Ok, but also, you probably shouldn’t have pointed it at your finger and pulled the trigger
WBKO:
A former Glasgow police officer is suing a Barren County gun store after being handed a loaded gun from under the counter and accidentally shooting his finger off.
According to a civil lawsuit filed Friday, former Glasgow police officer Darrell Smith went into Barren Outdoors back in March and asked to see a .380 caliber handgun.
He then held the gun after receiving it from under the counter. Smith began to examine the gun and then cocked it. The gun was actually loaded and fired, shooting off part of Smith’s index finger.
And, before squeezing the trigger, you probably should have made certain it was unloaded.
January 14th, 2015 at 3:35 pm
How odd. That round must have magically teleported in there after he checked chamber. He did check when it was handed to him, right? That’s why he felt safe in violating the rest of the basic rules?
January 14th, 2015 at 3:38 pm
This guy should be paying the stupid tax (the tax society imposes on stupid people) all by himself.
January 14th, 2015 at 5:11 pm
Hey, cops are highly trained to operate guns far more safely than civilians.
Which is why this didn’t happen.
January 14th, 2015 at 5:45 pm
Thirty years a cop? Guess the people of Glasgow dodged that bullet.
And he claims that his handling of the firearm was with all due diligence and care. You know except that finger, he must have hated that finger to violate the rule about not pointing a gun at things you don’t want to destroy.
January 14th, 2015 at 5:49 pm
Sigivald is right; the story is obviously false. I can see the Snopes entry; “False! Cops are better trained than this. QED.”
On the other hand, it is not entirely implausible to think that the cop put the round in there and deliberately shot a little bit of his finger off so as to blame one of those evil gun dealers, thus taking a small one for the team. He’s a Progressive hero now, no? And possibly a Progressive hero with money.
For how much money would some people shoot the tip off of one of their less important fingers? I had a cousin who contemplated having a knee surgically fused, so he could be on socialist security “disability” for the rest of his life. It happens, People.
OK, so we blend these two ideas onto one; He did on purpose, and the proof that he did it on purpose is the widely understood fact that he’s been highly trained as a professional cop to never, ever do that kind of thing.
January 14th, 2015 at 5:53 pm
Side benefit for the narrative; “Guns are so highly dangerous that even a super-duper, highly trained professional law enforcement officer ends up being hurt BY A GUN!!! (ZOMG!!!, Ban ’em all, and all the rest, times a thousand!!!)”
Meanwhile, forty thousand people will die this year in the U.S.in traffic accidents and no one cares, because caring wouldn’t advance the narrative.
January 14th, 2015 at 6:29 pm
A couple of points:
1 – he muzzles the patrons down the counter before he shoots his finger. He could just have easily shot one of them.
2- a gun store is negligent if they hand somebody a loaded gun. Mock the guy for carelessness, but the store is not absolved. Their insurance rate should go up.
3 – this is why too many stores and gun shows insist on keeping a gun lock through the gun, and don’t take it off to let customers rack the slide or cycle the action until the gun is paid for. ‘That guy’, ruining it for the rest of us.
January 14th, 2015 at 8:25 pm
In a general sense, life is fraught with dangers. Is guns; is not safe– they shoot heavy little slugs at high velocity. Their purpose is to be “dangerous”.
People get hurt and even killed on the ski slopes too, so if your attitude is “safety first” don’t go skiing. Learn the risks, be reasonable, but don’t expect to avoid all injuries all the time. If you fall and break your leg, well you knew it was a risk before you started. If you’re going to bitch because I’m going down the hill too fast, well, Honey, that’s why I’m there– to go too fast. Stay home and out of other people’s way if you can’t deal with it. If you mess up and run into me, well, I might get pissed temporarily but I knew the risks before I got out of bed that morning.
Four little rules. They are so simple to memorize and simple to recite. But they are just words. Living the meaning behind the words is something else altogether.
January 14th, 2015 at 9:02 pm
He didn’t treat this gun like a loaded gun. Check.
He actually did point the gun at something he didn’t want to destroy. Check.
He didn’t keep his booger hook off the bang button. Check.
He didn’t check where the gun was pointing, and what was beyond it. Check.
This genius violated ALL FOUR rules. I’m amazed he missed out on the Darwin Award.
(I actually tell people I take to the range about Rule Five — if you drop a gun, don’t try to catch it. I guess it’s just as well that this rocket scientist didn’t try for that one too.)
January 14th, 2015 at 10:35 pm
@Lyle – way to many Americans view “safety first” and the concept behind don’t go skiing if you don’t want to accept the dangers of other skiiers as the justification for confiscating your guns. They want their safety put first, and they don’t want to have to get their own gun. Having the police take your guns doesn’t have any downside for them.
Their equivalent to your “If you’re going to bitch because I’m going down the hill too fast, well, Honey, that’s why I’m there– to go too fast” is “if you’re going to bitch about getting robbed and murdered because you were disarmed, well, Honey, that’s what we want to happen, and you deserve it.”
January 16th, 2015 at 4:52 am
Another example of why LEOs are not on my list of people to use as examples of safe and proficient firearms use.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:15 pm
Well at least the ex-cop didn’t look down the barrel to see if it was loaded.
Some do.