We’ve had a spate of gun owners dropping guns that somehow manage to “go off.” Yesterday, we offered a fairly plausible – if entirely inexcusable – example: a dropped derringer that discharged delinquently. (Or, less passively, a negligent gun owner who dropped a derringer that discharged.) Today, wbiw.com reports that “Columbus Police Chief Jon Rohde was at the store at about 8 p.m. Saturday night when he heard a gunshot . . .
Rohde told The Republic that 56-year-old Tony E. Ward of Columbus had been carrying a .22 pistol in a holster on his waistband. The gun fell from his waist and discharged. The bullet went through a soda bottle in a cart and struck the right arm of 26-year-old Virginia Thompson, who was pushing her newborn baby when the gun went off. The bullet hit the outside of Thompson’s arm and after treatment by paramedics she declined to be taken to the hospital. Rohde told the paper that Ward had a permit for the handgun and Ward was not arrested.
Another derringer per chance? Anyway, in neither case did the police press charges against gun owners who carried their firearms in an irresponsible manner (ipso facto). Should they? Should the offender’s license be suspended? Should there be a distinction between NDs in public places, at home or on the range? Or is it a matter of leave well enough alone? [h/t WW]