Man shoots himself while cleaning gun

[onehandle]

A Bellevue man shot himself in the thigh Sunday evening while cleaning his gun, police said.

Richard Rankin, 50, was unloading the automatic gun to clean it at his home in the 200 block of York St. when the gun went off, Bellevue police Sgt. Jeffrey Matter said.

The bullet tore through the side of his thigh.

He stayed calm while on the phone with Matter, according to the report.

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/news/2011/feb/22/legshot022211azxml

[Ken_Fish]

1. I hit my mailbox with a boat trailer Saturday.

it did not make the news. I knew a guy who cut his finger off with a "skill" saw..

Can't regulate stupid.

Violation of the 4 rules of safe gun handling. Stupid results ensue.

[cleanhippie]

11. Exactly right.

[Starboard Tack]

14. Boat trailers are for pulling boats not mailing letters

Handguns are for shooting people. Sounds like he succeeded even though he shoots about as well as you drive.

[Ken_Fish]

17. Could have been my neighbors kid. Could have squished him flat.

he would be just as dead as a gun "accident". little corky could have drowned himself in the 5 gallon bucket i use to flush the motor...

I have handguns and have never shot anyone. As a matter of fact all the people I know who own guns have never shot anyone (well not here in the US anyway).

[Starboard Tack]

26. Now I understand why so many in this forum make the car death

gun death comparison. I guess the reason you haven't shot anyone is because you aim your gun the way you aim your vehicle. Otherwise, you appear to be quite conscientious, flushing your motor and all. Keep up the good work.

[Ken_Fish]

36. No its because more stupid people kill others with a car and call it an accident.

its negligence. on the phone and kill someone in an "accident", that should be murder. Drunk, murder.

I haven't shot anyone because I have never intended to. Just like I have never intended to drink a fifth of jack and drive the wrong way up the interstate.

Again accidents happen in diapers.

[PavePusher]

2. Booger-hooker off the bang-switch. Basic rule when handling guns in a non-threat situation. n/t

[Blown330]

12. May not have had his finger near the trigger.

I'm wondering, and I'm not sure some of you noticed, that the article states he was unloading an automatic weapon. Now, if this isn't the usual ignorance in terminology most in the media are guilty of, such weapons often fire from the open bolt position. My experience with the Army's M249 SAW, M240B, and Mk19 40mm (M2 HMG fires from the closed bolt position) is that you pull the bolt operating handle to clear the weapon and if there was a round left on the feed mechanism you wind up with a live round on the bolt face you didn't see. Takes a gross negligence in any case but disassembly could result in the bolt going forward or otherwise causing the weapon to fire without touching the trigger. Just something to think about.

[PavePusher]

13. Possible. But I'm betting on the consistancy of the media in screwing up gun terminology.

I make more money that way. :evilgrin:

[Starboard Tack]

27. God forbid they fuck up the terminology!

Maybe it wasn't even a gun.

[PavePusher]

38. When one kind of gun is legal to own...

and another, nearly identical gun gets you thrown in jail, yeah, terminology gets really fucking important.

"shoulder thing that goes up"

[Euromutt]

15. I doubt he'd have shot himself in the thigh if it was actually an automatic weapon

The foot, maybe, but the thigh seems highly unlikely. I reckon this is just the journalist being unfamiliar with the terminology, and the weapon in question was simply a semi-automatic handgun, probably a Glock. As others better informed than I have put it, "the good thing about Glocks is they're easy to shoot; the bad thing about Glocks is that they're easy to shoot." The requirement to pull the trigger before disassembly has caught out a lot of people who didn't adequately check the chamber beforehand.

[Ken_Fish]

16. My money is on a glock

with no mag inserted and one in the chamber. Limpy here did not clear the chamber or "cleared" it by racking the slide on a live mag then removing it. He then proceeded to pull the trigger to start takedown of pistol. bang.

Some people don't like the fact that you have to pull the trigger on a glock to field strip it, but it is still operator error here.

[AtheistCrusader]

31. 'Automatic' as in Automatic Colt Pistol.

Which only means it uses recoil energy to load the next round into the chamber.

[TheWraith]

3. This doesn't sound like one, but historically many "gun cleaning accidents" were really suicide.

Back in the day when suicide was viewed as a shame on the person and their family, it was often officially deemed an "accident" when somebody shot themselves. The elimination of that attitude, combined with overall better gun safety, is one of the reasons accidental gun deaths are at an all time low.

