Rookie SF police officer shoots himself to death while fooling with "unloaded" gun!

[ConfuseUs]

I'm going to go ahead and blame San Francisco's glaring lack of a condoned gun culture for this one. Had the officer grown up around guns he likely wouldn't have done such a stupid thing and thus not utterly deserved heaps of posthumous ridicule.

and

Putting a gun to your neck and pulling the trigger without having previously checked the chamber to make sure there was no round in it and that there's no magazine in the gun so no round can get loaded into it is just - plain - STUPID. Heck there're those here who'll say putting a gun to your neck and pulling the trigger even though you HAVE verified with 100% efficacy that the weapon is unloaded is stupid.

Yep, pointing even a verified, certified unloaded gun at yourself and pulling the trigger is unwise at best. An indication of severe mental problems in conjunction with stupidity at worst.

 

[Dravur]

Red Dragon, I agree and it was what I was trying to express earlier. If all these guys on the board who are expertly trained don't think something like this could happen to them they are setting themselves up for exactly something like this, hopefully with a less lethal outcome.

I respectfully disagree. I don't even have to be "Expertly trained" to know that pointing any gun at my neck and pulling the trigger is just a bad idea. And no, I don't think something like this could EVER happen to me. I do not treat guns this way and have been trained since childhood to not stick the gun to my head and play with the trigger.... I would not do this even in fun. Even unconsciously, even while demonstrating my new gun twirling technique. It simply will not happen

I will not do it, never will. I don't look down the barrel to see if the round went bang. I just don't I also do not stick my hand into a running garbage disposal and also do not lick light bulb sockets. These are some of the things I just simply will not do. Will I have accidents based on my own stupidity? certainly, but this is not one of them. Never.

This guy was stupid. No other word for it. He broke every freaking rule and also tossed common sense under the table.

What this fellow did was more like "playing chicken" with a car, or driving towards a cliff or a telephone pole at high speed, expecting to be able to swerve at the last minute.

Also stupid acts..... Still stupid..... still stupid even if I did them..... Yep, still stupid....but I didn't.... but they are still stupid....

 

[thexrayboy]

If this person had shot someone else while "displaying his prowess" with his weapon it would be a tragedy. Since he was the only victim of this nonsense this act is removed from the status of tragedy to that of mere stupidity.

While modern society and modern medicine has come a long way in the last century towards defeating the filtering mechanism in natures gene pool some
actions will still remove you from contention for genetic immortality. This is one of them.

 

[SSN Vet]

showing off with a firearm is proof you don't have the maturity to handle it.

 

[Beachmaster]

I'm going to go ahead and blame San Francisco's glaring lack of a condoned gun culture for this one. Had the officer grown up around guns he likely wouldn't have done such a stupid thing and thus not utterly deserved heaps of posthumous ridicule.

I agree, but I'll go even one further. It's not just a San Fransisco issue, or even a California issue, its all across America. Kids today are not brought up in a gun positive culture. Guns are almost always portrayed as "evil" and are only in the hands of criminals, or "highly trained police officers". A generation or so ago, guns were seen more as what they are, a tool, no more evil than, say a crowbar, baseball bat, kitchen knife, car, hammer, etc. Kids plays "Cops and Robbers", or "Cowboys and Indians" with toy guns, Played with GI Joes (I still insist they are ACTION FIGURES not DOLLS! hehehe), had BB guns, even in city areas, and many kids participated in organized shooting education (like from the Boy Scouts). Plinking and informal shooting was considered an acceptable activity, and 22 rifles were a popular gift for a young boy. Of course, there was also a hunting culture as well, and many kids would go hunting with dad. I remember seeing lots of sporting ads and gun ads on TV or in magazines.

Western TV shows and movies were very popular at the time, and portrayed guns as what they were, tools in the hands of civilians, used as much or more in defense and putting food on the table as they were by the bad guys. Or used by the good guys like Sheriffs, Marshals, and the Army. Almost every western movie features a scene where some unknown folks (or bad guys) would ride up onto a civilian ranch, and the civilian ranch owner would grab his rifle or shotgun and make sure there was no trouble!

