Do not play with guns

ocholsteroc · Oct 25, 2010

http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/chesapeake/marine-gets-1-year-in-infant's-death

Just a reminder, and if you are cleaning your gun triple check its empty!

Marine gets 1 year in infant's death
Accidentally shot daughter
Updated: Monday, 25 Oct 2010, 1:39 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 25 Oct 2010, 12:44 PM EDT

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) - A Marine security officer who was practicing drawing his handgun and accidentally shot his 9-month-old daughter to death has been sentenced to a year in jail.

Twenty-six-year-old Colton Jack Luman pleaded guilty in June to involuntary manslaughter in Chesapeake Circuit Court and was sentenced Monday.

The Virginian-Pilot reports court records show the infant was in a high chair at Luman's home on Naval Support Activity Norfolk, Northwest Annex, when the shooting occurred in February.

Coded-Dude · Oct 25, 2010

Not very many details, but a good lesson nonetheless. why anyone would practice drawing a firearm in front of their child is beyond me.....

RockerFor2A · Oct 25, 2010

My God! Could you even imagine being that Marine and having to live with that for the rest of your life?

MKEgal · Oct 25, 2010

ocholsteroc said:
Just a reminder, and if you are cleaning your gun triple check its empty!

I agree, I can't imagine having to live with knowing you killed your kid. His marriage will probably end too.

On a lighter note, I was up late last night, watched a rerun of The Unit where the daughter of the Master Sergeant (Don't remember his name, the actor is Dennis Haysburt) wants to enlist, & tries to take a gun from their desk.

At some point daddy takes the girl to the shooting range for a father-daughter talk, and before they go he hands her the gun. She properly locks it open, looks & sticks her finger in the chamber to confirm it's empty, and keeps her finger off the trigger. Good girl!

As I've become better educated about gun safety, I've started noticing when shows do things right, or make outrageous errors. (An FBI agent's pistol falling out because he falls to the ground tussling with a suspect.)

Neplusultra · Oct 25, 2010

Coded-Dude said:
Not very many details, but a good lesson nonetheless. why anyone would practice drawing a firearm in front of their child is beyond me.....

I would imagine he was in another room and the round went through the wall... as a guess. I don't have a problem with him practicing in front of his daughter, but I do have a problem that he was doing so in an occupied building with a ROUND IN THE CHAMBER?!

I practice my draw all the time, I even have homemade rubber bullet rounds with just primers and no powder for indoor draw and fire practice. But to practice with a live round in the chamber is just not thinking too well.

Coded-Dude · Oct 25, 2010

agreed 100%. if your going to practice draw.....first practice safety!

SouthernBoy · Oct 25, 2010

A man who worked on the same project as did I in my last job was supposedly cleaning his gun one day last June and it discharged, resulting in his death. All of us know that it is a physical impossibility to clean a loaded gun. Have to wonder how this came about.

45acpForMe · Oct 25, 2010

SouthernBoy said:
A man who worked on the same project as did I in my last job was supposedly cleaning his gun one day last June and it discharged, resulting in his death. All of us know that it is a physical impossibility to clean a loaded gun. Have to wonder how this came about.

Well several manufacturers require that you pull the trigger to take the slide off. I for one check that it is empty first but still am going to point it in a safe direction when I pull the trigger to break it down.

**** happens and we all make mistakes. This story reminds me of the person that left their infant in a car seat (all day) on a hot summer day and will have to live with that stupidity the rest of their lives. I have been lucky in that the bonehead mistakes I have made in my life haven't resulted in injury to anyone else.

peter nap · Oct 25, 2010

45acpForMe said:
Well several manufacturers require that you pull the trigger to take the slide off. I for one check that it is empty first but still am going to point it in a safe direction when I pull the trigger to break it down.

**** happens and we all make mistakes. This story reminds me of the person that left their infant in a car seat (all day) on a hot summer day and will have to live with that stupidity the rest of their lives. I have been lucky in that the bonehead mistakes I have made in my life haven't resulted in injury to anyone else.

I have zero sympathy for him!
I practice different draws every day....OUTSIDE at my range and usually with an unloaded gun so I don't shoot myself.

When I do practice inside, it's with my Airsoft 1911 which is an exact duplicate of my Para.

We all have accidents from time to time but the idea is to be in a place that your FU won't hurt loved ones.

SouthernBoy · Oct 26, 2010

45acpForMe said:
Well several manufacturers require that you pull the trigger to take the slide off. I for one check that it is empty first but still am going to point it in a safe direction when I pull the trigger to break it down.

**** happens and we all make mistakes. This story reminds me of the person that left their infant in a car seat (all day) on a hot summer day and will have to live with that stupidity the rest of their lives. I have been lucky in that the bonehead mistakes I have made in my life haven't resulted in injury to anyone else.

