Man accidentally killed by friend on camping trip

[K-Romulus]

Get the word out:

Do NOT try to catch dropped pistols.

Taking a SD firearm while camping is prudent AND safe as long as you understand the safety principles associated with modern firearms ownership.

Commit (1) the four rules to muscle memory AND (2) whatever nuances are necessary for the particular firearm.

 

[SHOTGUNJOE]

VTFatBastard,

Thanks for posting this truely sad report. Worth reading if it gets even one careless gunowner thinking. Certainly keeps my level of caution fresh.

God help all the stupid people of this world learn to think.

 

[damien]

Get the word out:

Do NOT try to catch dropped pistols.

It would be nice if everyone in the USA, even people who do not own firearms, know the rules.

But it is understandable that the guy who had a gun thrown at him might not know the rules. He might not have even been a gun owner and there was someone throwing something at him. Everyone here has been taught at the age of one onward by their father to catch things thrown at them. It was like pushing someone who never drove before into the driver's seat and saying "have at it, good luck." This counts as a Darwin award because the person who did the most stupid thing here paid for it with his life. It doesn't count as high road behavior applauding this in any way, though. Really it was too bad. You get the idea that neither of these guys knew much about guns.

 

[skers69]

Look. There is a guy that now has to live with his best friend being dead....and a kid that now does not have a dad. Please stop poking fun. It was a mistake, accident, lapse in judgement....but not real funny.

 

[silverlance]

while I wouldnt do it, i could probalby catch a shotgun or rifle pretty easily and safely. i've done many excercises carrying loaded rifles (not chambered) running up and down mountainsides, grab and run drills, etc.

but a handgun? in condition one? yikes.

you know, a guy could make good money making rubber slip overs to cover things like the muzzle of revolvers. that way if it gets dropped no big deal.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

What Pistol?

Now, I know there are more than a dozen designs of 9mm pistol.

Some have safeties on the frame (mine does), some have them on the slide, some have them in the grip (like my XD and most 1911s I've seen) and the trigger (like Glocks). Some have "cross bolt" button safeties. There are probably some that don't even have a safety.

Some pistols have hammers (mine does), and some don't (like my striker-fired XD).

Now, let's try to reconstruct this.

I pick up a loaded 9mm pistol (we don't know what kind).

Either the safety is off, or there is no "external" safety.

I toss it to you. Let's assume the pistol, as it flies through the air, is not flipping and spinning rapidly.

Oh, how far away am I? We don't know. Am I directly in front of you? Off to the left? Right? We don't know.

You . . . stick out both hands? . . . catch it one-handed? . . . fumble with one hand but catch with the other?

Now, since pretty much all pistols of my acquaintance will not fire when dropped, once you grab it, you must acquire some kind of grip.

If it's a Glock or XD, you also have to grab the trigger.

If it's a BHP or Beretta, you have to . . . grab the trigger?

If it's a 1911-styled gun, then you need a good grip of some kind.

Somebody help me out here.

What catch is it that places your left hand in front of the muzzle and discharges the pistol?

I'm having trouble with the reconstruction.

Someone who knows pistols really well, could you paint this picture for me?

I can't quite get there.

 

[Bitmap]

Quote:
Two longtime friends from Panama City Beach accidentally set off a pistol Saturday, killing one and wounding the other.
It's sad, but I'd sure like to see video to explain how the hell they managed that......the description in the story just seems unreal.

The story forgot to mention the 3 cases of beer they drank before goofing off with a firearm.

 

[FieroCDSP]

They said it was possible that this was a gun belonging to an aquaintance who might have had them test-firing it for him. It doesn't say the two guys owned guns at all, just that this belonged to neither.

If I were to ever toss a gun to someone in anything other than dire circumstances, and since I am a somewhat learned gun owner (know the rules, follow them almost without thinking), such an act would qualify me as an idiot, momentary lapse of judgement or not.

It's possible these guys were going camping, wanted a defense gun, a friend lent them his, and maybe they didn't know everything about it. This is not necessarily a idiot move on the actual owner's part (he may have thought they knew, or they told him so). Add an unfamiliar gun to a momentary lapse of safety and you get the possibility of an accident.

They might not have ever been told not to try to catch a gun. Common sense or not by normal standards, sometimes something like that can miss clicking in a person's head. I could never get the hang of manual-transmissions and clutch usage until someone finally told me that you need to let the tranny start to catch and then add power/release clutch at the same time. A little bit of knowledge that prevented me from doing something simple.

I feel sorry for the shooter and both families. An ND like this happens when everything is in alignment against you and you supply one small thing to set it off. I don't think either of them qualify for the Darwin.

 

[Joe Demko]

Rhetorical question: After the first obligatory reference to Darwin in a thread like this, through how many additional repetitions does the reference continue to be considered funny?

 

[PILMAN]

Wow, I live pretty close to Panama City Beach, hadn't heard of this but that is sad.

 

[rjohnson4405]

I didn't read all the response but I did see someone ask about the bullet through the hand and the head. According to the article the gentlemen's hand who caught the gun was shot through then the bullet entered the other man's head. The guy caught it partially by the muzzle, which is maybe why it discharged. Not that he shot his friend while he had his hand out begging mercy.

Sad story....