“Witnesses and the husband told police the group had been drinking in the garage of the couple’s home at 10024 Elliot St. when 22-year-old Anastasia Adair, a new gun enthusiast, went upstairs to a bedroom get her recently purchased assault rifle at about 10:40 p.m.” Even if you didn’t clock the category in which this post is filed, I’d bet you know where this one’s going. “Anastasia [Adair] was walking back down the stairs into the garage when she reached out to hand the rifle to her husband, Shane Adair, a tattoo artist who was below her on the stairs . . .
The gun fired, striking her in the head, two witnesses and the husband, told police.” Yes, the gun fired. Nothing to do with her finger (or anyone else’s) on the trigger. It just went off.
Preventable? Loaded gun, safety off, pointed in the wrong direction, finger on the trigger. I’m thinking yes (as writ). Tragic? Certainly. Messy? So messy. But here’s the funny (peculiar) thing:
Shane Adair told police he’s not sure if he touched the gun as this wife reached out to hand it to him, Federal Heights Police Lt. Gary Toldness said. The gun fired a second time as the wounded woman fell forward on the stairs and her husband caught her in his arms, but that shot didn’t hit anyone, police said.
Time for those three little letters that say so much: WTF? I suppose it’s not impossible, right? The gun was clearly out for blood. And even if you admit the possibility that Mrs. Adair somehow shot herself in the head the first time are we to believe that she kept shooting even after her cranium was severely compromised?
I think I’ll leave that one to a jury.
The Godfather:
Fabrizio (to Michael, who can’t keep his eyes off of Apollonia)
Oh — I think you got hit by the thunderbolt]
CALO (poking Michael’s shoulder)
[In Italian: Michele — In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns]
[Apollonia turns to look at Michael]
My heart goes out to the husband and both of their families.
Hopefully neither I nor anyone I know does this stupid shit…I’m a little worried because I’ve done some pretty stupid stuff 🙂
I’ve noticed that many of these negligent discharges occur when someone has decided he/she wants to show off his/her weapon. There are only three times my weapon is out of its holster or other storage location: 1) during cleaning; 2) at the range; 3) in a DGU situation, which latter, to date, has never happened. Most people don’t know I own or carry, and on the few occasions when someone who does know has asked to see my gun, my answer has been, “No.” I think a gun-owner’s spidey sense should start tingling whenever he/she feels impelled to “show off” his/her ordnance, or alternatively, he/she should imagine hearing Robbie the Robot from “Lost in Space” saying, “Danger, Will Robinson.”
One of the cleaners at my gym saw my gun and asked “Why do you have that?”
“Because I’m an American,” I replied.
“Can I touch it?”
“No.”
Nobody touches my guns unless I’m at a range and I can make sure that A) I’m armed and B) I can make sure they don’t do anything stupid with it.
Were you armed when you gave that stuffed elephant a WMD?
All kidding aside I don’t mind swapping guns with guys at my range. It’s great to be able to try new guns without having to buy or rent a new gun.
Geeze RF you sure he was asking if he could touch the gun?
So, you don’t show your firearms to your shooting friends? Ever? If I have a good friend over that wants to see a new rifle or pistol I have I have no problem showing them. Yes, I would make sure it’s unloaded etc. And they’d only handle it if I knew they were astute with regards to gun safety.
But I can understand your perspective as well.
If I am showing a friend an item, be it at home or on the range or home on the range, I always open the chamber and show them the empty chamber before passing.
I’ve done it at the range, if someone has asked for a closer look at my weapon, and only after assuring myself that the weapon was unloaded, sans magazine, and with the slide locked back. Never at my home under any circumstances.
The rifle fired itself.
The husband will be arrested and arraigned, will probably be accused of manslaughter and released on bail.
Give it 24 hours.
And another: guns and booze don’t mix.
musta’ been one of those democratic liberal guns, or maybe somebody was drunk and pissed and was going to show that SOB …….
over at good old huffpo, the title for this story is “assault weapon goes off.” which is redic, as people of the gun know that the only time a weapon “goes off”is when the trigger is pulled. sad, but stupid and aviodable.
Now they can really call it an assault rifle… now that it’s assaulted the lady.
