Beetle Bailey and I were at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show in Costa Mesa, CA, today, and there was a negligent discharge in one of the main halls. The usual crowd noise momentarily became a deafening silence after the shot rang out, as everyone looked at one another as if to say, "No way...."
We weren't very close to the actual table where it occurred, but people immediately flocked over to see what had happened. I gathered from several secondhand reports that a dealer had unknowingly handed a young man a loaded .223 rifle. The young man then points the rifle downward and pulls the trigger. BLAM!! The bullet splatters on the concrete and riccochets towards (another?) middle-aged dealer, striking him in the leg. Paramedics and LEO's are there in a hurry and seal the section off with police tape. The dealer's wound is not considered life-threatening, from all accounts.
I passed by the table about five minutes later. The young man and wounded dealer are still there, seated behind the tables. They are being questioned by the sheriffs. Young man looks to be in a daze. He keeps shaking a finger in his ear, like his bells are still ringing. He's sweating bigtime. The wounded dealer looks like he just lost $50,000 at the Blackjack tables. His physical condition looks to be pretty good, however. Thank goodness for that small miracle. Dunno if anyone was arrested as a result. About half an hour later, there's a PA asking dealers to check that all weapons above and below tables are unloaded. Duh.
Some customers were rattled, others found it entertaining. Almost all of the dealers took it rather seriously, however. They all had concerned, disturbed looks on their faces. One was a friend of the guy shot. I asked another longtime vendor if ND's were an occasional occurance at the shows, to which he replied, "No, this is the first time." Most of the dealers tried their best to return to business as usual, but a lot of them began packing their bags early.
Beetle and I were kinda spooked by the whole thing. If I had a nickel for every time I was covered by the muzzle of some poorly handled firearm at the show, man..... What if the ND hadn't been pointed downward? I got to wondering how many bodies a .223 round could pass through and still be a threat. Morbid. Sobering.
Reminds me of something I read on TFL, where a dealer kept a jar filled with rounds collected from the chambers of "unloaded" weapons. It was a pretty sizeable collection, IIRC.
Bottom line: No one was seriously hurt. Hopefully, someone will learn something from this. I think there will be policy change next time around, maybe mandatory zip ties. Who knows? Might be for the best.
We weren't very close to the actual table where it occurred, but people immediately flocked over to see what had happened. I gathered from several secondhand reports that a dealer had unknowingly handed a young man a loaded .223 rifle. The young man then points the rifle downward and pulls the trigger. BLAM!! The bullet splatters on the concrete and riccochets towards (another?) middle-aged dealer, striking him in the leg. Paramedics and LEO's are there in a hurry and seal the section off with police tape. The dealer's wound is not considered life-threatening, from all accounts.
I passed by the table about five minutes later. The young man and wounded dealer are still there, seated behind the tables. They are being questioned by the sheriffs. Young man looks to be in a daze. He keeps shaking a finger in his ear, like his bells are still ringing. He's sweating bigtime. The wounded dealer looks like he just lost $50,000 at the Blackjack tables. His physical condition looks to be pretty good, however. Thank goodness for that small miracle. Dunno if anyone was arrested as a result. About half an hour later, there's a PA asking dealers to check that all weapons above and below tables are unloaded. Duh.
Some customers were rattled, others found it entertaining. Almost all of the dealers took it rather seriously, however. They all had concerned, disturbed looks on their faces. One was a friend of the guy shot. I asked another longtime vendor if ND's were an occasional occurance at the shows, to which he replied, "No, this is the first time." Most of the dealers tried their best to return to business as usual, but a lot of them began packing their bags early.
Beetle and I were kinda spooked by the whole thing. If I had a nickel for every time I was covered by the muzzle of some poorly handled firearm at the show, man..... What if the ND hadn't been pointed downward? I got to wondering how many bodies a .223 round could pass through and still be a threat. Morbid. Sobering.
Reminds me of something I read on TFL, where a dealer kept a jar filled with rounds collected from the chambers of "unloaded" weapons. It was a pretty sizeable collection, IIRC.
Bottom line: No one was seriously hurt. Hopefully, someone will learn something from this. I think there will be policy change next time around, maybe mandatory zip ties. Who knows? Might be for the best.
idiot!" or anything to that effect, I figured it was a ND with nobody injured. Heck, I guess if someone hit me with bullet spray and I was unarmed, I might not yell too much at them since if there is one round in the gun, there could be more.
