Cop shoots off own finger while shopping for gun

[The Heretic]

How does a person shoot their finger off?

Was this another one of those fools who puts their hand in front of the muzzle and pulls the trigger?

Even when I *KNOW* the gun is unloaded, I always point it in a safe direction when pulling the trigger, I never put any part of my body in front of it.

 

[tac]

'Was this another one of those fools who puts their hand in front of the muzzle and pulls the trigger?'

Sure looks that way, eh?

tac

 

[Member 3687]

First off I watched the video twice and seen so many violations by both parties that many folks have already talked about, with that being said some of the comments by folks I agree with and some I do not and here is why.

I currently work weekends at a local sporting goods store and have been there since 2000 and my clientele range from "this is the first time they ever held a gun" to NRA instructors.

Over the years I have learned to do things a little different from when I worked at a shooting range and how I was taught.

First I no longer hand a semi auto to someone with the slide back and the magazine removed. Yes I do check it, and then I show them it is clear, and then I close the slide and hand it to them.

The reason why is after the third customer dropped the slide on a finger in less than a year and I had to provide first aid then clean up the blood with rubber gloves and bleach water I stopped doing it.

The reason I do not remove the magazine is if I wanted to rob the store or kill the person behind the counter all I would have to do is buy/steel a mag fill it with bullets then walk into a gun store. I hand them a semi auto slide back with an empty mag well then all they haft to do is shove in their full mag drop the slide and I am dead… (Happened in a California gun shop my buddy worked at)

If they have to remove the mag and pull back the slide I can keep an eye on both their hands and body language. I will also learn how familiar they are with firearms. Trained folks automatically clear the weapon and remove the mag this tells me if I need to go into newbie training mode or just answer their questions.

Most newbie's are willing to learn and in 10 minutes I can teach them how to clear and check a firearm for future reference then we go into finger off the trigger and muzzle control. At this time I hand them one of the cards for a firearm instructor we go through and say give them a call and they will help them learn so much more than I can show them in 10 minutes.

When they hand me the firearm back I again check the firearm to see if it is clear (sometimes twice) before I put it back in the case.

With long guns we always keep the bolts open so we can check clear. I can always tell the military folks as they always close the dust covers on the AR after looking at them (they do what they are trained) so I have to open them back up and lock the bolt back to check clear before putting them back on the shelf.

This is not how I was taught or how we did or would do things and the gun range I worked at but with so many new shooters we had to do things a little different in the store.