Another Sad Story: Unsafe Gun Handling Leads to Death

[etrain16]

I wish we didn't have to hear about these stories so often, but another one has happened in Oregon today. A man was showing off his AR15 to a group of folks, here is what happened:

Detectives determined the 28-year-old man living in the apartment owns several firearms and decided to show his AR-15 rifle to his group of friends who were over to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Investigators said he unloaded the weapon and it was passed around by the four guests. When he took it back, the gun discharged as he was in the process of reloading it, according to deputies.

They called 911 and attempted first aid on the victim.

Source: Sheriff: Man showing off rifle shoots, kills friend at Washington Co. apartment

Of course, this just becomes more fodder for the folks in Salem to take our rights away. Sad for the family, angry at how it happened.

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[MilitantBEEMER]

Sad and totally avoidable.

 

[The Courier]

Did no one teach them the basics of saftey? Sweeping and muzzle control are the biggest violations I see frequently and funny enough they are easiest to abide by.

 

[Mark W.]

Sadly Video games teach how to use a firearm but I have never seen one that teaches how to safely handle one. I have been standing at a gun counter in a store while two kids rattled off all kinds of details about a half dozen different pistols on the wall. I asked one of them how long he had been shooting (thinking he must have been shooting with a parent or a club or something) NOPE he told me he knew all about guns from the video games they played.

Scared the crap out of me.

 

[Nick Burkhardt]

Two very easy to follow gun handling rules from Frank Proctor:

#1 keep the pointy end of the death machine in a safe direction.

#2 if you're eyes are not connected to the sights then the trigger finger is connected to the frame of the gun.

For the AR-15 add rule #2a if the eyes are not connected to the sights the rifle is on safe.

 

[Camelfilter]

And in Salem this afternoon:

Boy shot by relative in North Salem

 

[BDA.45]

Stupid! F-ing stupid!!! Completely avoidable. I can't tell you how many times in the last 8 (almost) years I've been a member here that I've commented on incidences like these. It's really really sad and seriously piszes me off. I can sit here and say this bubblegum till I'm blue in the face.....KEEP YOUR bubblegumING FINGER OFF THE MOTHERbubblegumING TRIGGER!!!!

When I'm out "shooting" with new people or people I've never shot with before, I don't shoot, I make sure no one GETS shot... I'm not nice about it either. I MAKE them understand that this ain't no bubbleguming game. I don't wanna get shot. I'm not a dik (but I am), I just use harsh words and try to get it ingrained into their heads that were not sitting here roasting marshmallows. I'll usually pull em aside and talk to em calmly and explain everything. I'll give em examples like the aforementioned....

I've posted this before but I'll post the story again as an example. My youngest bro (he was 17 at the time, 30 now) went to a party. Some dipbubblegum there was passing around a Glock. My bro (which the same tactics had been used on him by us and my dad) got a hold of the gun. He knew what to do. He dropped the mag, racked the slide (which btw ejected a round) and proceed to disassemble the gun. Gave it back to the owner in parts much to his dismay. Him and his friends left. When they came back and entered the house, the gun was being played with again. His buddy, a couple steps in front of my bro, got a hold of it. Gun went to the head and the trigger was pulled.....Ended his life in front of everyone....kid was only 17 or 18....

Sigh.....this REALLY irritates me....

 

[ThemGunsThough]

This one really hits home. I mean, I imagine me and the few gun buddies I have doing our show and tell, so to speak, with our guns. Buddy gets a gun out of the safe while everyone is just kind of in a circle oohing and ahhing at the toy that gets passed around. Maybe it's just me, but I always keep the loaded mags detached from the AR when I put it back in the safe. Sad, sad story though.

 

[orygun]

About 25 years ago I attended a bachelor party for a close friend (I was a groomsman in the wedding). A guy he knew, but one I'd never met, was there. As it is with guys who are interested, the talk eventually turned to guns. This other guy went to his car and retrieved a case with a couple of handguns. A couple of us retired to a back bedroom to check them out. I remember one of them being a GP100. He'd been handling them a bit, before handing one of them to a drunk partier and mentioning, "Careful, it's loaded." I politely asked the drunk for the revolver, opened the cylinder and dumped the rounds into my hand. I handed the gun back to the owner and requested that he take the guns back to his car and lock them in the trunk. Once he closed the case and returned it to his car I handed him the 6 rounds back. Even he hadn't a clue I'd emptied the gun. At that moment I decided that the next time I was at a party and saw a gun, I was leaving. Drunks + guns = trouble.
I like guns. I like whiskey. But I don't like them together.

 

[orygun]

Stupid! F-ing stupid!!! Completely avoidable. I can't tell you how many times in the last 8 (almost) years I've been a member here that I've commented on incidences like these. It's really really sad and seriously piszes me off. I can sit here and say this bubblegum till I'm blue in the face.....KEEP YOUR bubblegumING FINGER OFF THE MOTHERbubblegumING TRIGGER!!!!

