Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Man accidentally shoots self at gun show

Sorry butt excuse for a gun owner, can't load his handgun without a negligent discharge. At least unloading before entering the gun show kept it from happening inside the show endangering fellow show goers.

Utah708: Sickening, that lack of safety and "intelligence" on display there at that pawn shop.
Thankfully you caught that significant breech before someone tried the trigger and hurt someone else!
I attended an estate auction here in Dillon, Montana this past spring.
The estate (including about 30 firearms!) had been moved from a residence to the county fairgrounds and "viewing" of the items commenced at 9:00 A.M. with the auction starting at 11:00 A.M.
I got there at 10:00ish and I found two loaded firearms (one a 12 gauge shotgun!) myself - a friend of mine found a third loaded gun.
This occurred mind you after who knows how many people had handled these arms?
As I found my second loaded arm I took it out the front door of the building and handed it to the estate auctioneer explaining to him what had gone on - I also handed him the tube fed arm and asked him to finish unloading it and then he was instructed to go check the rest of the arms in his auction for more live ammo!
Indeed it is amazing, the attitude and assumptions that people make when handling their (and other peoples!) firearms.
I was serving my third term as a Director of a 16,000 member west coast arms collectors and gunshow association when one of our "members" snuck a Glock pistol into the show (past our door, gun checkers!) and handed the snuck Glock to a "Glock armorer" for "repair" - the Glock armorer promptly shot the cement floor of our shows venue.
The resulting ricochet and shrapnel struck only ONE human (thank God!), unfortunately that human was a 10 year old boy! The resulting [bleep] of civil litigation, insurance problems and building landlord hate filled interactions caused our association a bundle of money and stress filled times!
Over the course of attending gunshows for going on 50 years I have witnessed (heard!) at least 7 or 8 firearm discharges.
It gives me the shivers just imagining the wound a 22-250 round would create on a humans body! I am so thankful you found that lethal situation and handled it as you did.
We should all emphasize and rededicate ourselves to treating EVERY firearm as if it were loaded.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Last time I was at one on my local shops I was showing a customer handguns. I show them one at a time then put them back in the case. Each time I pull one out I clear it behind the counter before passing it over. Well this guy asked to look at the same pistol 3 separate times over the course of examining another half dozen or so and I cleared it each time. The third time he remarked that we had already had it out and I had already checked it twice.

I told him I will clear any gun EVERY time I pull it out of the case as I do not want to miss one. He thought I was nuts, I have never had an ND in any store or gun show where I handle firearms!

I did have one many moons ago, fixing to put my little BUG in the safe after a long shift I ejected the chambered round and then pulled the magazine, pointed it out the back door at a big old Aussie Pine just out side and shot it! I was tired and SCREWED UP, thank GOD I always point it in a safe direction before pulling the trigger. Scared the crap out of me.

There was a gunshop in AZ I went to a couple times where the owner liked to take guns out and shoot them, then reshelve them uncleaned and sell them as new. While there one time I was looking at a rimfire (17 HMR I think) lever gun. When I worked the lever a live round popped out. That was the last time I ever stepped foot in his shop.

While visiting an elderly lady friend of my wife, she said she had a rifle she would like to get rid of, belonged to her deceased husband who had been gone 30+ years. She went in the bedroom and came back with a Winchester leveraction carbine, I jacked one cartridge out of the chamber and 4 more out of the magazine. She said she had never touched it since her husband died and had no idea how to use it.

Unfortunately for all of us, you are not on the editorial board of the AP (least not that I'm aware of). The story reads exactly as they intended it to.

Got that right. Muzzle control is beyond comprehension for some.

In the guide industry it's a peril that always looms present. I don't know how many times I've had to ask guys to open the action and let me see what might be hiding in the chamber. Oftentimes (most times) I'm more concerned about the guy behind me with the gun, than I am of whatever dangers the wilderness contains or the access mode(s) when getting there.

I was in the gun shop adjacent to our local shooting range when one of the "shooters" waiting his turn on the range took a semi-auto handgun out of his range bag and proceeded to hand it to his 8 year old daughter. Neither checked to clear the action to see that is was unloaded, they both carelessly swept the muzzle past both me and my wife. While I was trying to get the hell out of the way of the negligent gun handling, two rednecks were impatiently trying to squeeze behind me and the counter while impatiently saying "excuse me" in a not so polite tone of voice. I promptly told them I was getting the hell out of harms way and if they didn't like it they could go to hell.

Let's see,

Rack the slide..

Drop the magazine..

Pull the trigger...

Works every time. Just that simple..

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To shoot yourself, or someone else!

At the Del Mar fairgrounds gun show just north of San Diego they have gun check point before you enter to sell any personal firearms.

On the desk rests a large clear jug with all sorts of ammo in it, the sign reads ammo removed from "empty" guns.

That is exactly how I shot the pine outside the back door!

Parking lot or not this guy was probably going to do this somewhere. It just happened to be outside a gun show.

It happened to me in my motel room years ago with my G19 ... Scary dumb thing on my part.

G

At my favorite store one day an elderly gent tried the trigger on a Marlin lever gun and put a nice round 30 cal hole in the ceiling. Seems one of the summer hires, read that as grandkids of the owner, took in the traded rifle w/o clearing it. Said he thought one of the other employees had already done that.

In fairness, that store has been in operation for close to 35 years and that is the only incident of its kind.

Whenever I bring someone new into the store I like to point out that hole in the ceiling and remind them of the basic safety rules.

Kilt a Sherrif's Deputy around here a few years back. She "cleared" her issue Glock .40 that way and then was putting it back in the tupperware box. The post in the box depressed the "trigger safety" and the trigger. Tragically she shot herself in the abdomen and died at the hospital or en route.

Years ago I shot a hole in the wall dry-firing an "empty" revolver. Since then I try to avoid ANYTHING that gives me the expectation of routinely pulling a trigger without consequences. This to my mnd is the biggest design flaw of the Glock, the requirement of pulling the trigger before disassembly.

Birdwatcher

I just have to wonder if shooting ones self is considered when issuing a permit to buy or a ccw permit. LOL

Gotta be embarrassing to shoot yourself with your new pistol.

Ps RickHardcastle - welcome to the Fire!