Today, in our crappy Politically Correct litigious society, there are few positive views of guns. The Anti's try to portray children's toy guns as the main reason for adult violence. Don't blame the parents who didn't raise the kid right, or the bad drug and gang infested neighborhood they grew up in, its all the guns fault!

In addition, The PC Police would have a heart attack if some neighborhood kids tried to play "Cowboys and Indians" today. It would now be called Overzealous land taking invaders and Native Americans, and the kids would be required to let the Indians,,,,,errrrrr I mean Native Americans win!

BB guns are evil, because a few juvenile delinquents have shot out some car windows.

Peta and other PC groups portray hunting as evil, so many kids nowadays never get exposed to hunting, or even fishing. Since a majority of the population now lives in urban environments, plinking, and target shooting has almost faded away from our culture.

Because of the lies spread about the Brady Bunch, and other antis, most parents today will not have a gun in the house for fear it would be used against them or their family. These lies are reinforced because the biased media hardly ever reports on civilians who use or simply brandish a gun in self defense. Those positive gun stories are not newsworthy. If an alien visited our world today and looked at the news, they would assume that guns are used only by bad guys, all guns are automatic, all rifles are "assault" types, have high capacity mags, only white girls go missing, and worthless celebs who party, date or breakup are more newsworthy than genocide, politics, the ecology, and world hunger.

When you see a gun in a movie or a TV show, its either in the hands of a Cop, a bad guy, or a "Good guy gone bad who will now use a gun for revenge" Couple that with the gansta music that glorifies gun violence, and kids today hardly see any civilians owning and using guns responsibly.

In addition, because few people today accept any responsibility for their own actions, or the actions of their families, many possible gun owners fear lawsuits should they use a gun in self defense.

Unless we start to see more positive gun owner/user role models, I fear our next generation may have no context of what is responsible correct behavior regarding guns.

 

[Red Dragon]

Yes, we have "all" had them but I can absolutely guarantee there is nobody on this list who has ever had one while the weapon was pointed at his head. Get the point? This cadaver candidate intentionally pointed the weapon at himself and pulled the trigger. Anyone else here ever done that? NO? Gee whiz, why not?

of course if anyone here had done that, then they too would be dead and therefore could not answer your question as to whether they had had a ND while the weapon was pointed at them. This, for all intents and purposes, makes whatever point you were tryint to make completely moot. Its kinda like asking, "How many people here are dead? Raise your hands."

 

[gunsmith]

my last (hopefully ever) ND was with an "unloaded" gun

My friend recently handed me a Kahr and told me to dry fire it to try the trigger, he inspected the chamber, handed it to me, I inspected the chamber...then I looked for the safest place to point it before pulling the trigger.
It is a habit I can't break...which saved my leg the last time I had a ND.

 

[Powderman]

Folks, there are two types of gun handlers in the world: Those who have HAD an AD/ND, and those who WILL.

Most of the time, with responsible gun handling, the results of that AD/ND are negligible, sometimes even funny.

Have you ever gone shooting, and while you were in the process of aiming, tightened your grip; the gun fired, and you watched someone else's target take the hit? That is an AD/ND.

Ever dropped the slide or closed the bolt and the gun fired? That is also an AD.

When I read the original post, I started feeling sad; sad because a young man had lost his life needlessly, and also sad because I knew EXACTLY where this thread was going to end up.

This is what I mean. Please read my signature line.

Fifteenth post:

Yet another example of why only "trained law enforcement officers" are qualified to keep firearms at home.

Fifty-third post:

LEOs are exempt. They can have ANYTHING they want.
__________________

Sixty third post:

The sad thing is that idiots like this have more right than us. I guess I have to use MY pile of money to enforce my Second Amendment Rights.

Sixty fourth post:

Now that's legally speaking, as far as reality is concerned we both know the cop can get away with a lot more than you can as far as firing a weapon.

Yes, the guy did something monumentally and fatally stupid. Yes, this is a reinforcement for following ALL the gun safety rules, ALL THE TIME--not just when it is convenient.

This is a demonstration that ownership of firearms requires a high level of maturity.

This post is, however, NOT an excuse to bash cops--which is what some folks love to do at any occasion.

To the SF rookie: RIP, fella.
To everyone else: Once again, check out my signature.