I think I should have clarified that by cleaning, I meant the actual act of cleaning the gun; not the preparation. Yes, you're correct with your statements. And I expect that is most likely what occurred to the man with whom I worked. Although, there is speculation that it may not have been totally an accident in his case. I'd like to think that is just speculation as he was a nice person to have known at work.

SouthernBoy · Oct 26, 2010

peter nap said:
I have zero sympathy for him!
I practice different draws every day....OUTSIDE at my range and usually with an unloaded gun so I don't shoot myself.

When I do practice inside, it's with my Airsoft 1911 which is an exact duplicate of my Para.

We all have accidents from time to time but the idea is to be in a place that your FU won't hurt loved ones.

When I practice draw-and-fire, I do so when no one is home. No TV or radio is on and nothing to disturb me. My attention is geared to what I am about to do and will be doing. Clearing my primary carry Glock 23 is a simple task and there is nothing special or mystical about it. The gun's state is easily determined and simple to unload. Hard to imagine anyone making a mistake with this design. (I know, sh-- happens to the best of us). I do a lot of "trigger discipline" with this gun as well and the same applies with those actions. Common sense, awareness of what you're doing, and the basic firearm safety rules will go a very long way to avoid any bad surprises.

nova · Oct 26, 2010

If people would just follow that fricken rule of not pointing it at people, things like this wouldn't happen. And yes that includes people you can't see who are in another room.

SouthernBoy · Oct 26, 2010

nova said:
If people would just follow that fricken rule of not pointing it at people, things like this wouldn't happen. And yes that includes people you can't see who are in another room.

Amen to that. The simplest concept to commit to memory is always know the state of your firearm. This is both for the safety of yourself and others and for that extreme moment when you may really need it. Every time I pick up my carry gun, actually any gun for that matter, I ALWAYS check its state... no exceptions, no lapses, and no cavalier disregard of the basics.

The other thing to commit to memory is this. When a bullet leaves the barrel, it cannot be recalled and you are responsible for where it winds up. Doesn't matter whether it is a paper target on a range or an individual trying to do very bad things to your body.

ProShooter · Oct 26, 2010

Look
Feel
Look

Takes 2-3 seconds....Its a habit that people need to get into. Developing that muscle memory and good gun handling procedure. I beat that into my students and cringe when I hear stories like this one. No need for something like that to happen......sad.

Hunting Mama · Oct 26, 2010

Okay, it is one thing to practice in front of your children. They can learn a lot from being taught, if it is done correctly. It is completely another thing to aim at them when you are practicing. That is utterly unacceptable!

I feel for what this man has to live with, but do believe that he deserves his punishment. When it comes to kids and owning guns our responsibilities are GREAT and must be respected!

fully_armed_biker · Oct 26, 2010

I do feel for this guy...but, what I feel isn't sympathy. I feel outrage, disgust, and anger. I feel sympathy, obviously, for the child that was killed, and the mother that will have to live the rest of her life knowing she married (and hopefully divorces) a careless bonehead. I tend to prescribe to the theory that he must have shot through a wall...I can't imagine him knowingly aiming at the child, without him being charged with murder.

I do practice drawing in my home, with a full magazine to accurately approximate the weight ...after checking 3 times to make sure there is no round in the chamber (so obviously the weight is less one round), and only when I am home alone...and I never touch the trigger, even knowing the gun cannot fire.

Grapeshot · Oct 26, 2010

After all is said and done, adherence to 2 rules would have prevented this.

1) Treat all guns as if they loaded - always!

2) Know your backstop - make it safe one.

Neplusultra · Oct 26, 2010

fully_armed_biker said:
I tend to prescribe to the theory that he must have shot through a wall...I can't imagine him knowingly aiming at the child, without him being charged with murder.

This is what I was getting at. I can't imagine anyone, idiots included, that would practice drawing with a loaded (or even unloaded) gun on their child....... It must be, I sincerely hope, that he was drawing on the wall and fired through it striking his kid.

When I first bought my .45 I was handling it loaded in my townhouse and this exact scenario came into my mind and it frightened me a bit. Being I lived in a townhouse with roommates and neighbors only two layers of sheet rock away, there were few safe directions to point the weapon while chambering before holstering.

Virginian683 · Oct 26, 2010

So it seems that apparently, killing a baby only rates 1 year in jail in Chesapeake. That's the absolute minimum sentence he could have received.

Note to baby-killers: The City of Chesapeake welcomes you.

Something tells me they hand out equally light sentences to other "accidental" murderers, such as drunk drivers.

Grapeshot · Oct 26, 2010

Virginian683 said:
So it seems that apparently, killing a baby only rates 1 year in jail in Chesapeake. That's the absolute minimum sentence he could have received.

Note to baby-killers: The City of Chesapeake welcomes you.

Something tells me they hand out equally light sentences to other "accidental" murderers, such as drunk drivers.

He will be serving his own "life sentence" to which there is no parole.

Do not play with guns

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