“Police policy was not followed leading up to a school assembly where a student pulled the trigger of an assault rifle mounted on a police motorcycle [not shown] and three children were injured by bullet fragments, authorities said.” Ya think? “Department rules state the rifle chamber should be empty when it is mounted, Police Chief Miles Pruitt said in a statement. ‘The preliminary investigation has shown that the established safeguards and procedures were not followed.” [In an email statement to TTAG, reader and LEO Hasdrubal points out that “It’s still irresponsible that they left a gun mounted to a motorcycle and walked away from it, in my opinion, chambered or not. The lack of ability to completely secure a long gun is why my department does not allow motors officers to carry a rifle on duty.”] Regrets? Pruitt has a few. ‘It is unfortunate that this event occurred and I will make every effort to ensure it does not happen again.'” Save messing with the union in a doomed attempt to fire the person or persons responsible for the negligent discharge that wounded three students.
The safety was off also?
IDK, but the same fingers capable of pulling the trigger could have easily flicked off the safety.
Yeah, but do you really believe it?
According to their press release back on the 24th, yes, the safety is supposed to be off.
You can find the full press release here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/178864292/Chino-Police-statement-on-gun-accident
Why 27?
I was wondering that myself. Maybe because the last three cause too much spring tension and could cause FTF
Our policy was strict at 28 rounds. Two reasons, FTF during intitial T&E of the long guns and Post shoot if you can’t find brass, you should be able to count live rounds left to determine how many rounds were fired.
Taking a SWAG that they might want to keep that little extra pressure off the spring and that swapping in a fresh mag on a closed bolt is easier if the round count is reduced.
I always load 25, personal preference. Spring tension isn’t high enough to make loading a chore, and 4 mags equals 100 rounds, so accounting for ammo spent is easier.
Safety is off puzzles me.
It also looks like there was a violation of “The rifle bolt is forward with the hammer down”
On an AR15, if the hammer is down, the safety cannot, physically, be on. You have to cock the hammer in order to be able to put the safety on.
Marcus, you are right of course. It didn’t really occur to me because of course the only real reason to have the safety on is if the rifle is cocked and loaded, with one in the chamber.
So if I invented a device that completely secured a long gun to a motorcycle, I could sell them to PDs? Seems easy enough.
Maybe, but apparently if you make one that doesn’t secure a rifle you’ll be rolling in dough.
This could also fall under the lack of firearms education in the u.s. Ive known at 5+ to keep booger hook off bang switch.
This was my thought. I know I would have not even thought to touch the rifle, especially someone else’s rifle without asking. If kids were taught about firearms then the chance that they would remove the booger hook from their nose would be lessened.
I am amazed they actually accused someone of pulling the trigger. Everybody knows that firearms just go off sometimes.
They go off and kill people all by themselves every day. FACT!
Maybe he should have had it pointed at the frig or his TV instead. I know for a fact a shotgun will not pass through a frig, as I shot mine in my kitchen (on purpose) It needed to be put down out of kindness.
The LEOs should be fired. If not, typical.
Unless there’s an imminient threat rifles and shotguns should be kept unchambered.
For police maybe. But the AR in my bedroom is kept with a loaded chamber, safety on at all times. If an intruder is in the house, nothing will give them your location faster than racking that charging handle. And I don’t believe in the whole “rack your action to scare them off” nonsense. You know what will scare off intruders? 62 grains of lead and copper traveling at their torso at 3000 fps.
Some of us have small ones either full time or at least on a regular basis. I feel better with an unchambered shotgun. And many years ago when my young ones were not my grandkids I ran an intruder out of my house by racking a shotgun. Maybe in hollywood action films the bad guys engage a man with a shotgun in his own home, but in the real world they run like striped assed apes.
I concur with jwm. The level of safety on an I chambered gun is much better. No I won’t rack the gun expecting them to run away, but if they do all the better. As far as opsec is concerned, unless I suspect they are there specifically to harm or that they’re ninjas, I’ll probably give a verbal warning anyways.
I sleep with a ready to go .40 sig. The AK47 is near, but un-racked. I’m a gun is always ready to shoot person, just not the AK47. I don’t know why either. The mag is in, I just have to flip the lever and rack one and it’s ready. Maybe I like that little margin of safety.
Learn your younguns about guns at an early age.
If I put my tin foil hat on, this seems like a convenient case to argue that guns, specifically EBRs are inherently dangerous regardless of operator.
