The week of April 23 was a pretty busy one. The numbers were fairly typical: 15 people who accidentally shot themselves, 14 kids accidentally shot, six accidental gun fatalities, five people who accidentally shot other family members, etc. Like I said, pretty typical. What was extraordinary was the number of GunFAIL incidents that were themselves extraordinary, in one way or another.
We had a Colorado man accidentally shoot his brother while the two were practicing their “defensive techniques.” We had an accidental discharge at a Texas gun show. We had an Arizona wildfire started by the careless use of exploding targets. In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, we had a loaded gun left not just in a public bathroom, but on the baby changing table, at that. We had an Ohio cop accidentally shoot himself in the leg at the practice range, with a rifle he had slung over his shoulder. We had a Florida man accidentally shoot into his neighbor’s apartment when he decided the time was right for a little heroin and to clean his gun. We had it all!
I’m not even done yet! We had a Philadelphia teenager decide to try to wake his friend up for school by sticking a gun in his face, then accidentally shooting him in the eye. We had a campus concealed carrier in Utah accidentally fire the weapon in his backpack in the middle of a Utah Valley University food court. We had yet another turkey hunter accidentally shot in Ohio, once again doing such a good job with his turkey call that he was mistaken for the real thing. We had a California driver who pulled his gun in self-defense during a road rage incident, only to accidentally shoot himself in the leg on the draw. (Though it should be noted that the assailant did then flee.) And finally, we had yet another gun instructor accidentally shoot a student, this time in Michigan.
That’s a lot!
I’ll just wrap up by recalling the Utah Valley University accident and note that that is the second time UVU has made the GunFAIL list, the first being in May 2015, when one police academy cadet accidentally shot another while taking his gun apart, forgetting there was a round in the chamber. Back in 2012, a student at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, accidentally discharged his concealed weapon. And it was in Taylorsville, Utah, in September 2014 when a sixth grade teacher injured herself when she accidentally shot and shattered a toilet in the faculty bathroom with her (not very well) concealed handgun.
So, you know, keep that all in mind as more states begin to permit campus carry and allow teachers to arm themselves in the classroom. (Pennsylvania has decided to go next, by the way.) After all, that’s actually the reason I try to keep track of how frequent gun accidents of all kinds really are.
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2tbjBTT
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