[GLOCKBUSTER]

Live and work just outside Knoxville, TN. Was watching noon news and the top story was that a 20-30 year old female had been shot in the head at Gun Craft Sports. The female died. No details as of yet.

Gun Craft is a gun store and indoor range in West Knoxville.

[Chipperman]

Prolly suicide. :(

[ocabj]

A friend of mine told me about an incident he read in the local paper about an indoor range in our area. Apparently, some guy rented a handgun and bought some range ammo, went to a station, then shot himself.

[RustyHammer]

.... :banghead:

[glockten]

GLOCKBUSTER, can you post a link to the story, or that TV station's website?

[hso]

~27 year old female shot herself in the head with a .38 rental gun while on the range. She waited for the range to clear and then killed herself with a .38 wad cutter fired into the right rear of the head. The bullet didn't exit.

To say the least, the staff of Guncraft were heartbroken over this.

[Standing Wolf]

I feel sorry for whoever has to clean up the mess.

[Darrin]

Suicide on a budget. :rolleyes: If someone wants to take his/her own life, I'm not one to stand in the way. However, don't take down an honest business with you.

She could have rented the gun, then steal it and kill herself somewhere else.

I hope Guncraft's business doesn't suffer from this. :(



Sorry if I sound cold regarding the suicide. I do send prayers to the family of the girl.

[glockten]

Darrin, I feel much the way you do.
Suicide is the ultimate in selfishness. No regard is given to the impact on loved ones left behind, witnesses to the act, or those who have to clean up the mess.

[Bergeron]

I shot over there during this summer. It is very disheartening to hear that there was a suicide at the range, considering how safe and professional the staff was. My thoughts are with them, and I hope that they will be able to recover (emotinally as well as finacially) from this event.

[Kendra Pacelli]

Being new and all, I shouldn't post an opinion, however, some people feel that there is nothing left but to kill themselves. I am sorry to hear about the store, however, I am sorry that this woman didn't find the help she needed to get out of whatever drew her to kill herself.

My prayers are with her and her family.

[Bigjake]

Hey welcome to THR! don't feel that in being new to the board means you should be quite! voice your oppinion, this place would be very dull and pointless if people waited till they had some sort of "seniority" before posting! i myself am usualy a lurker and just read more than post, but if you have something to say, by all means, say it!

[glockten]

Being new and all, I shouldn't post an opinion

Sure you should; post count is no measure of the validity of an opinion.;)

Welcome to The High Road!

BTW, Kendra, let me direct your attention to this thread (www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36393) and invite you to join us.

[Kendra Pacelli]

Thanks for the welcome Glockton and bigjake, oh, and you all can be sure I will continue to post some opions, I just hope I don't make @??? of myself.

:D

[mattd]

http://www.volunteertv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1428014&nav=4QcHHnit

and the guy

http://www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php?Template=local&Story=5807394

[Tamara]

...that it hasn't happened sooner.

The grim truth is that something like this is a fact of life if you have a range and rent guns; sooner or later someone will come in and eat a bullet with a rental gun. My co-worker, the gunsmith at our shop, worked at Guncraft for 12 years and had a few choice words on the subject. One thing for certain; you can't spot someone that's going to do this as they come through the door. They're not all gloomy, with a black cloud hanging over their head, and glumly asking to rent a handgun and one bullet; they tend to be rather spry and chipper, almost upbeat, because they've already decided what they're going to do. They've come to terms with it. It's the poor schlubs at the store that have to pick up the pieces...

[Darrin]

Kendra Pacelli,

Greetings and welcome to THR! You're just in time, too. We're having a THR shoot on 9/14. See the thread that Glockten posted for more details!

*and now, back to your regularly scheduled thread*

[Kendra Pacelli]

Thank you Darrin, and I will see about making the shoot.

[JohnKSa]

Happened recently at a local range.

A guy stopped in and rented a gun & bought ammo. He was pretty upbeat and polite. He admitted to having little experience with guns and the owner personally gave him a brief safety course. As soon as he was left alone on the range, he turned sideways (to keep the muzzle downrange--the safety course stuck!) and offed himself.

Turns out he was having some mental problems and had lost his job.

Significant negatives besides the obvious:

The owner had to clean up the mess.
The first on the scene was another shooter who was pretty heavily traumatized.
The suicide's sister called the owner a few days later, quizzed him on the situation, particularly on the lack of restrictions on renting out guns, and then asked if the owner had any idea why the suicide might have wanted to shoot a gun since he had never been interested before. Talk about denial!

