Should we be worried?

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Your first mistake is depending upon anyone else to protect you. "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away."

That said, the guy in the article is about consistent with what we've come to expect from local law enforcement.
 
It never ceases to amaze me at how many idiots there really are. How much cleaning could he have been doing with the slide and barrel on the pistol and the magazine in the well?
 
I read somewhere that the majority of law enforcement people who are shot actually shoot themselves either by accident or in suicides.
 
Police say the officer was cleaning his gun when it went off...Police are reviewing the incident and say this is a reason they need their own firing range.
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Putting your life in public servants' hands is unwise. Putting your life in idiots' hands is even more unwise.

Anyone who can't come up with a more convincing excuse than "The gun went off while I was cleaning it" needs a stove and a flipper and hundreds of hamburgers a day to occupy his "mind." Anyone who think cops need their own shooting range because they're too special to follow the same four safety rules as the rest of us deserves to have his taxes doubled while the rest of us look on with smirks.
 
We took a Remington 700 in this week for gunsmithing from the local Sheriff's office. Their armorer had looked over the rifle for several hours and couldn't figure out how to fix the problem. When loaded the rifle would fire immediately if the shooter closed the bolt.

At first we thought someone had done a funky trigger job on it. Nope, still had the disgusting, gritty, factory 9# "lawyer trigger".

Closer inspection showed the action was "sticky"... as in "syrupy sticky". After being question the deputy who was issued the rifle admitted he'd spilled soda on it a few weeks ago. The soda had dried with the trigger stuck in the fire position. :banghead:

A good cleaning, a proper trigger job, and now all is well.

That said, I have zero faith in the SO's rifle team at this point.
 
...and say this is a reason they need their own firing range.
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Gotta hand it to them -- when life gives you lemons, make lemonade! When they do get that range, maybe they'll name it after the wounded officer, as he sacrificed so much to make it possible.


:scrutiny:

... Anyone who think cops need their own shooting range because they're too special to follow the same four safety rules as the rest of us ...
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Perhaps you're reading the wrong thing in Sgt. Byers' statement. I think what he was getting at is that their officers are dangerously poorly trained, and really shouldn't be handling firearms at a public range where they might accidentally hurt or kill a citizen.
 
...or that they need their own range so that they can cover up future incidents.

right now their 'mistakes' are too public in nature.
 
We've had ND's here in St Louis fairly regularly.

The only time I wait for the cops is when I have paperwork for them to file on a property damage claim. Otherwise, I know I'm on my own.

the first time we heard 'shots fired' in our neighborhood, I called it in. We saw a cop car turn it's spotlight on and try to find the guy in our backyard about 20-30 minutes after he left. I don't call those in anymore, waste of my tax money for them to burn the gas.
 
I think SunnySlopes said it perfectly. I don't have any disrespect for officers but it does seem like some of them have a tendency of ND or flat out forgetting their firearms.
 
I live in Albemarle County and as I recall, the cops carry Glocks of some variety or another. I suspect he must have been removing the slide (forgetting to check the chamber), which on a Glock requires pulling the trigger. I'm glad to see the official response wasn't to somehow blame the gun but to admit that they need more firearms training. That seems like a very positive response to me. I don't think the story though points out that all cops are incompetent or something. It just proves they're human and can have NDs just like the rest of us (I'll point out, MANY people on this forum have had an ND of some kind or another). I think the lesson we should take from this story is to triple check a gun before cleaning and always follow the four rules. I'm glad the officer involved was not more seriously injured.
 
I live in Albemarle County and as I recall, the cops carry Glocks of some variety or another. I suspect he must have been removing the slide (forgetting to check the chamber), which on a Glock requires pulling the trigger. I'm glad to see the official response wasn't to somehow blame the gun but to admit that they need more firearms training. That seems like a very positive response to me. I don't think the story though points out that all cops are incompetent or something. It just proves they're human and can have NDs just like the rest of us (I'll point out, MANY people on this forum have had an ND of some kind or another). I think the lesson we should take from this story is to triple check a gun before cleaning and always follow the four rules. I'm glad the officer involved was not more seriously injured.
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I grew up in Albemarle, but now live in Augusta. I know many of the police officers on the Albemarle PD personally and the majority of them (99%) would never let something like this happen to them.

That being said, I have a friend who just graduated from the local Police Academy. He said that there were a few guys in his class who were slated to join APD shortly after graduation. His reviews of their competence was far less than favorable. Listen, I'm not here to bash the law enforcement, I just feel like they, of all people, should know better than to allow something like this happen. I mean, it's common sense.
 
One accident does not an idiot make. How many of you can claim no accidents with a firearm?
 
I'm a member of this shooting club. Local police have range time scheduled about 3 days a week. It has gotten to the point where club members have a hard time getting any range time. So the local police definitely need their own range.

That said, this article stated the officer was tenured. So its not as if this was a rookie. How do you attempt to clean your gun before its empty? Maybe it was a glock. Maybe he grabbed the grip in RH and was depressing the tabs with his left to remove the slide. In this way his left hand could've been in front of the barrel. His trigger finger may have been in the wrong place with a loaded gun pointed at his left hand!
 
How many of you can claim no accidents with a firearm?
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Part of the problem is how many rule violations had to take place to not only have a negligent discharge, but to also shoot someone, and have that person be YOU. I've erred. Breaking two or three rules at once is worth a little negative public response, I think.
 
The part that really bothers me is the media reporting.

Whenever someone does something stupid with a firearm, it is always portrayed as the firearm's fault.

It is always "the firearm discharged". My very first serious trainer made a valid statement about 25 years ago, that still resonates today. The essence of it was, "whenever I hear someone say that a firearm discharged, my first question is, whose finger was on the trigger?"

In this case it was "the firearm discharged while he was cleaning it". Really? A "tenured" officer?

In our modern society nobody is ever responsible for their actions. And that is the worst part of it all.
 
1) I am really tired of people saying "I was cleaning it and it went off". That shows that you are either lying (very likely) or you clean your pistol without disassembling it first, you do not check the chamber, you do not know the 4 basic rules, and you pulled the trigger.

2) I find it funny that it reads as though the police need their own range in order to protect the public from their ND's. (I see now they meant it's because they don't get enough range time for training). I don't see what range time has to do with safe handling and proper cleaning.

3) Police get tenure?
 
If that were my home range I would wont them to have there own rage as well I'd feel safer wile there.
 
What a lot of people here fail to recognize is the average officer is LESS trained than most of us here are. Also In personal experience a LOT of the local area PD/sheriff/NPS personnel only need to be barely smarter than the criminal element to be kept employed.:scrutiny: IMHO if you put on the badge you are to be elevated to a higher level of accountability than the average Joe. Some are really a joke.:banghead:
 
SunnySlopes said:
Your first mistake is depending upon anyone else to protect you. "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away."

That said, the guy in the article is about consistent with what we've come to expect from local law enforcement.
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You obviously haven't known very many local law enforcement officers.

EDIT: And at the poster above me, how is a police officer LESS trained than some average joe? I would wager that a very small percentage of casual gun owners have had training beyond a hunters safety course or CCW class.
Training obviously varies from area to area, but officers ARE given firearms training in the academy-more than most of the people here have, I would bet.
 
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But why do they need their own range, So he doesn't shoot a civilian by mistake?
 
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