[spin]

5. I guy I worked with committed suicide while cleaning a firearm ..

Didn't surprise anyone.

[Euromutt]

7. Ernest Hemingway, for one

The official verdict (which nobody believed even at the time) was that he shot himself while trying to lick some fouling out of the muzzle.

[LAGC]

4. There's no such thing as an "accidental" discharge.

It's almost always NEGLIGENCE on the part of the owner/operator.

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS assume a gun is loaded. Keep your fingers away from the trigger regardless.

How hard is it to check and clear the breech before you clean? Don't be stupid, or you win the Darwin award.

[safeinOhio]

8. It is more than stupid and lack of training.

I meet a man at a flea market with a cast on his left hand. Asked what happen and he told me he shot himself, accidently while cleaning his handgun. He then went on to tell me he has been a NRA safety instructor for 36 years.

Accidents can happen to the smartest, most well trained experts in the world. There have been stories of accidental firings and injuries in many safety and training classes. Not by the students, by the instructors. So, stop laughing and pointing fingers and start thinking.

[Ken_Fish]

9. Agree with the think part, disagree with the accident part

accidents happen in diapers, negligence is generally the cause of these things. Short of a mechanical breakage (firing pin stuck forward, weapon dumps mag) the discharge is negligent. Even in that case if the rules have been followed the rounds went into a safe direction.

The accident will be in the persons shorts after this event.

[safeinOhio]

10. I think the point is, if negligence can happen to

instructors and experts, they can happen to anyone.

[benEzra]

18. Negligence is something you *do*, not something that happens to you.

If you never, ever allow the muzzle of a gun to point at yourself or in another unsafe direction when clearing it, or disassembling it, or cleaning it, you will never shoot yourself or anyone else. Period.

If you keep your finger off the trigger unless you are actually shooting, or are clearing/dry-firing toward a safe backstop, you will never have the gun "go off" due to a finger on the trigger. Period.

It seems to me that if this guy has been a safety instructor for 36 years and can't follow the Four Rules, I'd question his competence. To accidentally shoot yourself or someone else, you have to break two or three of the four rules simultaneously; e.g., if you violate Rules One and Three but are following Rule Two, the resulting ND won't hurt anyone.

[Starboard Tack]

30. Apparently not if you know the right terminology

Instructors and experts know how to "field strip" their guns. Unfortunately many of them also like to drink and can't drive worth shit. (See above) So not wanting to kill anyone with their "weapon car" going to the field, they stay home to strip and shoot themselves.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hoyt]

19. He certainly sounds stupid. In this country, folks like him walk around armed in public daily.

[Spoonman]

20. I would venture to say

that 100,000 times more "stupid folks" are driving past school bus stops while texting, putting on makeup, eating breakfast, reading the paper, and talking on the cell phone daily as well.

Additionally tens of thousands times more "stupid folks" are driving intoxicated every day.

Let's not forget the hundreds of thousands times more "stupid folks" that are operating cranes, forklifts, refineries close to populated areas, and the hundreds of other activities that could create a deadly situation!

Stay safe, STAY IN BED!

[Hoyt]

21. So, why allow stupid people on the streets with guns in their waistband?

Talk about "staying in bed." If you can't walk out of your house without a gun, what does that say about a person?

[Spoonman]

22. I'll answer that with a question

why allow stupid people to posses or operate ANYTHING that endangers another's life?

If you can't walk out of your house without worrying about who might have a a gun, what does that say about a person?

[cleanhippie]

29. Why allow stupid people to post articles online?

[Hoyt]

32. To give other stupid folks something to read.

[cleanhippie]

34. Birds of a feather...

[cleanhippie]

28. After reading your posts here and on HuffPo, one could say the same about you.

Try and not be so insulting.

[mediator]

35. Many of them wearing law enforcement uniforms.

:eyes:

[DirkGently]

23. If he hadn't had a gun, he would have just shot himself with a knife or a car. Happens all the time.

[Euromutt]

25. Shot? No. Injured? Very possibly.

But you knew that.

[Ken_Fish]

37. Or killed someone drinking and driving.. quick ban booze.

before someone else is killed. think of the children.

[slackmaster]

24. Auto-unrec for drive-by "current events" post with nothing to connect it to the forum topics

:nuke:

[May Hamm]

33. While cleaning? or While unloading ?

It appears he was unloading the gun preparing to clean it. Is this a case of a shortcut by a news writer for a juicier headline? Some may think I'm just being picky but there is a difference, isn't there?