As Matt in FL reported in Monday’s Daily Digest, there are mounting suspicions (so to speak) that guns owners wielding flashlight-equipped firearms are more likely to discharge their gun negligently than gun owners handling firearms without on-board illumination. Maybe so; any mechanical function, physical task or mental challenge added to the process of firearms manipulation increases the odds of a ballistic boo-boo. But – just like real estate – gun safety is all about location, location, location. Specifically finger and muzzle location. Keep your finger off the bang switch or your muzzle pointed in a safe direction (preferably both at the same time) and nothing bad can happen. Not that you’d know if reading this story [via liveleak.com] . . .
Deputies said 22-year-old Kyle Guessford bought new accessories for his pistol.
He was checking them out in his room and then decided to walk into the living room with the gun. When he turned on a mounted flashlight, the gun somehow fired . . .
Chris Brunson woke up to the gun shot.
He was asleep on the couch when the bullet hit his brother, 22-year-old Austin Brunson, in the head. He died before paramedics arrived.
“Right down to the end I watched him and looked into his eyes,” said Brunson. “As I watch him going, he fought for every breath. He was just a fighting kid and just wanted to press on.”
Guessford has not been charged.
Not even with involuntary manslaughter? Anyway, guns don’t somehow fire. By perpetuating the idea that firearms have a will of their own they imperil our natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Responsibly.