This will be a short diary. I just have to tell about an event I recently heard about. It seems a Responsible Gun Owner (TM) was holstering his weapon when it "accidentally" went off, shooting himself in the arm. Now if you've ever read any of my comments on gun use, you know I simply don't accept the idea of "accidental" gunfire. I agree with the US military: That any discharge of a weapon in a non-prescribed fashion (e.g. at a designated target or enemy combatant) is a negligent discharge and should carry penalties. But this is civilian life and shooting someone accidentally, even yourself or a loved one, is classed as a second degree oopsie and gets infinite mulligans to get it right. No matter how many more people you shoot "accidentally."
Let us count the fails below the pungent orange cloud of gunsmoke...
Let's just think for a moment about what this guy did. He "accidentally" fired a semi-automatic handgun into his own arm. That means he:
A) Had a round in the chamber. A semi-automatic weapon uses the discharged gasses from a bullet's propellant to rack the slide and load a round into the chamber. Absent that, you must manually work the slide the first time to chamber your first round. After that you're good to go. I was always taught that keeping a round chambered was a rookie mistake. Wonder why?
B) He had the safety off. How stupid do you have to be? There's a reason they call it the safety.
C) He had his finger on the trigger. Who taught this moron how to handle a gun? You never TOUCH the trigger until you are ready to fire a weapon at your selected target. Once you have fired the weapon you remove your finger from the trigger. That's why there's a trigger guard.
D) He had the hammer cocked. A semi-automatic will fire if you haven't cocked the hammer, they are (usually) "double action" weapons: Pulling the trigger automatically cocks the hammer. After the first shot, the action of the slide does the work in most cases. But I can't imagine he actually pulled the trigger on himself, so the trigger must have been extra twitchy, i.e. the hammer was already manually cocked.
E) He tried to do all this one-handed. Think about it, when most people holster their weapon in a shoulder holster, they steady the holster with the left hand (assuming a right hander) and slide the gun home with the right. At the very least, this gets your left arm 90% out of the way if the gun discharges. This idiot shot himself in his biceps (through and through, missed the bone) which means his left arm was sitting there just behind the holster just waiting to be shot.
I was always told that shoulder holsters are a bad idea to begin with. They are less secure, restrict your draw, allow a close attacker to pin your arm when you try to draw, and you can accidentally (there's that "accidentally" again) shoot someone, or yourself, when you holster your weapon.
Apparently this moron managed to do everything possible wrong.
So here's my idea. Every time some idiot "accidentally" fires their weapon, they must submit to independent review by a jury of their peers. For every bone-headed, rookie, half-wit mistake they made that led to the "accidental" discharge, they lose their gun rights for a year, three years if someone gets injured as a result, ten years if someone dies. By my count, this moron should lose his right to own a gun for 9-15 years.
Anybody at all agree with this?