Three People Injured at Gun Show

Article.

Wow. It went off not once, but twice!!! Evidently, it went off the first time as a customer was handling it, and again when its owner was inspecting it to figure out why it went off. The last two times I attended a gun show, all firearms had to be unloaded and the hammers secured with yellow plastic ties. Add to that the first thing my father taught me 39 years ago was how to unload a variety of firearms without risking accidental discharge. Since then, every times I've ever handled someone else's firearm, I go through the motions of unloading it, whether I've just witnessed them unloading it or not. The only exception is when I'm at a firing range and the purpose of their handing it to me is so that I might fire it.

This is going to hurt gun owners and guns shows everywhere.

I agree with since9. I verify every gun I come into contact with whether it's at a gun show, the range, or my best friend's house. I hope the vendor is held liable, the customer has learned a valuable lesson.

Google 'gun show accident'. This happens more often than people think.

I see people violating every safety rule at least once a minute at the gun shows I attend.

They don't treat guns as if they are loaded. They point them at things they don't intend to destroy. They put their fingers on triggers and leave them there. They don't know their target or the backstop.

There are multiple safety rules for a reason. If you mess up on one, the others can still save lives and prevent tragedy.

I was in a gun store where a salesman was demonstrating a laser that he had mounted on the rail of a glock. He lit up the customer next to me. The weapon had been cleared and the salesman's finger was not on the trigger. Still, the customer who had been lit up had not cleared the weapon, yet was swept. That had to be unnerving.

That particular store almost exclusively sells to LEAs and LEOs. I expect more professionalism. The salesman at the Exchange at Fort Rucker (who sells to ordinary folk who don't know the four rules and violate them in front of him hundreds of times a day) consistently followed the rules. I was impressed.

There are reasons that guns being handled at gun shows (and in gun stores) must be unloaded. Unfortunately, that rule (probably because of events like the one cited in the OP) is usually also extended to carry weapons never intended to be handled in the store or the show.

The mere fact the the gun was loaded while being handled in a retail situation means that regardless of why the gun went off, even if it was mechanical failure totally beyond the control of the handler, it wasn't an AD. It was negligent. The negligence occurred when someone introduced the loaded weapon into the retail handling environment.

The one thing I get a kick out of when I go to any big box store is there are at least few people whipping a rifle or shotgun around trying them out. Most of the time they aim them in the air keeping the muzzle out of harms way, but there is always one jerk using surrounding customers as a aim point. Some people must think that the rules of the field do not apply when they are in the store. The worst part is that there is usually a store salesman with them and noting seems to be said or done about it.

Howdy Folks!
The guy who brought the loaded weapon into the gun show has been banned from future shows. It would be nice if word got around to other gun shows that this dork is negligent and dangerous.

It is only by virtue of good fortune that nobody was badly injured or even killed. Gun shows are not the place for dorks to display their ignorance. The second accidental discharge happened as the man was trying to figure out why the first one happened. How about: Because it had bullets in it! Duh!!!! Just guessing here, but I suspect that had a great deal to do with why it went off to start with! I've never seen a gun discharge a round that didn't have rounds in it to discharge. Cause and effect. Newtons Third Law of Motion. Ron White's "You can't fix stupid" hypothesis.

I look forward to charges forthcoming from the local law enforcement types. Maybe a heft fine or even a few days in the pokey will get his attention.

Blessings,
M-Taliesin

There should be nothing wrong with bringing a loaded gun to a gun show. It is the introduction of a loaded gun into the retail handling environment that created the hazard.

We should all be allowed to carry our loaded personal firearms into a show as long we don't intend to remove them from their holsters except in defense. If we want to take them out to show or sell, they should come in unloaded.

eye95 said:

There should be nothing wrong with bringing a loaded gun to a gun show. It is the introduction of a loaded gun into the retail handling environment that created the hazard.

We should all be allowed to carry our loaded personal firearms into a show as long we don't intend to remove them from their holsters except in defense. If we want to take them out to show or sell, they should come in unloaded.

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Howdy Eye95!
My remarks were about the vendor who had a loaded gun on the retail table. I figured, viewed in context to the story about the incident, that would have been evident. I was not commenting on anybody else, but this particular individual who was unbeliveably unsmart.

Blessings,
M-Taliesin

M-Taliesin said:

Howdy Eye95!
My remarks were about the vendor who had a loaded gun on the retail table. I figured, viewed in context to the story about the incident, that would have been evident. I was not commenting on anybody else, but this particular individual who was unbeliveably unsmart.

Blessings,
M-Taliesin

Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification. There are some on here who have no problem with rules (or laws) that prohibit loaded carry at gun shows. The distinction between simply having a loaded gun and handling one for retail purposes is an important one to be clear about.

In light of your clarification, I agree with you 100%.

eye95 said:

It is the introduction of a loaded gun into the retail handling environment that created the hazard.

Click to expand...

Even unloaded, guns should be treated as loaded.

I refuse to buy guns at wholesale sports because I was swept numerous times, with a weapon that wasn't cleared, then had the lady behind the counter hand me a gun, pointed directly at me, without clearing it. She then wanted to bitch a fit when I sidestepped and grabbed the gun from her.

:cuss:

Then again, I'm one of those guys that will clear a weapon, even if it was just cleared in front of me 2 seconds ago..

It's kinda funny, because if I show a new weapon to my friends, every one of them will clear it, after the person before them has looked at it (and previously cleared it).


Safety first. :banana: