I just heard on the news how yet another individual has shot themselves while "cleaning their gun" Having many eons experience cleaning weapons I fail to see how this happens. Even if you ignored the basic rule of making sure it was unloaded before starting and were just wiping down the outside what would possess someone to point it at their stomach and pull the trigger. Or how would someone be running a cleaning rod down the barrel, hit an obstruction (live round) and pull the trigger to see what's up? Or why would someone be running a cleaning rod down the barrel without the action at least being open? None of this makes sense to me, usually the very act of cleaning requires it to be unloaded first.
I strongly suspect that these people were goofing around, drunk or on drugs trying to duplicate some impossible stunt they saw on TV or the movies and in the process shot themselves, when this happens I tend to think the standard statement to the police is "Oh poor me I was just cleaning it when it went off" instead of " Ahhh.... officer I was smoking dope while practicing quick draw and shot my foot" or "Officer my buddies and I were drinking and I was brandishing it around and fell down and shot my friend" but instead they claim to have been cleaning it. This kind of information gets spread around and makes the dumb public think guns are so unsafe and unpredictable that they will fire for no reason. Who knows maybe it's less paper work for the police to write it up as a cleaning accident. If it wasn't for the Second Amendment I would say some people are too stupid to have guns.
A lot of idiots out there. Some are dangerous with a pencil in their hand!
ReplyDeleteVery true, Stupid people shouldn't vote or have guns.
Deleteokay as stupid as that is, I actually have one better.. Once while visiting seniors dad,a story popped up in the local paper about a man, who was using his gun as of all things - a Hammer while working in his garage, yes it was loaded, and yes this brilliant person shot himself.
ReplyDeleteThat is pretty dumb. Thanks.
DeleteI don't want to get to cocky because I certainty am not perfect, but then again, every single person, blog, article, instructor etc has stressed safety and gone into pain staking detail about exactly how to safely care, store and clean a gun. Also, though not quiet as often, waving the gun around while drunk, doing drugs or pretty much at all has also been mentioned. My 6 knows the rule like the back of his hand, so good grief dude, what the heck?!
ReplyDeleteMy point exactly, bottom line is regardless of what you are doing don't point it at yourself unless it's unloaded and action open.
DeleteBubba, even with the Second, many ARE to stupid to own guns...you are correct, most of these shootings are nothing more than people acting like children with loaded weapons in their hands.
ReplyDeleteI could make more comment here but it would get ugly. Thanks.
DeleteDear Duke - there are stupid people and then there are really stupid people. and all of them are allowed to have guns! you are right tho - with these kinds of stories in the news, otherwise smart people who aren't familiar with weapons think that guns are highly dangerous and go off on their own all the time. jeesh! good post buddy!
ReplyDeleteyour friend,
kymber
Thanks Kymber, It's true there plenty of uninformed or misinformed people out there.
DeleteA friend of mines husband shot himself in the hand when he was supposedly cleaning a pistol. Yep...He was drunk.
ReplyDeleteCase in point,thank you Mamma Bear.
DeleteI've never been taught how to properly handle guns, but at least I have the brain capacity to read the manual first, and not be drunk. Oh, and to unload it before cleaning it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, these knuckledragging mouthbreathers are just giving the left more reasons to try to ban guns.
Mudbug, very true, this gives the anti gun crowd fuel for their agenda.
ReplyDeleteYep, wonders never cease. Since we've started sharing stories there was the one where the guy didn't have a drill and needed a hole in a pipe, so he thought it would be easy to do it with a 9mm. The hole ended up in his leg instead.
ReplyDeleteThat is funny, I could see that happening.
DeleteIt seems so many of these stories happen when people "drop the hammer" just prior to disassembly, or when like several popular polymer pistols pulling the trigger is part of field stripping it(rack the slide to remove the round in chamber then they drop their magazine not realizing they loaded a new round when they racked the slide). Said moron then puts their off hand in front of the muzzle to catch the disengaging slide and puts a hollow-point through their hand.
ReplyDeleteWhile I tell myself that I'd never be that careless it is one reason that guns with separate take-down levers personally get bonus points when I go to buy.
Could be, probably one reason some gun makers design the guns not to fire with mag removed but it is hard to design out stupidity.
DeleteFrom what I understand, "cleaning the gun" sounds better than "doing someting boneheadedly stupid" and much better than "suicide".
ReplyDeleteVery true.
DeleteI agree with Anon above. During our licensing course it was explained that when a corpse is discovered with a gun, a hole in the head, and a cleaning rod in hand, it's typically listed as an accident rather than a suicide.
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of reasons for this. In particular it's easier on the family, who can collect on the life insurance policy and believe that their loved one didn't fall into a pit of despair from which there is only one escape (morbid enough for ya?).
And if the attempt fails, well then you don't want to end up in a nut-house, do you?
Hmmmm....so the cops could carry extra cleaning rods to 'plant' on the victim.
ReplyDelete