TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia has already discussed the necessity of keeping a “hot gun” on your person while you’re home, home on the range. (Psycho killer, qu’est-ce que c’est?) There’s another, less discussed danger on the firing line: stupid people in firearms classes. As I’m sure the AI will testify, you meet all kinds of Bozos during firearms instruction, from dim-wits to the congenitally clumsy to know-it-alls to students who are so gung-ho they forget safety in the pursuit of tactical wikkid pissa-ness. Here’s one I prepared earlier . . .
“A United Nations firearms instructor from France accidentally shot himself during recertification training at Smith & Wesson late Thursday morning,” wwlp.com reports. “Springfield Police Sgt. John Delaney said the man, who is not being publicly identified, shot himself in the thigh during the class.”
Good thing he shot himself and not some poor bystander. Or even a rich one, Rosie. There’s three simple ways to avoid ending-up like the U.N. guy’s thigh.
First, speak up. If you see unsafe behavior, tell the instructor. Provided the instructor conducts a proper intervention, second, get as far away from the doofus as possible. Third, if the instructor just rolls his or her eyes or otherwise fails to deal with the issue, leave the course.
As Lord Humongus told the tribe guarding the juice, as Robert Gordon sang, just walk away. Shake off the whole respect the alpha go-with-the-flow mindset that training entails and get your ass out of there.
Refund reschmund. Remember: one bullet can ruin your whole day.
[h/t to NeonCat for the link]
He is French. Thus endeth the lesson.
I assume it went off when he dropped it and raised his arms.
I laughed. I cried.
I was told that the gun discharged when it hit the floor during the French firearm instructor’s surrender to the paper target.
Did the target look German?
Was the gun a Glock?
What a tough audience.
The first time I had my face down a loaded gun was during a robbery. The second was at the firing range. The guy had this big, chrome thing I swear up and down had to be a damn .50 Desert Eagle waving it around doing the hot brass dance while I was en route to the desk for more paper victims. My world froze as he straightened up and face me an uneasy smile, completely unaware he nearly painted my brains on the wall with his hot, cocked and hammer back cannon. I told the range official, who went back to talk to him and he shortly left. (it was a Taurus 92 in .40 upon his inspection but trauma blows things out of proportion a bit) Had the person not left I would have had to leave. It could not have scared me more. Handing over a wallet had nothing on that and my trusty sidearm remained in holster such was my shock.
Safe zones are much more dangerous than the mean streets for the same reason the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. What you meant to do does not change a bullets trajectory and a room full of people you’ve never met with vastly differing skill levels is just like a mall scenario; you never know who could do what next.
My father lasered my wife and I at a range once. On purpose…thought it was funny. I dressed him down. No apology from him since. No longer shoot with him.
“A United Nations firearms instructor from France” – a cacophony of contradictions, eh?
Why would anyone in France have need for firearms training? I thought they were more sophisticated than us brutish Americans.
One of my instructors was in that class when the guy shot himself. It was a Firearms Instructor Update class. The guy shot himself in the lower thigh. The bullet skipped off his femur and exited in two pieces above his knee. He is lucky that it did not break the bone. My instructor said that the guy was using the same holster that big tex (or whatever his name is from the U-Tube videos) was using. The guy was doing a 180 degree pivot and started struggling with his holster. When the pistol cleared, his finger executed a proper trigger pull and he cranked the round off into his leg. He continued the pivot and shot both of the targets, in the scoring area, holstered and turned around. He then said, in a funny french accent, “I shot my self”. He completed the drill after he shot himself. Kinda reminds me of a saying my Mom used to tell me, If you are going to be dumb, you gotta be tough!
Score another for Serpa?!
Or was it a Glock?
There are more videos out there of ND’s with Glocks then there are with Serpas. I have had pistols get stuck in Bladetechs too. This can be especially bothersome in an IWB holster.
The secret to avoiding this is practice. Holsters require break-in, just like other equipment. I have used Serpas for about ten years and never had a problem after I filed off a few rough edges. Then you practice it some more. You keep practicing until you can not get it wrong.
9 out of 10 times the problem is the operator, not the equipment. But if you blame the equipment, you do not have to admit to yourself that you screwed up.
“A United Nations firearms instructor from France” sounds like the first line of a dirty limerick, kinda like “there once was a man from Nantucket.”
Ralph, how about this?
A firearms instructor from France
Was using an odd shooting stance.
He went down with a cry
And a slug in his thigh
After busting a cap in his pants.
nice!