Gun safety fail. I was just witness to an AD.

[osprey]

So the company I work for owns a fair amount of diked farmland along an estuary area. It is prime duck and goose hunting ground and we let people hunt for a very modest permit fee. One of the owners and I took a run to look at the adjacent river to see how high it was and drive back across the field access road to make sure hunters weren't blocking the road like they sometimes do. We encounter a truck blocking the road so we honk until the hunter comes out of the ditch and walks to us. We tell him he needs to move his truck and not block the road. He goes to get in his truck and evidently shoves his loaded shotgun with safety off into back seat of truck and it goes off. We are stunned and he is white as a sheep. Luckily it was pointed away from us and it looked like rear seat and inside door panel took the brunt. We were so rattled we just wanted to get away from this guy after we chewed him out a bit, but we will probably go back pull his permit. I am just glad everybody is safe including him. How many gun safety rules were broken here? I just can't fathom sticking a loaded shotgun into a vehicle with safety off and finger on trigger. This was an epic fail on his part. Warden should probably be called and this guy should be forced to take a hunter safety course over again like many of us had as kids or maybe it would be his first time.

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[CRBMoA]

 

[Ruger Rich]

So the company I work for owns a fair amount of diked farmland along an estuary area. It is prime duck and goose hunting ground and we let people hunt for a very modest permit fee. One of the owners and I took a run to look at the adjacent river to see how high it was and drive back across the field access road to make sure hunters weren't blocking the road like they sometimes do. We encounter a truck blocking the road so we honk until the hunter comes out of the ditch and walks to us. We tell him he needs to move his truck and not block the road. He goes to get in his truck and evidently shoves his loaded shotgun with safety off into back seat of truck and it goes off. We are stunned and he is white as a sheep. Luckily it was pointed away from us and it looked like rear seat and inside door panel took the brunt. We were so rattled we just wanted to get away from this guy after we chewed him out a bit, but we will probably go back pull his permit. I am just glad everybody is safe including him. How many gun safety rules were broken here? I just can't fathom sticking a loaded shotgun into a vehicle with safety off an finger on trigger. This was an epic fail on his part. Warden should probably be called and this guy should be forced to take a hunter safety course over again like many of us had as kids or maybe it would be his first time.

I'm not sure a hunter safety course is going to help. An adult that hunts should be more than aware of firearm safety.

 

[The Heretic]

Had a friend who somehow managed to do this with a loaded long gun when putting it into the trunk of his car.

 

[Alexx1401]

If you are around when he tells this story it will be "the damn gun just went off".

 

[pharmseller]

That's not an accidental discharge.

That's a negligent discharge.

Accidental Discharge vs. Negligent Discharge: What's the Difference?

Both Accidental Discharges and Negligent Discharges can happen, but they mean completely different things and are not interchangeable.

www.usacarry.com

 

[CRBMoA]

Every time one of us uses the term 'accidental discharge', we reinforce the left's disillusion that all guns are basically unstable firecrackers waiting to randomly explode.

 

[osprey]

I'm not sure a hunter safety course is going to help. An adult that hunts should be more than aware of firearm safety.

I hear you but where would he have gained his firearm safety knowledge if not for a hunter safety course? In WA you do not need this course if you are adult born before Jan 1 1972. I am sure there are many people that are not familiar with firearms/safety that take up hunting later in life and fall through the cracks. I am not usually one to advocate more laws but maybe a hunter safety course or some kind of proof of equivalent knowledge and skill should be required to get a license, no matter what your age.

 

[osprey]

Yes I agree it is a ND. I stand corrected.

 

[P7M13]

He couldn't even obey "do not block road".

 

[TTSX]

Hunter's worst enemies are other hunters. We're all ambassadors to the sport and everything he does/you do reflects on both

 

[DLS]

He didn't have to have his finger on the trigger. Sliding the gun forward across the seat sets up a condition where anything obstructing the trigger will in effect press it. In this case, perhaps, with enough force to clear the sear notch and fire.

 

[The Heretic]

Hunter's worst enemies are other hunters. We're all ambassadors to the sport and everything he does/you do reflects on both

 

[BDA.45]

That's not an accidental discharge.

That's a negligent discharge.

Accidental Discharge vs. Negligent Discharge: What's the Difference?

Both Accidental Discharges and Negligent Discharges can happen, but they mean completely different things and are not interchangeable.

www.usacarry.com

^THIS 1000%

 

[bbbass]

Had a friend who somehow managed to do this with a loaded long gun when putting it into the trunk of his car.

I had a friend that was missing the top muscle of his thigh.... road hunting with a Savage 99 .308 resting across the seat and over his lap; truck bounced thru a rut, gun went BLAM, leg went POOF, guy barely made it out of the woods alive.

 

[bbbass]

Musta been one of those Rem700 shotguns.

 

[crstrode]

I'm not sure a hunter safety course is going to help. An adult that hunts should be more than aware of firearm safety.

Training courses are useless. It is learning that matters.

 

[Nosferatu]

I agree he should lose his hunting privilege on the property, but I'm not willing to go as far to say he needs any sort of state-sponsored "training", etc.

For most people, this is merely a requirement to get through to reach the end result: permission to be 'licensed". We have boating education, drivers education and as you mentioned, hunters education for post '72 born. Most these courses go in one ear, out the other. How many negligent boating "accidents", auto "accidents" still happen?

It's easy to call him an idiot and all kinds of names. Without knowing anything about the guy, he may have just been frenzied and not thinking, tossed his gun in the back to quickly comply with your demand. People make mistakes, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt until it becomes a habit.

He may be home now replaying the incident in his head thinking "how could I be so dumb". We don't know. You have every right to be pissed, but I'd back off the crucifixion for the time being.

 

[titsonritz]

Hopefully it wasn't his truck and the owner isn't happy.

 

[No_Regerts]

There's that law about not having a loaded long gun in a vehicle. It's in the regs too.