How can one shoot himself accidentally?

[sigp220.45]

I know of two "cleaning their gun accidents" that were in fact a wife shooting the husband and a suicide.

I went to a death investigation class several years ago where the chief medical examiner for Bexar Country, Texas, said he suspected every single "gun cleaning accident" death he'd seen was a suicide. Either the dead guy himself would set it up (for insurance or family reasons) or the family would find a suicide victim and put some gun cleaning stuff around before calling the cops.

If you think about it, it would be pretty hard to fatally shoot yourself while cleaning a gun.

 

[feralmerril]

Sig, you know I never thought closely about the family makeing a suicide look like a accident. I suspect that happens a lot!

 

[oldman45]

Sig, you know I never thought closely about the family makeing a suicide look like a accident. I suspect that happens a lot!

Feral, It gets worse. Often times a family member living in a nursecare facility will pass away immediately after being returned to the facility by family members. It usually gets rulled as an accidental overdose while unsupervised. The life insurance pays, the estate is divided and nobody goes to jail.

 

[feralmerril]

Oldman, I have lived a sheltered life! Did you ever see the movie, amos where kirk douglas plays a old man in a nurseing home that is killing their fiesty patents when they run out of money? Interesting movie!

Amos Plot Summary and Details | Moviefone

 

[OLDFED]

"Gonna clean my UZI....."

...so he got his cleaning stuff out on the coffee table, sat down on the couch and proceeded to pull his UZI out of its case...muzzle first! Since an UZI fires from an open bolt, we can assume the bolt was open and there was a round in the magazine. Pulling the weapon from a case probably caused the trigger to snag, release the bolt and fire the gun, killing its owner with a single bullet to the chest. True story. Accidental? No, just gross and fatal negligence.

 

[Stevens]

A friend of my son, both grown men, shot himself in the hand while cleaning his semi auto pistol. He was trying to work the slide to clear the chamber and some how pulled the trigger at the same time. The bullet went through without hitting any bones and lodged in a wall.
Steve W

 

[blujax01]

Y
The man was handling his own handgun that he thought was unloaded when it went off. The idiot was transported to a hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries. And here is the kicker, "He is not expected to be charged for the incident." If he were to be charged what kind of charge should it be?

Former NY Giants receiver Plaxico Burris was just released after serving two years for "Attempted Weapons Possession". He accidentally shot himself in the thigh in a nightclub. He was carrying the gun in his waistband and it slipped down his pants leg and went off in his trousers.
He did not have a license to carry in New York. He had a Florida CCW but it had expired.

I'm thinking if it was you or me, we would not have been arrested. Fined maybe, but two years?! That ain't right.

 

[cmj8591]

I see Plaxico is going to the J-E-T-S jets. Good luck with that Rex!!

 

[number0009]

One would think it would never happen to them if they followed the 2 simple rules of never pointing the muzzle in an un-safe direction and always treating the gun as if it were loaded.

The act of holstering sometimes violates the first.

...

 

[Frank46]

They just had a guy stick his girlfriends pink pistol in his pants and managed to shoot himself in his P----s , bullet went through the p-word through his leg and exited. Some of the expressions on folks interviewed
were kinda funny. Maybe he was training for "sharpshooter" Frank

 

[Shooting4life]

I thought the only way to shot yourself accidentally was by using a glock.

 

[BuckeyeChuck]

Dude got all caught up in running the gun through it's motions, forgot about actually looking in the chamber.

I took the required 12 hour course for CHL in Ohio a while back. In the first four hours of the course, the instructor "taught" us basic gun handling and safety skills. He showed us how to load and unload a gun, etc.

Never once did he say "And always inspect the chamber with the magazine ejected to ensure that the gun is unloaded." I was mystified by the omission of this simple and obvious statement of gun safety. Teaching people to use their eyes to ensure a gun is unloaded should be foremost, but for this instructor, it wasn't even worth a mention.

