Glen's story.... a cautionary tale for shooters

[joe817]

That is indeed a chilling tale Andy. Thanks for posting.

[marksiwel]

I think everyone who owns a gun needs to read that story

[A-R]

Wow. Thanks for posting that. I don't know if I'm more amazed that he is alive or that he instantly forgave his friend. We all hope we would respond similarly, but very few could do so when confronted with a real life situation such as this. And his wife ... I don't have the words. He is a very lucky man. Remarkable people to have made it through this with their humanity and compassion intact.

[Embalmo]

I hear these stories all the time, but I've never seen anyone point a gun at someone, or dry fire it at someone as a game or a joke. My brain simply cannot comprehend such foolishness.

[The Annoyed Man]

I hear these stories all the time, but I've never seen anyone point a gun at someone, or dry fire it at someone as a game or a joke. My brain simply cannot comprehend such foolishness.

When I worked in the ER, I saw a young guy brought in one night who was about 18-20, with a GSW right between the eyes with powder burns around the hole and gray matter leaking out of it. His father was an LAPD officer, and he and his cousin had found and were horsing around with his father's BUG, a .380 of some variety. The cousin, being ignorant, assumed that the gun was unloaded and "jokingly" pointed it point blank at the son's forehead and pulled the trigger. The outcome was utterly predictable.

You're right. It is difficult to comprehend such foolishness, but it does happen. It happens because people are willfully ignorant. They've been taught that, because guns are bad, there is therefore no point in learning gun safety. There is therefore no point in allowing Eddie the Eagle into public schools to teach gun safety.

They will give a 13 year old student a condom and teach him or her how to practice "safe sex" on the premise that you can't stop kids from having sex, but you can at least teach them how to do it safely ( ); but they won't teach a child how to practice gun safety in case they come across a gun because "guns are bad."

The pretzel logic required to pull of that kind of cognitive dissonance is rivaled only by the great lemming migrations.

[doc540]

I've only had one ND in my life, and it happened exactly like this one:

removed mag
cleared chamber
someone reinserted the mag
I cycled the slide, peered into an empty chamber
dropped the slide and reloaded the gun

STUPID
CARELESS
LUCKY no one got hurt

[A-R]

I hear these stories all the time, but I've never seen anyone point a gun at someone, or dry fire it at someone as a game or a joke. My brain simply cannot comprehend such foolishness.

When I worked in the ER, I saw a young guy brought in one night who was about 18-20, with a GSW right between the eyes with powder burns around the hole and gray matter leaking out of it. His father was an LAPD officer, and he and his cousin had found and were horsing around with his father's BUG, a .380 of some variety. The cousin, being ignorant, assumed that the gun was unloaded and "jokingly" pointed it point blank at the son's forehead and pulled the trigger. The outcome was utterly predictable.

You're right. It is difficult to comprehend such foolishness, but it does happen. It happens because people are willfully ignorant. They've been taught that, because guns are bad, there is therefore no point in learning gun safety. There is therefore no point in allowing Eddie the Eagle into public schools to teach gun safety.

They will give a 13 year old student a condom and teach him or her how to practice "safe sex" on the premise that you can't stop kids from having sex, but you can at least teach them how to do it safely ( ); but they won't teach a child how to practice gun safety in case they come across a gun because "guns are bad."

The pretzel logic required to pull of that kind of cognitive dissonance is rivaled only by the great lemming migrations.

TAM for Governor

TAM for President

Seriously, that was very well written, especially the comparison of "safe sex" to "gun safety" ... college-level thesis and political position papers could be based on that comparison.

[casingpoint]

Negligent and accidental gun discharge incidents always seem to involve semi automatic weapons. More so than revolvers, which give a better sight picture when unloaded. Could a ban on all semi automatics withstand a constitutional test by being narrowly focused on achieving the compelling governmental interest of protecting the public from what the government might construe as inherently unsafe weapons?

[dubya]

That is an amazing story of survival - that should never have happened.

On a regular basis I get swept with the barrel of "unloaded" firearms of "experienced" shooters. I don't know why some people are unable to consider all firearms loaded at all times. A few weeks ago an unamed person swept both my dog and I with a barrel and when I said something the holder responded "it's unloaded, what's the problem?" and got angry I questioned his safety. The barrel of that pistol that day swept the room like a searchlight.

Needless to say I don't plan on being around that person and firearms again with that attitude. To me all firearms are treated as loaded at all times. Thanks for posting that blog AndyC; I am enjoying a lot of good information on reloading there also.

JW

Edit: casingpoint; I don't like being swept with a revolver either. And, my story above was being swept with a S&W 642 revolver. Negligent/accidental shootings occur with all types of firearms.

[The Annoyed Man]

About 3 weeks ago, I posted about taking a co-worker of my son's and her husband for their first shooting experience, and how we started them both on .22s, and had them shooting my .44 magnum by the end of the day. They enjoyed themselves quite a bit, and the wife really liked shooting my wife's G19 and wants to get one of her own.

She was a model student, listened carefully to the safety rules and shooting tips, exercised them faithfully, and had herself a blast, no pun intended. But her husband was way too wrapped up in the macho of handling guns and just how "cool" it was to be shooting them, and he wasn't a good listener. In fact, he kept talking down to his wife. I think part of it was cultural. (They are both first generation immigrants (legally) from south of the border. She's from Mexico, and he's from the Dominican Republic.) But part of it was just testosterone speaking out of the mouth of a very young man.

Anyway, just a few minutes before packing up to go when the shooting was wrapping up, he swept me right across the midsection from about 7 or 8 feet away with a loaded and cocked .44 magnum revolver with about a 2.5 lb trigger pull weight. I had been having to remind him all afternoon about being muzzle aware. He would be OK about it for a while, and then I would have to remind him again. Anyway, I told him, "DUDE! Be careful with that. You just swept me with a loaded .44!" He said, "It's OK, I had my finger off the trigger," but there was no apology forthcoming.



I will gladly take the wife to a gun store and help her pick out her Glock, and I will gladly take her back to the range to familiarize herself with it. But I will not permit the husband to go along without first sitting down with him and having a serious conversation with him, in which I will suggest to him that he is perhaps not mature enough to handle the responsibility of ownership unless he takes personal responsibility for practicing the 4 rules. I may just start by requiring him to read this story, and then remind him about sweeping me with a loaded, cocked .44 with a hair trigger and his casually dismissive remark.

[casingpoint]

my story above was being swept with a S&W 642 revolver

Not to worry. Someday, someone in Congress or the Judiciary will decide it is safer for you to be swept by a revolver than by a semi auto, and that the latter is an insurmountable hazard to public safety.

[The Annoyed Man]

Hopefully he matures before he gets someone else killed - see my sig-line.

Exactly!

[marksiwel]

but there was no apology forthcoming.

Thats my problem right there, people just dont like when someone else is "In Charge" and dont like to admit when they screwed up.

When i take my friends to the Range for the first time I tell them. Look, I joke around about Politics, Religion and your Mother, but I dont joke about guns, so if I say to do something out there, do it, if the "nice" ranger officer with a gun tells you to do something, do it. Your Life, My Life and everyone elses life depends on it.