Color me skeptical
Barber Kurt Voelkel in the Cleveland suburb of Parma says the man was adjusting his clothing and sitting down on Sept. 29 when a 9 mm handgun fell from his holster, struck the ground and went off.
Guns don’t generally discharge when dropped.
October 7th, 2011 at 10:19 am
Are we sure it wasn’t a fully-automatic AK style attack pistol? This was in a media site, after all.
October 7th, 2011 at 12:03 pm
Of course, we all know that this just proves that a 9mm is USELESS for Self-Defense…. ; )
October 7th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Well, if it’s so fucking dangerous that it just goes off when it hits the ground, then why don’t these asshole journalists ever identify the make and model of the gun when this happens, so that the public can take precautions? They bitch about gun control fast enough, but when it comes to doing a public service, these asshole journalists have their heads up their asses. Journalists are generally incompetent, but they know all about gun control, don’t they?
October 7th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Journalist know nothing about guns.
The one who wrote this article copied whatever was on the police blotter that he understood.
October 7th, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Yup; a highly suspect story. You have to wonder how many stupid accidents (or intentional shootings) are chalked up to, “I was cleaning it and it just went off” or “I dropped it and it just went off”.
It’d be nice to know the make and model, but then we’d be able to test their theory.
That being said though, there are such things as defective or worn out guns, or guns that have been Bubba’d, and actually can malfunction. Then there is poorly loaded ammo, maybe with a very high primer or some gunk in the primer pocket. Then there are things that are very, very rare, and of course happen anyway just because the chances are something greater than zero.
October 7th, 2011 at 3:11 pm
On further thought, I bet I can make just about any perfectly good, sound auto pistol fire when dropped, just by messing with a primer pocket. The mass of the gun is all I’ll need. Hint; slamfires happen.
October 7th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Lyle wins on the second comment.
If it’s a reasonably old gun (or an old design), there’s unlikely to be a firing-pin block … if it falls on the right axis and the primer’s not super hard, it can, in fact, go bang because it was dropped.
Uncommon, but by no means impossible.
October 7th, 2011 at 7:56 pm
It surely didn’t have a firing pin block.
I bet an older Star, Llama, Tork, etc… or even an old Series 70 1911 Commander in 9mm.
It surely wasn’t a Glock or HK or Sig UNLESS he grabbed it and mashed the trigger.
October 10th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
Could have discharged if the customer tried to catch it while it was falling and his finger triggered it.