyond me. its not like you can forget, the safety is right there infront of your eyes, accessible by thumb. heck, i dont even load a round in the chamber in ANYTHING other then my CCW.