Gun Safety Instructor Accidentally Kills Himself Cleaning Gun

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

No, weapons safety isn’t difficult, but it should only be trained by competent people and it must be indoctrinated into the learner so that they practice it automatically whenever around weapons, without thinking.

I suspect that a problem in the U.S. is people getting poor training in the first place, who then go on to train others, who then go on…
So that after a while people think that that level of semi competence is the norm.

And no real expert with weapons chooses not to practice safe handling .

Only CWGs do this , either because they haven’t been properly trained in the first place, and in their ignorance are genuinlly unaware that they’re ignorant.

Or often, they’re poorly trained but have been around weapons for a long time, almost always gun buffs, who then get an unrealistic idea of their abilities, because "Hey I’ve owned guns for 20 years so I must know what I’m doing.

And like to show off how relaxed they are around guns.

This because because they think that it makes them look expert, and because that’s what they do in the movies.

And of course they’ve read lots of stuff in books and online, and discussed specs and marks with their buddies at their local gun club.

These are the people who wave weapons around so that they point at themselves and other people, who KNOW that just taking the mag off means that there isn’t one up the spout, who KNOW that the weapon is unloaded without checking the breach because they remember unloading it the day before and who seem incapable of holding a firearm, even when theres no intention of firing it, without either resting their finger inside the trigger guard, or even on the trigger,

Because that’s how they held their toy guns when they were kids.

Unfortunately questioning a mans competence with guns is seen as an insult to their manhood, and some men at least who are unsure about some aspects of weapon usage won’t ask anyone to help them out because they think that its like owning up to having a small dick or something.

So year after year they walk around as dangerously incompetent as they were when they first picked up a firearm.

But I’ve said my bit so I’ll shut up now.

42

That guy probably held his tank sideways while firing it.

43

I swear that, as a kid, I saw gun cases where the designer saw the trigger guard as the perfect place to put a dowel to hang a long gun. Didn’t seem fully thought out, even then, but if you had three guns mounted one above another they lined up ever so attractively.

44

At essentially every gathering of even semi-knowledgeable gun people I’ve ever been at, this behavior will earn something along the lines of a harsh rebuke the first time, outrage the second, and a permanent banning the third.

The point is that even without actual training, some basic aspects of safety are almost universally insisted on. And a habit of positively ensuring that a gun is not loaded when it shouldn’t be is certainly among them - perhaps the most basic of all.

45

Golf clap.

46

Are your arms longer than a rifle or shotgun measured from the muzzle to the trigger? All the rifle-related suicides shown in our dad’s book “Homicide Investigation” had the victim firing with his toe. No elaborate set-up using strings and rope.

But you guys shouldn’t discount accidental discharge. The gun was loaded, fell hard on the heel of the stock, discharged, and centered the guy in the chest. Who knows?

47

Perhaps it was a shotgun whose barrel had been sawed off ? That does not sound like the kind of weapon a gun safety instructor would have but I am giving him and his family the benefit of the doubt.

48

Forensic pathologists commonly run into similar suicide scenarios - the self-inflicted gun wound, with the gun cleaning implements carefully laid out next to the victim. I’ve seen presentations that included this subject.

Experts in this field will tell you that virtually always, the “gun cleaning accident” is actually suicide.

49

I can’t speak to the specifics of this case, but for all you folks wondering, “could a firearm owner really be that dumb?” - I offer this short video. in which the protagonist very nearly blows his own face off by staring down the barrel after a hang-fire (a situation in which the firing pin hits the primer and compresses it - but the primer doesn’t actually light off until a few seconds later).

50

Here’s an analysis of a case that has similarities to the one described in the OP (warning, mildly gory photograph).

51

Not necessarily. I was at a range once when a man, who was shooting at some targets, turned his gun around as he talked to the range master. The gun was not pointing directly at anyone for long, just for a few seconds, but for the rest of the time he held it, it was not pointing down-range, as they are so strict to say.

And I have seen other stupid behavior at ranges, too. It definitely depends on the range master and where you go!

But I agree with everyone else, a shotgun is pretty damn hard to shoot yourself with. When you look at definite shotgun suicides, you’ll see a lot of “toe in the trigger” or some other strings and stuff rigged up. You gotta have some long gorilla arms to do it accidentally.

52

It’s missing the part where Bugs Bunny switched the gun on him after loading it with a long fuse.

53

And the range master let it go without a word? Remarkable.

The normal (I would have said close to universal) range rule is that you don’t point a muzzle at (or near) anyone, ever - even if the action is open and the gun is obviously not loaded.

54

The coroner has ruled the death a suicide:
“Officials would not elaborate on what led them to their conclusion except that the coroner working in collaboration with the police forensic unit and sheriff’s department made the determination.”

55

Although in this case I would have been happy to be wrong:

:cool:

(With special thanks to **Jackmannii **for the backup!)

56

Given that he also made ‘improvised hand grenades’ and that the bomb squad was called to help because of blasting caps amid buckets of gunpowder, this doesn’t sound too out-of-character. On the other hand, you’d think the news story would mention a sawed-off shotgun.

I’m sure a dedicated suicider can kill himself with a full length shotgun, though. Maybe that piece had some special symbolism for him over all his unregistered handguns.

57

Take a look at the picture in the article. Third gun from the left. Shotgun?

That would fit the bill handily for a self-inflicted gunshot to the chest.