Ever since TTAG hit the net, we’ve been arguing that there’s no such thing as an accidental discharge. It’s a “negligent discharge” or ND. In other words, guns “going off” when they’re not supposed to is a preventable occurrence. If all gun owners followed the four safety rules, a true firearms “accident” would require a strange and statistically improbable set of circumstances to qualify. It seems that the rest of the media is beginning to “get it” in terms of terminology. See: above. And make the jump for another example of a blogger who’s seen the light thanks to the same story . . .
The term “accidental discharge” in this instance is a strawman. It is highly unlikely that the officer’s weapon malfunctioned and shot off a round with no trigger pull; nor did the officer believe he was in a training environment shooting blanks and accidently fired a live round.
This officer had his weapon out, with the intent to use it. If he didn’t intend to kill the boy on the balcony, then he shouldn’t have pulled the trigger.
Using the term “accidental” defers the liability away from the officer. The appropriate term in this instance, if this story isn’t entirely fabricated, is negligent discharge. At the very least, the injuries sustained by this boy were negligently inflicted upon him by this officer.
Had a common citizen done this exact same thing, they would be sitting in a jail cell right now.
It is quite unfortunate that most people will accept this as some tragic accident, which could have been avoided had these kids simply chosen to play elsewhere. They will miss the point entirely, of a weapon being drawn by an overzealous and apparently trigger-happy officer.
TTAG welcomes freethoughtproject.com blogger Matt Agorist to the fold. We look forward to the day when the sycophants in the mainstream media get the message that guns are dangerous only when they’re in the hands of dangerous people. Hey, I can dream can’t I?