PilotOnline.com reports an Enemy Press AP story about a gun under a pillow that "went off" and severely injured an off duty police woman.
"Albany
police Sgt. Kinshishi Adams, 34, was lying in bed Sunday when a .40
caliber pistol she kept under her pillow discharged and struck her in
her left wrist, Dougherty County Police Chief Don Cheek said." Oh, that
foul gun! Imagine the horror the officer felt when the gun raised
itself from under the pillow and shot her!
Lest you think it's just the press that misunderstands
negligent
discharge, the police spokesmen obviously misunderstand it as well.
"Both Cheek and Albany police stressed the importance of gun safety in
the wake of the accident. 'We train on gun safety and we stress gun
safety, but even the people who handle guns for a living, accidents
happen,' Cheek said. 'We just stress that firearms are not toys, and
even people experienced with firearms occasionally have accidents.'"
For
the record for those inexperienced with guns: a gun will not generally
"go off" on its own. You must pull the trigger. Now of course the story
is incomplete, as it doesn't indicate how the gun was fired. It could
have fallen on the floor from the bed, but unless the gun is not on
safe and the hammer is back on it, most guns will not fire if dropped
from a small distance. Please note, I said most. As the gun was a .40,
we can assume it was a semi-auto. That means the gun must have had a
round in the chamber with the hammer back, ready to fire. If the gun
didn't fall off the bed, the officer pulled the trigger. That's not an
"accident," that's negligence.
No one should really expect
layers of professional fact checkers and editors to understand this
fact, but you would expect professional law enforcement to understand.
Then again,
maybe not.
Tagged As:
Enemy PressGunsGun Safety