[hso]

The guys at the shop told me that she was friendly with a smile on her face and gave no indication that she might do anything like this. She had taken the safety orientation before and had come back in to shoot. She rented the gun, bought the ammunition, got a target and went to the range and punched some paper. Just like hundreds of others.

The physical "mess" was cleaned up by professionals. Due to the bullet not exiting the skull it was minimal, but the cost to everyone there is unfathomable.

The shop is a "mess" in every other way. The manager and assistants are shaken. The price of cleanup is surprising. The weapon will be destroyed. Business won't be open for who knows how long. All because someone had no hope that the pain they were feeling was unbearable and saw no other way that it would end. Now the folks at Guncraft get to share in that as well.

[jimpeel]

In Orange County CA there is only one indoor range that has not had a suicide. All of the ranges have a rule that unaccompanied shooters may not rent firearms due to these suicides. Lone shooters are more likely to harm themselves than those who show up with friends.

Then there's this: Suicide of Columbine victim's mother (http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=32898)The mother of a student wounded in the Columbine High School massacre walked into a suburban pawn shop today, asked to see a handgun, loaded it and killed herself with a shot to the head.

and

Mother of Columbine victim kills self in pawn shop (http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=32880&highlight=suicide+columbine+mother)When a clerk turned around to fill out paperwork, Ms. Hochhalter loaded the weaponwith her own ammunition, then fired one round that hit the wall and a secondround into her head, Englewood police spokeswoman Leticia Castillo said.

[CWL]

Yeah, at TargetMasters in Milpitas , CA - after two suicides in a row, they enacted a policy of renting guns only to two or more visitors. Don't know if this policy is still in effect, but I don't think that they've had any more rental-suicides since then.

[Trempel]

CWL, that's still the case in TMW. If you come by yourself, they won't rent you a gun even if you brought other guns with you. BTW, when did those suicides take place?

[Ken]

....a little while back, and apparently a lawsuit resulted.

http://www.sptimes.com/News/092501/Hillsborough/Shooting_range_sued_o.shtml

I recently asked a local outdoor store that sells guns and has been around for a while why they never opened a range. The response was twofold--the price of the land in the area, as well as the fact that a long-since departed range in town had at least a couple of suicides with rented guns.

[triggertime]

Kendra Pacelli: Welcome to THR! You'll find that its a much safer haven
than The Freehold of Grainne. :)

[CWL]

Trempel,

I think it was late 1990s.

[Skunkabilly]

Sure you should; post count is no measure of the validity of an opinion.
Yes it is :scrutiny:

Like Jimpeel said (we met there once) the range I go to only lets you rent in pairs.

Do people think guns are the only way to kill themselves? IME sometimes the hard part is getting to the range alive...drivers here are nuts.

[omega5]

Here is the link:

http://knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_2231534,00.html

I've known the Wiest family for years. Kind of lost touch with them when they moved their business from their home and then Oak Ridge to West Knoxville but I know this would devastate them. Bob and his boys are stand up guys. I really hate this for them


Local and state briefs for Sept. 4
By staff and wire reports
September 4, 2003

Woman rents handgun, fatally shoots herself
A woman rented a handgun Wednesday at a West Knox County firing range and apparently fatally shot herself in the head, authorities said.

Knox County Sheriff's Office Capt. Larry Hunter said authorities were alerted at 10:48 a.m. that a woman was shot at Guncraft Sports Inc., 10737 Dutchtown Road.


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Hunter said the woman, who had been in the gun store in the past, rented a pistol and proceeded to the indoor firing range. As at least two other people shot weapons on the range, the woman apparently shot herself in the head.

Hunter said detectives intended to review a videotape of the range shooters to ascertain if the woman shot herself. The Sheriff's Office did not release the woman's identity, but the Toyota Tercel she drove to the firing range bore a Knox County license plate.

Bob Wiest, co-owner of Guncraft Sports, said he had never had a customer commit suicide in the 56 years the business has operated.

[madmike]

The weapon will be destroyed.

That burns me up. As if the gun has "Evil spirits" and can't be trusted. As if the owner did something to make the gun contraband (like defacing the number).

I wonder...if she'd suffocated herself in a car, would they "destroy the car to get it off the street"?

And the gun store owner doesn't DARE challenge the human filth in uniforms who will do this, because he'll be seen as "insensitive" and "Wanting the gun to kill again."

