It only takes a momentary lapse of attention and concentration to lead to a negligent discharge.
What’s worse: if you’re not paying attention to the three rules, it can hurt.
Such was the case with a University of Illinois Police Training Institute firearms instructor who shot himself in the leg today.
The local TV station said the incident happened during a routine training session.
Pretty sure violating the cardinal rule of “don’t point the muzzle at anything you’re not willing to destroy” / keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction isn’t part of routine training.
I’ve met more than a few of their firearms instructors there and they’ve all been impressive in their skill sets. A few have been almost legendary. Tom Kilhoffer, for one.
Either someone grew a little sloppy in their gun handling or something unexpected happened to cause the gun to fire. In any event, he shouldn’t have been pointing it at his soft body parts. It brings home the importance of the three rules for all firearms owners and instructors alike.
Here’s our best wishes for a speedy recovery.
So… just wondering: What is the procedure when an instructor has a accidental or negligent discharge?
Aside from time off because of the injury, will he no longer be teaching for a while?
How embarrassing.
Granted, the training I had was nothing like the 40 or 80 hours that cops get, I must say though, there was 0% chance of an instructor shooting him or herself – or one of us. There was no ammo in the classroom and they were all quite attentive to checking and double checking for “unloaded” every time they piked up a gun – even when the action was open.
Sam
I won’t badmouth him. I had one when I was 18. Didn’t shoot myself though.
For us normal people… there are just a very few simple gun safety rules. It typically takes abusing at least two or three of those rules for a person to be accidently shot.
Simply missing one of the safety rules should still leave you protected.
I feel for him. But it is a reminder that there are no “special” people when it comes to safe gun handling. We all have to respect the power of that tool.
BASIC Firearms Safety Rules:
1. Always point your firearm in a safe direction. Pointed at one’s leg is not a safe direction.
2. Keep your finger off of the trigger until you’re ready to fire. Firearms don’t go off by themselves, a finger is required to pull the trigger, as in this case.
3. If you forget the first two rules, something bad is going to happen, as did in this case.