The video of the DEA agent shooting himself with a Glock in front a room full of children (hilariously, *right after* saying he was the only one in the room professional enough to handle the gun) is a failure to follow the statement above. They inspected the chamber, but they did so with the magazine in the gun. As expected, the loaded magazine readily provided a cartridge for the action to stuff into the chamber as soon as the slide was released, and he shot himself.

I not only use my eyes to verify that my gun is unloaded with the magazine ejected, but I have another layer of safety: I cycle the slide at least twice. And then I inspect the chamber and look down the grip (if possible) again.

However, I am human and I make mistakes. Like another poster, I hear about these incidents and think "There but for the grace of God go I."

 

[Wes Smith]

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1294641/police_officer_shot_himself_accidently/

 

[Wes Smith]

The only one professional enough to carry the Glock

 

[surveyor_nm]

As Jeff Cooper said, "The only gun I KNOW is unloaded is one which I have personally unloaded and inspected, and hasn't left my hands since".

Bill Mahnke SWCA #1915

 

[Scott Amery]

It was a bad idea for Chandler, Ariz., citizen Joshua Seto, 27, to stuff his fiancée’s pink handgun into the waistband of his pants for an excursion to Fry's Food Store. According to ABC15, Seto packed his fiancée’s pink gun in the waistband of his pants to get ready for an excursion to Fry's Food Store in Phoenix. The gun went off, all but cutting Seto's penis and wounding his left leg. Man accidentally shoots own penis with pink pistol. A really shocking news, not because the man shot his own penis but bringing a gun in public place is prohibited. Accidents do happen, but we need to make sure that we handle it well. The man needs to be investigated because why did he bring that weapon in the public place. Always treat firearms as though they are loaded, If you are going to carry a handgun on your person, use a holster, not your waistband.

 

[Alpo]

That last one makes no sense.

Didn't Arizona just pass "unlicensed concealed carry"? And hasn't Arizona always been "unlicensed open carry"? If you can't carry in a "public place", what's the sense of carrying? If I'm not inside my house, I'm pretty much in a "public place".

 

[DeadAye]

Yo - Scott
They are in ARIZONA -- You're thinking of somewhere else (Illinois perhaps?)

Other than something being seriously wrong with the gun:
THE only way to have an AD is to pull the trigger with the safeties off.
This is usually accomplished by having one's finger in the trigger guard when it shouldn't be.

Fitz type revolvers, however, should never be put into your waistband.

This is a very good argument for the 1911, btw.
Revolver = 1 safety
Glock = 1 safety (despite what they'd like you to believe about the appendage on the trigger)
1911 = 3 safeties

If Ruger wanted to print something actually useful on their barrels it would be:
KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF OUT OF THE TRIGGER GUARD UNTIL THIS WEAPON'S SIGHTS ARE ALIGNED WITH YOUR INTENDED TARGET.
Introducing the Ruger Buntline Special

 

[gunblade]

I remember reading a story about a guy that shot himself in the stomach with a long barreled Ruger single action...went to cock the gun one handed and let the grip slip out of his hand but his finger was still in the trigger guard and tripped the hammer just as the gun pivoted down and pointed at his mid section. I have a 7 1/2" Vaquero and can see how that could easily happen if you fumble the grip when firing one handed.

 

[roundgunner]

I posted this once before but it seems like it fits this thread too.

Back in the days when the 1911 was the issued side arm a friend was doing roving patrol. At some point during the midnight till 4 am watch he was practicing fast draws from the old flap holster. I’m sure he was pretty surprised when he pulled that 45 out of the holster by the trigger and it went bang.

I came in the next morning and people were talking about the guard who shot himself, I knew many/most of the guards and was part of the selection process for personnel reliability. I was trying to think of who it would have been to kill himself, when I heard them talking about getting 19 stitches!
My brain was working slow, how do you shoot yourself with a 45 and fail to kill yourself?

The round went in below the knee and came out above the ankle never hitting bone. The CO was pretty cool about it and figured the pain and embarrassment was enough of a lesson so he was given a minimal penalty instead of a raking through the coals.