When I'm out "shooting" with new people or people I've never shot with before, I don't shoot, I make sure no one GETS shot... I'm not nice about it either. I MAKE them understand that this ain't no bubbleguming game. I don't wanna get shot. I'm not a dik (but I am), I just use harsh words and try to get it ingrained into their heads that were not sitting here roasting marshmallows. I'll usually pull em aside and talk to em calmly and explain everything. I'll give em examples like the aforementioned....

I've posted this before but I'll post the story again as an example. My youngest bro (he was 17 at the time, 30 now) went to a party. Some dipbubblegum there was passing around a Glock. My bro (which the same tactics had been used on him by us and my dad) got a hold of the gun. He knew what to do. He dropped the mag, racked the slide (which btw ejected a round) and proceed to disassemble the gun. Gave it back to the owner in parts much to his dismay. Him and his friends left. When they came back and entered the house, the gun was being played with again. His buddy, a couple steps in front of my bro, got a hold of it. Gun went to the head and the trigger was pulled.....Ended his life in front of everyone....kid was only 17 or 18....

Sigh.....this REALLY irritates me....

That's a very sad story and I'm glad I've not got one like that to tell. I rarely shoot with anyone but family and I am a dik about safety, too.
@jbett98 can tell you the last time I've shot with a person I didn't know intimately and that was the first time I've been around anyone else shooting a gun, except at Douglas Ridge in probably 20 years.
FYI, jbett98 brought some really cool toys and I just couldn't resist! I'd shoot with him any time. He's a good, safe guy.

 

[slimmer13]

If they really wanted to save lives, safe gun handling would be taught in school.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

There is a time and place to show off your gun.
A party or a time and place where you can be easily distracted is not the time or place , to play show and tell with a gun.
Andy

 

[Andy54Hawken]

If they really wanted to save lives, safe gun handling would be taught in school.

Totally agree.
You don't even need to make a "pro-gun" statement.
Just a pure safety talk / lesson.
Guns are out there and a fact of life.
The more you know the safer you can be.
Andy

 

[tac]

I don't show my guns to anybody.

That way, nobody can EVER get hurt.

tac

 

[Andy54Hawken]

I hear you tac.
I often do however.
Granted this is while giving a lesson on history or firearms while demonstrating my muzzle loaders.

Same rules applies however check and recheck to make sure the gun is not or did not get loaded.

The old saw about treating every gun as if it were loaded is great ...
But I think that it can be taken for granted or overlooked when showing off a gun that one has.
Because in my experience most folks handle empty guns and fall into a false sense of security when looking at a gun , 'cause its "empty".

When reloading a gun after showing it off ... Your full and undivided attention must paid to what you are doing. ( as with any time you are loading a gun. )
Its a shame that this did not happen in the OP.
Andy

 

[tac]

Here in yUK we don't go in for 'show and tell' sessions, except at a gun show - and that's only with professional gun traders doing the 'showing and telling'.

With substantially less than 1% of the population at all familiar with firearms [legally], it's not a part of the yUK's culture, as I'm sure that you are aware. In any case, the only time I took part in a 'gunshow-style show and tell' arranged by the local base R&GC, actually ON-base, my priceless Peter Gonter long rifle was stolen off the stand while I was getting a burger, so I'm basically agin 'em anyhow.

tac

 

[Andy54Hawken]

I remember that story you told ... A sad one for sure.
We need to get together so you can at least fondle and get a picture of our Abraham Sweitzer Long Rifle.
He was from the same time as Peter G.
Andy

 

[orygun]

In any case, the only time I took part in a 'gunshow-style show and tell' arranged by the local base R&GC, actually ON-base, my priceless Peter Gonter long rifle was stolen off the stand while I was getting a burger, so I'm basically agin 'em anyhow.

tac

Really?!?!?

Yeah, I'd never let anyone see a gun of mine leave my hands if that happened to me, too. Did you ever get it back?

 

[tac]

Did you ever get it back?

Nope. It was a real press there, with well over a thousand people visiting over the six-hour open time. We searched everywhere in case the thief had cached it somewhere hoping to get back to it after closing up, but it never reappeared anywhere. We looked closely at Shotgun News and Muzzle Blasts for a couple of years afterwards with zero results. The insurance would not pay up as the theft had taken place on US DoD property, so my $3500 loss was a fairly heft hit back then. If you ever see it - look inside the patchbox and you'll see a cryptic mark that looks like it was original. It is not - I put it there. PM me for details.

What REALLY hurt was that EVERY person - apart from me - who was there was a member of the Armed Forces of the US of A from a VERY high-falutin' top security level unit. It was not open to civilians. The powder horn and possibles bag went too.

tac

 

[Andy54Hawken]

tac ,
I did not know of the "cryptic mark"
Do you have pictures of it? ( and the rifle , bag and horn )
We get a lot of folks showing us their old gun ... I'd be happy to keep my eyes peeled for yours...
Andy