COP: I know what you’re thinking – did he fire five shots into his leg like a complete dumbass, or six? In all this commotion, I really can’t remember. So you have to ask yourself, do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
I did picture the kid looking into the barrel, but as others have pointed out, that almost certainly was wrong. My bad.
Unless that’s why the kid was wrong, he was looking in the wrong place. Unlikely IMO.
I read another article linked in GD (too tired to hunt for it atm, but it’s there if someone wants to find it).
The other article stated he had the kid look in the chamber, and the gun was pointed at the floor.
Still a dumbass for shooting himself though.
(good one btw, county)
Having a kid look in the chamber isn’t so bad, I don’t think, but even attempting to fire a weapon in front of a bunch of kids doesn’t seem like a good idea. Why was he aiming at his leg anyway and not at the roof or something a little more harmless?
I grew up with guns, shot a lot when I was a kid (with my Dad, who has shot competitively since I was a toddler), and I would never, EVER point a gun at another person, at myself, or have someone else inspecting my gun for any reason. How fucking stupid IS this guy?
Accidental discharge my ass. He’s a fucking moron, plain and simple. 
the open area where the slide was pulled back = chamber.
There. I learned something from this thread. Told you I don’t know much about guns.
At first I read that as “(with my Dad, who was shot competitively since I was a toddler)”. That caused a bit of a double-take.
This story seems kind of odd to me, since in very semi-automatic pistol I’ve ever used once I took the magazine out and pulled the slide back, the round in the chamber was ejected and then caught in my hand.
If the round didn’t eject by itself, what he should have done was turn the gun sideways so that the round would fall into his hand, and then look into the chamber to be sure it was clear.
What he should NOT have done was close the slide. It should have been locked in the open position during the entire demonstration, and never pointed at himself or another person.
Ergo, he was a stupid git.
Didn’t something like this happen just last year or so? I swear I can remember a pit thread just like this.
That struck me odd as well, but only being familiar with 9mm semi-autos, I don’t claim to be an expert. I was susposing the he may have pulled the slide back with exagerated slowness, causing the round not to eject, but that’s speculation.
Well, I think it is probable that the gun was malfunctioning in some way. Perhaps a round was stuck in the auto-loading mechanism below the chamber and didn’t come out when the officer removed the magazine. It may not have been visible in the chamber when the slider was pulled back, but righted itself and was loaded when the chamber was moved forward again.
I have no clue if this is possible with any model of automatic pistol and it certainly doesn’t excuse the carelessness of the officer (why wasn’t the safety on? why was he pointing it at himself at any time while the gun was out?). But I think it may explain why he might have believed the gun was unloaded when it was not.
Excellent questions- I’d love to know the answers. I don’t know about how everyone else was taught, but I was taught there is no such thing as an unloaded gun- ALL guns are treated as though they’re loaded, even if you just reassembled it after cleaning. Gun=loaded. Never gets pointed at anything you’re not shooting at.
Wow, forty minutes from an OP with Drug in the title to a slam on the War on Drugs, regardless of how insanely miniscule the connection between the two. This board is slipping.
county’s hellaciously good one-liner must have distracted the Usual Suspects. 
What’s miniscule about it? A stupid DEA agent = a stupid participant in the War on Drugs. Nothing new there, Hamlet. I hope that when you go to prosecute this shit, you are properly skeptical about the agents and informants.
Oh bravo county. Excellent.
Zette, I’m with you. This guy was a dumbass.
First of all, you do not use your DUTY WEAPON as a display piece.
You use one that’s ALREADY TAKEN APART, and that YOU KNOW ISN’T LOADED.You don’t take the word of some kid, bullets ** belong ** in guns, so it looks ok to the kid. :smack:
What happens when you need the thing, and it’s empty and in the hands of some kid? Dumbass. :smack:
The ''Agent" is probably a political hack or someone that couldn’t do field work, so he was shelved to do Public Education and Relations. Which at this point, seems like a bad idea :smack:
hands buttonjockey some aspirins for the headache 
Why is everyone assuming that he took the kid’s word for anything? It sounds to me that he was just doing a “show and tell” for the kid. From his actions, it seems that he thought the weapon was unloaded: follow along…
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Agent presents gun with magazine to audience; he’s an experienced officer, and he “never” keeps a round in the chamber. Agent removes magazine.
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Agent racks the slide. Because he is an experienced officer, he knows that this will expel a round from the chamber; but since he “never” leaves a round in the chamber, he is unsurprised when no round is expelled. He then shows a kid the chamber, but fails to examine the chamber himself. This is where he blew it, and this is where an experienced instructor (or an appropriately paranoid user of firearms) would not have made the same mistake. I don’t think he relied on the kid – I think he relied on his assumption, along with too little corroborating evidence. (Is this a common failing in the DEA? :D)
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He then aims the weapon down (good), but points it at his leg (bad) – another mistake. Finally, he (I guess) dry-fires the “empty” weapon, and gets a hole in his leg from a bullet that probably hung up the last time he drew his weapon.
Nametag, that seems most likely. Although it still shows him as a dumbass because he should have been stressing from the start to always assume a gun is loaded.
I’m just hoping there’s something we don’t know about this yet to explain it. But for now, it seems my 8 y/o nephew has better sense with his gun.
Says Nametag…
WHAT? An “experienced” agent “NEVER” keeps a round in the chamber?
WHAT? :eek: Ooo, Mr. Bad Guy, Hang on, I have to chamber a round before I can fill you with lead, because as my experience tells me, keeping one in the chamber is a recipe for disaster"
Good Lord, I hope I’m being wooshed.
<thanks **duffer[b/]>