There’s a handy old saying: friends don’t let friends shoot them. Particularly not twice. And especially not when the shooter’s managed to shoot himself at the same time. Which is what happened yesterday morning when one Reading man tried to show his buddy his gun. . .
Here’s the story, at least as it’s reported by readingeagle.com. The shooter had a bunch of people over for a party that turned into a sleep-over. No word as to whether his mom said it was OK. The next morning, he decided to show his friend his mohaska.
“As he pulled it out of the holster, he fired the gun two times by accident,” (Sgt. John) Solecki said.
The shots went through the shooter’s hand and into the friend’s abdomen. Four other adults were downstairs at the time and three or four children were sleeping in the house.
It can’t be easy to negligently discharge a gun twice. Not if it’s truly negligent. And the coppers are talking to the other people in the house to see if there’s any evidence of malice aforethought.
Then again, if the shooter had intended to look at his friend’s intestinal tract and claim it was an accident, he probably wouldn’t have send the rounds through his own hand first. Which is why we’ve decided to shine our IGOTD spotlight on him. Such extraordinary gun-handling skills shouldn’t go without recognition.
Dan, I simply cannot understand your disbelief. The guy was showing his gun to a dear friend and it just went off. That happens all the time. True, it usually happens when a gun is being cleaned, because we all know that guns are like feral cats and hate to be bathed, but a bad gun can go off at any time.
It’s time that we put the blame where it belongs. I suggest a new category called “Irresponsible Gun of the Day,” where TTAG could feature those disreputable guns that fire without being told to do so. While there are many responsible, law-abiding guns out there, there are some that should never be permitted to be around people.
Awesome.
Perhaps the gun was having PMS? Gotta watch that each month.
I can imagine a scenario where an idiot mistakenly shoots himself in the hand and then out of some spasm of pain manages to pull the trigger a second time. It’s still stupid, though.
And really, really painful.
I find the fetish for chambering a round routinely to be strange. I don’t chamber a round until I’m ready to carefully place the thing in a holster. The first thing I do when I take it out of the holster for reasons other than to shoot something, is to drop the mag, clear the chamber, and reinsert the mag. At home any real danger allows you time to rack the slide if you have the gun in your hand before the burglar clubs you. If don’t have it in your hand, needing to rack is the least of your troubles. Yes, I know that most people disagree. I wouldn’t say this otherwise.
I hope you don’t routinely draw your gun from your holster and make it clear right away.
If you do, you’re setting yourself up with some very bad muscle memory if you’re ever in a SHTF scenario…
That would be kinda funny.
You know, there are a lot of people who aernt alive anymore because they thought they would have time to chamber a round. Guns are surprisingly ineffective with out a round in the chamber, and as a matter of action v.s reaction, I doubt seriously you’ll be able to clear holster, chamber a round, and fire before you’re taken advantage of.
Read his post carefully- he doesn’t carry with an empty chamber; I gather he empties the chamber before he puts it away (rapid access safe, bedside drawer, where ever). I follow the same procedure- if I remove the gun from the holster, I immediately either shoot something or unload it.
I don’t empty the chamber before storing it for the night, however. I just keep it in the holster so that I don’t hit the trigger if I have to grab for it in the dark.
This guy deserves to have big trouble come to him for this moronic event. Hope the guy he shot recovers and sues the snot out of him!
Wouldn’t a duel be more appropriate?
This is Reading. Go there and see what it’s like. This won’t seem so strange then,
It’s also possible that he effectively bump-fired it…
When I saw my beautiful (snark) hometown mentioned in today’s posts I thought for sure that this little incident was being discussed. I ride the Thun (pronounced ‘toon’) Trail all of the time and the first thought that went through my mind when I first heard abut this was what took so long for this to happen. Miles of resurfaced and reconditioned railroad beds running through remote wooded sections of the surrounding Reading area. I don’t even walk out to my car in this town without my P6 on my hip. Riding or walking on that trail without some form of personal protection is just asking for it.
It makes me so sad to think about someone’s teenage son who died because of his monumental stupidity. But I’m not surprised. This town is an absolute wreck. Incidents such as these are, sadly, common. There’s precious little sympathy being expressed by the public towards the adolescent participants in this robbery. There is a lot of support for the 65 year old victim. I have no empathy or compassion whatsoever for any of the three attackers. They asked for it.
Nothing will change in this town because of this.
“Then again, if the shooter had intended to look at his friend’s intestinal tract and claim it was an accident, he probably wouldn’t have send the rounds through his own hand first.”
Then again it does makes for a great defense.
Just going to take a wild guess here and assume drugs and alchohol were involved in the “sleepover”, hope the kids are in protective custody now…..