Stupid people cause death every day. If it had not been a gun, it might have been texting and driving, drinking and driving or something else an intelligent person would refrain from. We can take comfort in knowing that the only life she took was her own. If her husband killed her and is trying to cover it up, it’s doubtful he’ll get away with it.
Yeah, I can imagine a wife having her head blown off her shoulders while passing a cell phone to her husband downstairs. Can you? No? Irony aside, I still think that stupid people + loaded guns are more dangerous than stupid people + cell phones. It’s those stupid ones that will eventually provoke a total ban on firearms.
Excuse me, Stacy aka Anastasia was not Stupid…..and she knew how to handle a gun…thank you very much….
The pisser is that people dumb enough and senseless enough to totally ignore basic firearms safety like this are most likely fair-weather gun owners who won’t go balls to the wall to defend the 2A. It’s not the crabby OFWG with Gadsden flags who keep screwing up and making gun owners look stupid, it’s people who are showing off and not respecting the power and gravity of firearms.
As a crabby OFWG with a Gadsden flag, I’m calling you out, sonny. As soon as my rheumatiz subsides, you’re gonna catch a beating.
What is an OFWG?
Old Fat White Guy
Jesus. 5.56 point-blank to the head.
I doubt dental records would help after a shot like that to prove who she was.
Most likely her hand was on or near the trigger. If I were to bet, I’d guess maybe a ring got into the trigger guard.
Alcohol and guns, not good. They’re drinking in the garage and she wants to add an EBR into the mix. So much stupid.
+1… Only time I drink is in condition white and I never touch a firearm while imbibing … It doesn’t take a lot of booze to be compromised…
What is an EBR?
Evil Black Rifle, AKA an assualt rifle.
“Evil Black Rifle”
She hands him the gun holding it by the barrel? BS It fires twice by itself? More BS We will see if this guy will take the polygraph or not, I’m betting he won’t.
Probably wont need a polygraph when there’s stuff I like to call “evidence” all over the house.
And witnesses. These things happen.
Yep, I’m calling b.s. My uninformed two cents? He murdered her and is now blaming it on the gun magically “going off”.
This reminds me of a local case in Chandler, AZ:
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_southeast_valley/chandler/chandler-man-accused-of-killing-girlfriend
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_southeast_valley/chandler/Chandler-man-gets-21-year-sentence-for-girlfriends-shooting-death
In this case he claimed he wanted to show the rifle to his girlfriend and then claimed that the rifle “shot by itself”.
A girlfriend of mine was on the jury selection but was not picked up. She told me she knew he was guilty from the start, based on his attitude (yeah, the old George Carlin advice: “Tell the judge you can tell someone is guilty just by looking at them”).
Here is how it *could* have happened: he asked her to go pick up the rifle, which he had kept loaded. He then met her halfway in the stairs, where none of the witnesses could see. He then pointed the rifle at her and pulled the trigger. Several times, because the first shot did not kill her. Then he acted for the witnesses to convince them that the “evil rifle” shot his girlfriend on its own.
Again, just a scenario which I am sure the cops are considering.
Natural selection at work.
Count the rule violations:
#1: Check
#2: Check
#3: Check, big time
#4: N/A. There really wasn’t a target, at least if she pulled the trigger.
If 1 or 3 had been followed, this doesn’t happen. If 2 had been observed, no one dies.
“They were drinking”says it all -guns and alcohol don’t mix well
Certainly it’s possible.
Lousy trigger discipline could easily have had her hand in a no-no spot as she handed it off stock-first.
Also, we’re he to grasp the gun, or we’re it to encounter an obstacle such as his chest, her forward-falling body – including her finger – could’ve activated the trigger again. Semiautomatic, y’know.
As to the bit about multiple self-inflicted head shots, that does happen. All sorts of spasms can occur when the noggin gets nicked.
On one call back in my EMT days, we had a guy with half his head off reciting the ABCs over and over. An extra little finger jerk is certainly nothing special.
Funny things, brains. Even funnier when damaged.
It is probably not uncommon for a murderer to claim that it was an “accident”. Good forensics can usually show the difference. I hope that there was good evidence collection in this case.