Whoever lives in that worthless excuse for a state, start writing letters. How dare they compound the incident by STEALING his property?

[hso]

MM,

I never said the LE Authority was going to destroy the handgun. The owners were considering destroying it when (if) they ever get it back from the LEA.

Guncraft may well close it's doors before that ever happens. Their business is in a devastating slump and if it doesn't pick up the only indoor range full survice gun shop in Knoxville (and anywhere else for 100 miles around) will be gone.

[starfuryzeta]

Happened here, almost a year ago.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/1830168/detail.html

There is always a better way....

[Aleko]

The weapon will be destroyed. It may be a state specific requirement (or law). At my local range, I recently held a revolver that a guy killed himself with a few years ago (might be the same incident JohnKSa was talking about earlier). I know there has been more than 1 suicide there over the years, and I don't think any of the guns involved were destroyed.

[Tamara]

Speaking as somene in that worthless excuse for a state, maybe you should find out who, exactly was intending to destroy the weapon before you go off into full slash'n'burn rant mode. :fire:

How are things up 'round that sorry, state-income-tax-havin', frozen billiard table you live on, anyway? ;)

[September11]

The same thing happened up in Seattle at a couple ranges. One range was in a suburb and received pretty intense cover from the press. IMHO, the result was other “copy-cat” suicides, more bad press, restricted rental opportunities and eventually, the range closed. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL RANGE (and gun shop) OWNER!!!

[jrhead75]

IIRC, the two up here in the Seattle area were one suicide and one accident. The accident happened when a woman who had never shot before was being taught with a poor choice of first handgun (large caliber). She got the first shot off downrange, spun with the recoil and squeezed off another, killing the guy who was teaching her. He was standing back and off to the side.

That's how I heard it, anyway.

My heart really goes out to the folks working the range when something like this happens.

[Standing Wolf]

Leaving a mess for someone else to clean up is extremely rude and selfish. I can understand suicide, but not rudeness, not that degree of inconsideration for others.

[Penforhire]

Why don't these people go the plastic-bag-over-head and/or sleeping pill route? That would at least remove one primary objection of the anti's I know.

[dhoomonyou]

terrible situation all the way around, I guess the ranges insurance rates go WAY up now.
sorry for all involved.

[BluesBear]

I guess the ranges insurance rates go WAY up now.
That would be very sad. But I guess it's a possibility.

Since most personal uinsurance won't pay for suicide why should commercial be expected to?
Maybe that's one of the reasons people do it this way (as well as "Blue Suicide") they figure their family will sue and get money from their death.

[hso]

No, suicides don't think about the money (for the most part). They are desperately sad and devoid of any hope. The daily pain of living drags them down and makes everything even more miserable. They feel they have betrayed themselves, their families and friends (only leading to worse feelings). See the cycle? I'm worthless, It can't get better, I feel worse, I accomplish even less, I can't stand this, I'm worthless, ibid. They look for solutions. The solutions are the end of suffering. They avoid those things that they think may increase their suffering and opt for those they think won't. She picked a quick bullet in the brain. She was lucky in that she didn't end up a spinal cord injury or brain injury that survived, but forever more trapped in a body that is a prison, like some of my wife's patients who didn't pick the most effective means to end their pain.

GC did everything it should have done in renting the gun. It's insurance didn't go up. If it goes under, as I fear it shall, it will be because of economics and not the suicide.

[Tamara]

Y'know, and if you're going to shwack yourself, why rent someone else's cheapo .38 Taurus to do it? Pick out a Les Baer and put it on the Visa. It ain't like you're going to have to pay it off, so live a little, for gawd's sake! :uhoh:

[BluesBear]

BWAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Tamara.
:what:
Only you could say that. Ya got style!




Gotta clean out the $!@#%&* keyboard again now.

[JohnKSa]

At my local range, I recently held a revolver that a guy killed himself with a few years ago (might be the same incident JohnKSa was talking about earlier).
No, this range is fairly new (a year or two at most), and the shooting happened only a couple of weeks before I posted.

I'd post the name of the range, but the owner wants to keep the story quiet as he's not sure how it will affect business... (and I think he doesn't like talking about it.)

I didn't ask about the disposition of the gun, but he didn't mention anything about having to destroy it.

Oddly enough, the fellow left his hearing protection on. Other than some damage to the range (cleanup related) the hearing protectors were the only thing the owner mentioned being damaged.