Originally published at: Cop shoots self through hand and kills bystander while "cleaning his gun" | Boing Boing
…
8 Likes
“mistakenly fired a round”
“we acknowledge many people are grieving”
ACAB, even the people who write their press releases.
20 Likes
They don’t seem particularly suspicious of this one, though, so I guess it’s just a tragic mishap.
I have read in other forums that disassembly-cleaning a Glock requires pulling the slide back slightly and while pulling the trigger. If there’s a round in the chamber, and the person’s hand is over the barrel while going to pull the slide back, and you pull the trigger. . . . .
This guy’s video explains it:
Of course, he says the first step is to pull the slide back and “inspect the gun. Visually and physically…” to make sure it’s not loaded. Then he racks the slide several times to “make sure the gun is empty. Rule #1.” He also positions his hand so it’s not over the front of the barrel.
Because he’s not a dangerous moron.
41 Likes
In my experience, ‘it went off while cleaning it’ is the widespread, default euphemism used for two things: 1) A firearm-related suicide which is awkward or embarrassing to mention bluntly, or 2) avoiding saying flatly that the person is an idiot who was absolutely just fucking around with a firearm. If taken at face value it’s functionally similar to ‘he hit a pedestrian while changing a tire’.
28 Likes
I mean, that’s precisely the issue. The first and most important thing any “responsible gun owner” would do is clear the chamber. Under any circumstance in any location. Someone hands you a gun and says it isn’t loaded? Check the chamber. You pick up the gun that you put in the safe and you’re sure no one has touched since? Check the chamber. You find a gun in a snow bank that looks every bit like it was used in a crime and was tossed out the window of a moving vehicle (happened to me)? Check the chamber. Every time you touch a gun. Check the damn chamber.
ETA: Not really directed at your comment, just pulling the quote.
Exactly.
28 Likes
Cops don’t need guns.
7 Likes
Implies that some sort of training might be necessary.
Hey, what if we had some legislation around that?
OK, fine, I’ll shut up now.
7 Likes
I am surprised no one has pointed out that this cop looks like someone who lived his entire childhood with mittens and a lost child note pinned to his jacket.
i wonder how much time he is going to do for manslaughter. (hahahahahaha)
3 Likes
So Lucy, 'splain it to me please. Is this a good guy with a gun? Is this an example of a responsible gun owner? Apparently a random and totally avoidable ‘accident’ like this is the price we must all pay to enjoy our ‘freedoms’. And the 4,368 gun deaths of CHILDREN in 2020, which for the first time surpassed child deaths by auto accident, are also the price of our ‘freedoms’. Guns now the leading cause of death for US children, CDC says | Fox News
I guess those aren’t bullets, those are ‘freedom projectiles’?
12 Likes
Momma always said, “don’t play with guns”. She was right.
4 Likes
0:36 The physical part of the inspection made me think he was going to lose his pinkie.
@DreamboatSkanky #degunthepolice
4 Likes
you are right! We need MUCH MORE FUNDING for the police so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.
2 Likes
How do you clean a chambered gun?
“It went off when cleaning my gun.” has been this sort of BS excuse to cover everything from a negligent discharges to suicides.
That is true of Glocks and Glock clones. After 40 years of “perfection”, you would think they would switch to a take down lever that doesn’t require pulling the trigger. 
But even if you’re an idiot and didn’t clear the gun while trying to take it apart, you usually wouldn’t have your hand in front of the barrel. Like in the above video, you need one hand to pull the trigger to let the slide move forward, and the other hand pulling down on the little take down lever on the side of the grip. I guess depending on what it was, you could put your hand in front of the muzzle, but that is horrible form.
And where was this other guy? In the house? On the street? This smells incredibly fishy and either something else is going on, or it was a one in a million unlucky coincidence.
That actually is very good practice. So your brain will sometimes ignore something it doesn’t expect to see. Ever see that video where you are counting the number of times a basketball is passed and miss the guy in the gorilla suit walking through? Same thing, your brain doesn’t expect to see a round and will ignore it at a quick glance. Feeling the chamber for a stuck round is one extra level of caution. It is really rare for an extractor to break and leave a round in the chamber after racking the slide 3 times, but it can happen.
10 Likes
I get you; I always pass my hand over the keyboard of my laptop before closing the screen. A colleague knackered two office laptops by not spotting Biros laying on the keyboard before closing the lid. 
5 Likes
The first revision of the Springfield XD series had similar flaw; in order to disassemble the firearm, after removing the magazine and verifying the firearm is unloaded, there’s a lug to rotate, and then you have to pull the trigger (on an empty chamber) in order to remove the slide. They corrected it for later models of the XD line, IIRC.
Personally, when I’m doing a clean up, the first thing I do is unload the firearms, leave the slide locked op to visibly show it’s empty, then take the magazines into another room entirely. (the one firearm that I have that required a magazine in order to disassemble it for cleaning was modified to remove that requirement based on a few things I found researching it, because it’s a Bad Practice to require a magazine (even an unloaded one!) in order to disassemble it.)
I don’t know what sort of training the military give it’s recruits regarding firearm maintenance, but one would hope that it’s a “I want you to prove to me that you can disassemble and reassemble it in the dark in under 10 minutes before you get issued ammunition” sort of thing. (wishful thinking, I know.)
5 Likes
Fundamental firearms training in the military is extremely emphasized. From personal experience, USMC recruit training in the late '90s included extensive daily instruction, cleaning, and dis-/reassembly drills for 5-6 weeks before getting to fire a single round. There were levels of testing and verification at all levels throughout the process, and we were to carry and treat our issued weapons as if they were live the entire time to really pound muzzle discipline, etc. through even the thickest of skulls. There’s less rigor when you rank up a bit later on and are issued a sidearm, but that’s due to the understanding that you already have a very thorough base knowledge.
7 Likes
John Oliver recently did an episode on the cops who write the press releases. They’re exactly what you would expect.
5 Likes
This is also a standard lie for law enforcement to use to make sure the officer’s widow gets the life insurance settlement.
7 Likes
The cop murdered that guy then shot himself through the hand to cover it up, imo.
Oh, no, don’t be so crass. Occasionally there’s also a self-directed firearm-adjacent ballistic incident involving a state employee subsequent to a domestic pugilism scenario, but boys will be boys.
2 Likes