Reading into the core of the issue, it is apparent that idiots are the true danger:
Tacticool motoLEO breaking policy and driving around with one in the pipe= idiot
Those who will fall for the generalization above=idiots
Legislators passing bills on firearms with no working knowledge whatsoever= idiots
And finally the electorate who keeps voting them in= idiots
I take exception many of the Evil Fools in office are there due to a century’s worth of voter fraud
The primary reason for downloading a 30 round magazine is that most mil-spec metal magazines can be loaded with 30 but when inserted on a closed bolt, as when getting it cruiser/cycle ready, many will not seat properly because there’s no longer enough room for the rounds to compress into the mag when coming into contact with the bolt. That’s why most serious carbine courses have you load no more than 28 rounds. I’ve seen many mags hit the deck after firing a round after a closed-bolt reload because the mag wasn’t fully seated. With P-mags it isn’t an issue since they’ll seat completely even with 30 rounds loaded. The real question here is what kind of cheap-ass crap is that department using for racks? Any substantial rack I’ve ever seen in service is made so that the trigger is covered when the gun is mounted completely precluding an incident such as occurred here.
I wish firearms education for children was a mainstream thing nationwide. In my opinion, it would GREATLY reduce the number of accidents and tragedies that happen. My 5 year old stepdaughter has been taught the basics of gun safety, because i noticed she showed interest in touching them. Now, she knows how they work and what kind of damage they can do (watermelons and hollowpoints demonstrate this wonderfully), and is perfectly fine with leaving them alone until she is big/mature enough to be instructed in their proper handling and use. She doesn’t even react to the gun on my belt any more, she just knows to leave the guns alone and nothing bad will happen. I can’t wait til she’s mature enough to learn how to shoot properly.
Also, and this applies to every gun owner, not just cops, how could you be comfortable leaving a weapon in plain sight without checking, double-checking, and possibly checking again that it is in a safe condition and properly secured? I’m fine with motorcycle cops having rifles, I don’t think they should be left with the short stick just because they’re riding, but if it were me I’d be extra special sure that my weapon was unchambered until I needed it. Human error is an unfortunate thing that happens to everyone, but that doesn’t make this any more forgivable because it could have been prevented with a 5 second check.
Nice picture.
Are they coming up on the wire across the road?
Nah, they’re not in NYC.
If you are showing it off at a school assembly, why not just throw in a chamber flag?
There have been a few postings in recent weeks on TTAG which fail to identify where a story originates in either geographical terms or by way of an internet link. While it is possible to bing/google for the missing detail(s), it shouldn’t take much effort for the writers to include either a source link or some indication of city/state/country. Thanks to the earlier commenters for filling in the missing information as to where this incident occurred.
/rant off
Agree. Name of town/city given, but no state. Five Ws: who, where, why, when, why. First-year journalism school, first semester. First day, probably.
The only question I have about a police officer leaving his weapon in a loaded position while not readily in command of it, in a school, and available to anyone who walks up to it. So a student walks up and pulls the trigger. How do the anti-2A crowd report on this one. On one hand you have one of the only supposedly professionals supposedly allowed to own and use semi-auto weapons per the anti’s but on the other will they count it as a statistic or action that could of killed a student and forget to mention that it was a PDs weapon.
I carry every gun with one in the pipe.
That being said the officer in question is a complete idiot for the following reasons:
1. Leaving his vehicle unsecured and unattended (Big no-no, as in you will get yelled at big time)
2. Leaving a loaded gun on the rack knowing there were going to be little kids around.
3. Leaving one in the pipe on a gun mounted on a motorcycle that is completely exposed to the elements. I think it is wise to have a car-gun ready to rock and roll for multiple reasons, but it confounds me why you do that to a motorcycle gun since it could go off during a bad wipe out, especially if the safety is off.
I think the agency policy is pretty stupid for mandating the safety be off on their guns……
Off the subject a bit..the picture at the top of the article..is that a circus tactical unit? Or just a parade..it looks hilarious..I hope it is supposed to be funny..
Looks like India to me. Some kind of military stunt team for parades and special occasions.
They couldn’t trust Ranjeet with a gun, so they put him on top with some “tactical binos”
I too thought this was the photo of the week contest. My entry would be: “Short of funds for the armored personnel carriers, we made do”.
The latest team of security specialists trained by James Yeager.
We carry our long guns without a round in the chamber with the safety on. The guns are capable of being fired while locked in the vehicle mount. Therefore, I am mindful to secure my patrol car. Any weapon under my control or in my patrol car is my responsibility, and I take that very seriously.
If I am taking a patrol car to a public affairs event, I can also lock and secure the weapons in the trunk so that they are not a available, or I can lock them in the area vault.
It is a shame that the LEO in this story failed to secure his firearm, and he should be penalized for his negligence.
One shot to the soldier operating the cycle and there will be lots of broken bones after the others hit the ground.
OMG I can see it now, the open carry activist are going to try this in Texas real soon. Hopefully they use a Harley.