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Editor's Notebook: Fatalities While Cleaning a Gun? Enough Already!
by Rich Grassi

According to news media sources, a man was found dead in his car outside a Pflugerville TX shooting range of an apparent gunshot wound. Authorities said he'd been shooting at the range and was later found in his car.

A police official said the man ". . . died . . . while cleaning a gun inside his car . . ." A survey of news sources revealed only that there were no witnesses to the shooting and that a gun cleaning kit was found on the front seat of the deceased's car.

We've heard of these things over the years and are confused. How does one accidentally shoot oneself while cleaning a gun? I guess it depends on what you call "cleaning."

Many of us learned about guns in the military. When cleaning those guns, how much luck did you have in shooting yourself? Well, mostly rifles were used. It's hard to get the muzzle turned into your body and still reach the trigger. Before you write, yes, I've seen it done a few times. The last time was a man inside a car who used a rifle to get a permanent solution to his temporary problems. It was apparent to me that he'd killed himself. There was no doubt that he'd done it based on the contortion it took to keep the muzzle against him while touching the trigger.

We recently reported on the death of an officer who was trying to install a "grip sleeve" on his pistol while sitting in his car. He apparently removed the magazine and ignored the round in the chamber. Touching the trigger while the muzzle was pointed at his face during the struggle to install the sleeve created another fatality.

Like others, I've heard stories. There's been the old guy, tired of life, who was ready to let go but there was that suicide clause in the life insurance policy. He carefully lays out cleaning implements and then commits suicide. Viola! An accidental death.




Similarly, in the past, police officers set up the same scenario so it would appear a "line of duty" death and allow the next of kin to get survivor benefits. How having a police officer suicide not be considered "in the line of duty" is somewhat beyond me; suicide, along with alcoholism, was a well-known occupational hazard as it is with physicians.

Let's say that someone is reading this who can't understand why the cleaning kit/accident scenario is unlikely. A powerhouse medical examiner authored a book on investigation of the gunshot homicide. In it, he opines that such cases are unlikely because you can't effectively clean a firearm with the muzzle against you!

The other issue is, again, what is gun cleaning? The firing chamber(s) must be cleaned. If there are rounds loaded therein, there's no room for patch and jag, let alone brush. It's likewise hard to clean the barrel of an autopistol with a round chambered and the gun in battery.

Note the disassembled Glock 26 in the photo. It's hard to see how such a gun, stripped for cleaning, can be fired.

Similarly, the revolver needs to be empty. You can see where the chambers are empty - daylight streams through - and the round that's being replaced in a chamber is likewise easily seen.

I don't know what happened to that poor gent in Texas. That's for investigators to figure out and they're working on that now. But Rule 1 says all guns are loaded. Rule 2 is never cover anything you don't want to destroy. Rule 3 is keep your finger off the trigger until the muzzle is directed into the target.

Clear them and disassemble in accordance with factory/agency/trainer instructions before "cleaning," okay?

For a pistol, I can see where you could shoot yourself in your leg if you weren't careful. You can bleed out pretty fast if you hit the artery in your hip.
Beyond that, I don't disagree with the article, but I would stop short of calling them all suicides. It is hard to prove.

I agree that we don't know the particulars of the gunshot wound in this case. Femoral artery? Yeah, a plausible "accident". Under the chin? Much less likely.

I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought of the insurance angle.

Any time you pick up a gun:

1. Drop magazine
2. Rack slide to clear chamber

I do this any time I pick up any gun.

cougartex wrote:Any time you pick up a gun:

1. Drop magazine
2. Rack slide to clear chamber

I do this any time I pick up any gun.

Kinda hard on a revolver isn't it?

Seriously, like you say, always open the slide, cylinder, bolt, etc for whatever type of gun it is and check the chamber. If there isn't one in the pipe you can't shoot yourself.

It's my opinion that a handful of those situations (not resulting in death, but in survivable self inflicted GSW's) are the result of morons "playing" with weapons.

Showing them off, jacking around, so on and so forth.

When I clean my handguns, or rifles, it goes like this:

1. I drop the magazine
2. I rack and lock the slide back (ejecting any loaded round, and locking open the slide for inspection)
3. Once empty status is confirmed, I disassemble, and lay out the parts
4. Get the cleaning kit out, and clean

I've never understood how someone can have a round, on any weapon, go off into the floor/wall/own body part during a cleaning.

Luckily my father taught me well.

And NEVER ask, "Is it loaded?" when someone hands you a gun.

cougartex wrote:Any time you pick up a gun:

1. Drop magazine
2. Rack slide to clear chamber

I do this any time I pick up any gun.

And leave the magazine out of the gun. I'm guessing that bone-heads rack the slide to clear it and then they put the magazine back in so they chamber the next round in the magazine.

is this a duplicate?

http://www.texaschlforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=32315" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

cougartex wrote:Any time you pick up a gun:

1. Drop magazine
2. Rack slide to clear chamber

I do this any time I pick up any gun.

I add a couple more steps to be absolutely sure (extractors do fail).

1. Drop mag
2. Eject chambered round
3. Lock slide back
4. Verify empty mag well (sight and touch)
5. Verify empty chamber (sight and touch)
6. Rack slide multiple times
7. Lock slide back
8. Repeat steps 4 and 5
9. Hold barrel up to a light source and make sure that I see light from the barrel to the chamber

Did I mention that I like to be sure that it's unloaded?

My first impression always is that the person is drunk or otherwise impaired if he or she fires the gun while breaking it down for cleaning. It's just too dangerous to mess up with a clear head, in my view. However, some music I've heard could mess up your brain and be distracting enough to get careless. I, too, am sorry the incident occurred.

Rdcrags

TX CHL 1997
CO CHP 2005

I really don't understand how you kill yourself while cleaning a gun. Who pulls the trigger while cleaning the gun? Who aims a gun at them self and pulls the trigger? I dont even like the empty barrel and slide assembly pointed at me if they are together while I am cleaning the grip/trigger assembly.

Even when I practice dry fire techniques I check the gun about 10 times and I still feel weird about the first trigger pull. AND I most definitely never point it at anything that I care about.

I wonder if the phenomenon of saying "while cleaning" is just propagated by media and people not wanting to feel stupider than they really are. Not that this excuse makes you any smarter.

I was looking for a website from an LEO who shot himself in the hand I read awhole ago.
Basically the Officer, cleared the chamber and then dropped the mag (Much like the story Andy posted awhile ago) he then had to pull the trigger to take down the gun (?) and he shot himself in the hand.

I assume people shoot themselves because they are
1. Drunk
2. Tired
3. On Meds
4. Got too comfortable and got careless
5. got distracted

basically like "accidental" discharges, there is almost never a Valid Excuse.

I was taught to always say, "Open the action please," when being presented a weapon. I agree, about visual and tactile (that's feel for the less articulate) verification. I had a broken extractor on a bolt action once, pulled the bolt and feeder from the magazine and just as I was raising the weapon to visually inspect the chamber there was a round that slid out of the receiver.

Well a nominal bill from the gunsmith and all was as it should be though I have never shaken the nagging question on how I missed it when clearing the weapon before. <shudder>

Over time it's a self correcting problem.