A familiar caveat: if you are in control of a gun, you “own” it. If someone hands you a gun it’s “yours.” You are responsible for its condition and disposition. No matter what anyone says to you, even if they utter the most meaningless words in the English language (“It’s unloaded”), it’s up to you to maintain firearms safety. Oh, and if you own the gun and hand it to someone, you’re still responsible for its safe handling. And if you see someone handling a gun irresponsibly, you have two options: leave or correct them. Sorry, there’s no getting away from this shit. OK, so . . .
Regular readers wil recall a previous anecdote wherein I revealed that a major AR-15 manufacturer shipped a loaded rifle to the gun dealer. Here we have that same fundamental disregard for firearms safety taken to the next level, both on the shipping AND receiving end. A poster on vaguntrader.com tells the tale. . .
I recently won an auction on gunbroker for a USP compact. It was being shipped from Arizona. I went to a FFL dealer and had all the paperwork done. When I finally got an email from the Senders that they will be shipping the firearm I was happy.
Couple days go by and I am just sitting here waiting for a phone call to go and pick it up. When I received the call I was talking to the owner of the receiving FFL.
Supposedly the shop that shipped it, packaged it fully loaded.
When they realized this it was too late. Inadvertently the employee that was inspecting it ended up shooting himself in the hand. So now my USP is sitting in evidence and there is going to be an investigation.
msnbc.msn.com confirms the story. From the address we can identify the FFL dealer as the Elmore Marine Corps Exchange and Marine Mart at the Norfolk Naval Yard (hence the involvement of NCIS).
Once again, a military outfit displays callous disregard for basic firearms safety. Let that be a lesson to us all: familiarity breeds fatality. Or not, if you’re lucky. Oh, and don’t trust and always verify. There is no such thing as an unloaded gun.
[Hat tip to Benjamin T. Shotzberger]