ND at tigard Gunbroker

[judicator]

Dropped by the Tigard gunbroker a little after 4 today, was just browsing and checking prices.

While I was standing by the shotgun rack, I heard a loud "BOOM!"

Four employees and five customers are frozen in place. One of the employees was holding a Taurus .45 ACP rifle, which had apparently been loaded.

Bullet hit the corner of the wooden shelf of the handgun display, travelling towards the front window.

No one injured, just a bit nervous.

Bullet did not exit the store, nobody came from other businesses to see what happened.

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[civilian75]

I am glad to hear there was no one injured and only minor property damage. I hope I am wrong but it sounds as if someone maliciously loaded the firearm. The sad news is that it won't surprise me security/safety will have to tighten up. I suspect rifles will get locked up, customers will not have the freedom to roam around the rifle racks and check the merchandise w/o having an employee to assist them. Bummer. I kind of liked that a lot. Not a single time I've been to the store has it had at least 5 customer. It is hard to keep an eye on what people are doing, especially behind the blind side of the rifle rack.

 

[Nutty4Guns]

Wow! Lucky no one was hurt. Did the police show up to investigate?

 

[snew]

Everyone knows .45 can't penetrate anything. Lucky it wasn't a 9mm.

 

[MinnesotaORnewbie]

sounds like someone didn't treat it like it was loaded, no matter if someone tried to rig it with a shell in it or put a clip in it with a round, I don't know about you but I don't go around and dry fire or pull the trigger on any of my guns no matter what, with a clip in it or with out one, WITH OUT TAKING THE CLIP OUT AND CYCLING THE CHAMBER MORE THEN ONCE. Gun control is not only knowing your target before you shoot, but knowing your gun is ready or not.

I am visioning the sherrif that shot is leg during a elementry school outing, telling the kids how dang cool he was showing off his gun. just like any worker at a gun shop gets too used to dealing with guns and forgets to simply check one, boom off goes his winky

 

[MinnesotaORnewbie]

I couldn't stop thinking about this, the owner that looks like "Dog the Bounty Hunter," probably had his luckiest day ever. If that bullet would have hit a customer in the store, well, I don't like sue happy people, but, I'm pretty sure you are not giving up your right to safety just by walking in the doors of a gunshop. Someone could have very easily been the new owner of three gun shops and thousands of new toys, with the pain of a missing nut or explaining a crappy story while passing through the airport everytime....If they survived.

I would like more info from the OP. What happened leading up to this and after, what was going on. What did they think happened.

 

[judicator]

After the initial scare, I kept browsing, other customers came and went, police never showed up. More than likely they were never called.

The rifle had a tube magazine, think it was a pump-action. The theory was that a weak spring might have prevented the round from popping out when the rifle was first checked out. AFAIK, it had already been tagged and was an inventory item.

Regardless, it reinforces the need to do a full visual inspection of magazine, chamber, and action before declaring a weapon "safe."

 

[judicator]

Steve was standing with a customer at the end of the counter, bullet hit the shelf less then three feet behind him. It plowed into the rack of pistol magazines and stopped inside one of the packages.

 

[SBC97281]

I just read this thread to my wife and she reminded me that more than once I have commented to her about having left that particular store due to the way firearms were being handled by both the employess and customers. It is true that with the large number of customers and firearms in any gun store of worth, there is always some risk. What particularly bothers me with the reported Negligent Discharge in this thread is that it was an employee holding the rifle when the smoke cleared. The continuing "business as usual" description of what happened after the ND by the initial reporter also gives me some pause.

I have never met the owner of The Gun Broker and I have no idea if they follow this forum or not, but if they do, cleaning house at the Tigard branch and building an atmosphere that appears safer certainly sounds like sound business practice to me.


-sbc97281

 

[SBC97281]

I suspect rifles will get locked up, customers will not have the freedom to roam around the rifle racks and check the merchandise w/o having an employee to assist them.

The initial report by judicator is that it was "one of the employees holding a Taurus .45 ACP rifle." No amount of restrictions on customers can prevent a negligent discharge when it is appears that it wasn an employee who pulled the trigger on a live round.

-sbc97281

 

[Benjio]

Everyone knows .45 can't penetrate anything. Lucky it wasn't a 9mm.

Good thing the guy didn't have a passion for lever action... that coulda been ugly. Like massive facial hair ugly.

 

[biggie24420]

WW.... that is messed up. Well I have purchased a few guns from that store and they are pretty decent. Every time I've gone to that store and looked at a gun, I have checked to see if it was loaded. So many times I have seen the employees just take the gun off the shelf/wall and just hand it over to the customer. I am sure they are gonna start checking each time before they hand over customers a firearm. Glad to hear no one was hurt.

 

[Ryo]

I always do a visual check when handling firearms. So easy to get complacent and miss things like that. Even when the person checks and hands me the weapon, i still check.

 

[The B]

i'm a very relatively forgiving guy when it comes to NDs. i will not call someone a POS just because they've had one, or even some... fact of the matter is, it's an inevitability, and it's why we have 4 rules of firearm safety, not 1, 2, or 3.

BUT.... in this setting, under these circumstances, i'd have to say, as a small business owner and "boss," regardless of forgiveability, that employee needs to be standing in the unemployment line tomorrow morning- on principle alone. thats some excruciatingly huge liability.

 

[deen_ad]

sounds like someone didn't treat it like it was loaded, no matter if someone tried to rig it with a shell in it or put a clip in it with a round, I don't know about you but I don't go around and dry fire or pull the trigger on any of my guns no matter what, with a clip in it or with out one, WITH OUT TAKING THE CLIP OUT AND CYCLING THE CHAMBER MORE THEN ONCE. Gun control is not only knowing your target before you shoot, but knowing your gun is ready or not.

I am visioning the sherrif that shot is leg during a elementry school outing, telling the kids how dang cool he was showing off his gun. just like any worker at a gun shop gets too used to dealing with guns and forgets to simply check one, boom off goes his winky

I think you mean "magazine" not "clip"

 

[coctailer]

I use banana clips in my M16 yo.

 

[madcratebuilder]

I use banana clips in my M16 yo.

Is that pre ban?

 

[Spitpatch]

One of my old girlfriends cannot confirm that model to be pre-ban, but does confirm it is a pre-silicone version, albeit toward a different application.

 

[greydog111]

Everyone knows .45 can't penetrate anything. Lucky it wasn't a 9mm.

What kind of an ignoramus are you?!!

 

[greydog111]

sounds like someone didn't treat it like it was loaded, no matter if someone tried to rig it with a shell in it or put a clip in it with a round, I don't know about you but I don't go around and dry fire or pull the trigger on any of my guns no matter what, with a clip in it or with out one, WITH OUT TAKING THE CLIP OUT AND CYCLING THE CHAMBER MORE THEN ONCE. Gun control is not only knowing your target before you shoot, but knowing your gun is ready or not.

I am visioning the sherrif that shot is leg during a elementry school outing, telling the kids how dang cool he was showing off his gun. just like any worker at a gun shop gets too used to dealing with guns and forgets to simply check one, boom off goes his winky

Magazine. There, fixed it for you.