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OT: Soldier accidentally killed while while teaching wife pistol handling skills

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44Brent

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Fort Lewis soldier killed in accidental shooting

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009028031_websoldierkilled12.html

OLYMPIA — A Fort Lewis soldier is dead after being accidentally shot in the head and killed by his wife in Olympiam the Thurston County Sheriff's Office says.

Lt. Chris Mealy of the sheriff's office told KOMO-TV the soldier was teaching his wife how to handle a handgun when he was shot early Sunday. Mealy told The Olympian that the semi-automatic handgun was the soldier's personal property.

Mealy says deputies were called at about 1:30 a.m. He says the soldier and his wife, both 25, had been out with friends before the shooting.

Mealy says after the couple got home, the soldier decided to teach his wife how to handle the handgun.

Mealy says the soldier's wife is not facing charges currently, but the sheriff's office is investigating the shooting. He says the soldier was scheduled to deployment soon. The couple's names were not released.
 
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44Brent

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Comments: I would like to know if anyone teaches a class in Western WA how to become a competent pistol instructor.
 
compmanio365

compmanio365

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Well, I have to say, it's Darwinism at work. If the guy couldn't be bothered to unload the pistol before handing it to his wife when she knew nothing about how to use the gun, then....there you go. But like always, I bet we don't have the whole story here.

EDIT:Teaching her how to handle a gun at 1:30 AM after going out partying? Either this man was stupid in an epic way, or the gal isn't telling the truth. Only time and investigation will tell.
 
Prophet

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Either she killed him for one reason or another on purpose (maybe he was hittin on some chick when they went out>

OR

They had a few too many drinks, were sauced and decided NOW would be a good time to teach you about my pistol while its loaded and we are both under the influence.

I think the second scenario is more likely and as compmanio said...Darwinism is a bitch.
 
sempercarry

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"had been out with friends before the shooting"

"Mealy says deputies were called at about 1:30 a.m"

Perhaps alcohol was involved?
 
FMCDH

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compmanio365 wrote:
Well, I have to say, it's Darwinism at work. If the guy couldn't be bothered to unload the pistol before handing it to his wife when she knew nothing about how to use the gun, then....there you go. But like always, I bet we don't have the whole story here.

EDIT:Teaching her how to handle a gun at 1:30 AM after going out partying? Either this man was stupid in an epic way, or the gal isn't telling the truth. Only time and investigation will tell.
Click to expand...
Its a lot of conjecture, but personally I think your right. Its by far the most likely scenario. More details would be nice, but as always the news organizations are only going to headline what gets people to read the rag.

Wonder if we will ever hear the rest of the story...
 
tat2ed_guy

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Im not going to say alot about this one, I work with this guys father. My prayers are with his family. From what I got although stupid, it was an accident.
 
FMCDH

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tat2ed_guy wrote:
Im not going to say alot about this one, I work with this guys father. My prayers are with his family. From what I got although stupid, it was an accident.
Click to expand...
Careful, you know there is no such thing, only negligence. Even if the story is taken at only face value and reading nothing into it, they were "training" with a loaded firearm in a non-firearm training environment.

For whatever reason, they forgot to unload the firearm and that is negligence, not an accident.

Call a spade a spade and hold people accountable for their actions, or non-actions as this case may be.
 
FMCDH

FMCDH

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Understood.

Thanks for the clarification.

I always wince whenever I hear people use the term "accident" when referring to firearms incidents. It absolves people of their responsibility to the incident because it implies that nothing could have been done to to keep it from happening.
 
B

bugly

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other than the obvious, the next worst thing about this is it feeds the antis more to help ban the gun when it was a case of either negligence or stupidity. i feel bad for the families of the people involved, but safety is a key factor in survival, apparently this fact was overlooked.
 
L

Lew

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FMCDH wrote
Careful, you know there is no such thing, only negligence.
Click to expand...

What if you sit down to clean your pistol and, as you're clearing it, a big picture frame falls off the wall and smacks you upside the head and you discharge the weapon? Could that be an accident? :?
 
tat2ed_guy

tat2ed_guy

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Lew wrote:
FMCDH wrote
Careful, you know there is no such thing, only negligence.
Click to expand...

What if you sit down to clean your pistol and, as you're clearing it, a big picture frame falls off the wall and smacks you upside the head and you discharge the weapon? Could that be an accident? :?
Click to expand...
I would think not. Why would you clean a loaded firearm?
 
L

Lew

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tat2ed_guy wrote:
Lew wrote:
FMCDH wrote
Careful, you know there is no such thing, only negligence.
Click to expand...

What if you sit down to clean your pistol and, as you're clearing it, a big picture frame falls off the wall and smacks you upside the head and you discharge the weapon? Could that be an accident? :?
Click to expand...
I would think not. Why would you clean a loaded firearm?
Click to expand...
You know, like your carry/bedside piece or whatever.
 
C

carhark

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tLew wrote:
tat2ed_guy wrote:
Lew wrote:
FMCDH wrote
Careful, you know there is no such thing, only negligence.
Click to expand...

What if you sit down to clean your pistol and, as you're clearing it, a big picture frame falls off the wall and smacks you upside the head and you discharge the weapon? Could that be an accident? :?
Click to expand...
I would think not. Why would you clean a loaded firearm?
Click to expand...
You know, like your carry/bedside piece or whatever.
Click to expand...
Your finger being on the trigger of a loaded gun with no intention to fire it is negligent, whether or not the picture frame fell and "made you" pull it.
 
John Hardin

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Lew wrote:
tat2ed_guy wrote:
I would think not. Why would you clean a loaded firearm?
Click to expand...
You know, like your carry/bedside piece or whatever.
Click to expand...
Let's restate that a bit, then, so you will understand.

Why would you ever clean any firearm without first making sure it is completely unloaded?

Failure to clear the firearm first is negligence, not accident. Discharge of a firearm as it is being cleaned is never an accident, it's always somebody being sloppy with their basic firearms safety procedures.
 
A

adamsesq

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, Oregon, USA
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Lew wrote:
FMCDH wrote
Careful, you know there is no such thing, only negligence.
Click to expand...

What if you sit down to clean your pistol and, as you're clearing it, a big picture frame falls off the wall and smacks you upside the head and you discharge the weapon? Could that be an accident? :?
Click to expand...

Picture falling from the wall cannot make gun go bang if your booger hook is not on the bang stick. So yes, this would still be negligence.

-adamsesq
 
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