Think it can’t happen to you? Guess what – it can. Get the neurons and synapses confused with things other than the task immediately at hand and it won’t matter how many certifications or how many years of experience you’ve had. Just ask firearms instructor Michael Craig. By all accounts he’s not the first guy you’d expect to unintentionally loose lead in an unintended direction. Especially when that direction includes his own right leg . . .
But he did. Few of us can match Craig’s CV:
According to the Ohio Shooting Sports website, he has been involved with firearm instruction and training for the past 20 years and is a National Rifle Association Certified Home Safety Instructor, a NRA Certified Pistol Instructor, an NRA Personal Protection in the Home Instructor and a Certified NRA Range Safety Officer, among other qualifications.
But no matter how many NRA classes you’ve ponied up for or how long you’ve been shooting, our research shows that keeping your finger off the trigger ’til you want to shoot prevents 99 and 44/100% of all negligent discharges.
Craig was teaching a class and demonstrating “how to take a defensive stand and shoot close to a target.”
Craig told Deputy Darrin Bohn he had taken the Glock Model 35 out of his holster, fired two shots, holstered it, pulled it out of the holster and fired two more shots.
When Craig went to reholster the gun for the third time, he pulled the trigger and shot himself in the right calf, Craig told Bohn.
And the anti-Glockinistas jump on the dog pile in three…two…one…. To save a few million electrons in the comment section, note that Craig admitted that he pulled the trigger on the shot that Grebnered his leg so, Glock or not, whatever gun he was packing would have “gone off” like his 35 did. Just sayin’.
No matter the gun, it pretty much all comes down to focus with a dash of muscle memory thrown in for good measure. Craig was probably sure nothing like that would ever happen to him. How many of us have thought the same thing? So he’s a rare Cautionary Tale of the Day winner, but we’re guessing Michael would be just fine with that if it gets the point across to even one other gun owner.