Manual Safety
A Botetourt County man accidentally shot himself Friday while reading the instruction manual for a gun he’d just purchased.
The 28-year-old sustained injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening after shooting himself in the left leg with a .45-caliber Rock Island Armory 1911 pistol, county dispatchers and officials said.
June 4th, 2012 at 9:51 am
Didn’t read too well. Most gun manuals have a 35+ point lawyer-page that essentially says “Never load or shoot this gun EVER”
Rule #1 would have been sufficient.
I remember seeing a guy at a gun counter who was looking long and hard at an XD of some sort, but was expressing some appropriation about it not having a thumb safety, and stated he’d probably just carry condition 3.
I pointed out that condition 3 is generally a bad idea, and that no safety widget will protect you from bad gun handling, and if he handles the gun safely, he has nothing to worry about.
Not sure if he bought the gun, as I didn’t want to but into his business TOO much.
June 4th, 2012 at 10:02 am
I have to agree with D’beard. If the manual is twenty pages long, eighteen pages are don’t do this, don’t do that.
June 4th, 2012 at 10:50 am
[insert Luke Skywalker pointing lightsabre at his face picture here]
June 4th, 2012 at 11:10 am
I agree with all previous comments. I will ask this question, anywho. In the last, say, 2o years. How many cops have been shot in the leg, because their gun had the safty built into the trigger?
June 4th, 2012 at 11:39 am
If you follow the rule of keeping your finger off the trigger until you are sure of your target and keep any obstructions from entering the trigger guard you will be just fine. A good DAO does not require a safety of any kind.
But the 1911 needs a bunch of safeties 😮
June 4th, 2012 at 11:50 am
@ Jerry – I know of at least one, but he was the only one professional enough to try it.
June 4th, 2012 at 1:32 pm
Jerry – a lot of those were from officers not making sure their holster was clear when they re-holstered the pistol. Those string holders on windbreakers tend to fit perfectly in a trigger guard.
Anything else is poor gun handling. I dont care who you are, cop or not.
June 4th, 2012 at 7:26 pm
Isn’t it interesting how when its a Civ, he “Accidentally shot himself”. But its “Went off” when its the police.
June 4th, 2012 at 7:26 pm
I guess the difference would be only one party is telling the truth…
June 4th, 2012 at 10:26 pm
I had an AD once. I was practicing trigger control with a Mod.19. I had come home from my CCW class, and did what I was told to do. Dump the ammo, then dry fire. That beautiful Mod. 19 was sold.
June 4th, 2012 at 10:55 pm
So, Jerry, you failed to follow the instructions given, which would have been to dump (all) the ammo. You left some (one) of the ammo in the gun. Then you didn’t check the chamber. You also didn’t check it a second time. Then you fired a live round. Then you blamed the gun and sold it.