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April 30, 2004


"Do as I say, not as I do."

(Thanks to Deontologist) (No, really)



I can just immagine that!

"Now, children, you have to make sure it's unloaded. Now, do a little test firing and...holy Jesus...OWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

Any volunteers for this new method of demonstrating gun safety?

djtonyb: Take a bow, that was brilliant.

"The agent had to get shot"?

Can we therefore infer that any gun safety class where the instructor DOES NOT shoot himself is ineffective?

Wait a minute! "Then he pulled back the slide and asked someone in the audience to look inside the gun and confirm it wasn't loaded, the report said." So the clip was out, the round in the chamber would have ejected when he pulled the slide back AND a member of the audience confirmed that the chamber was empty. So, all you Columbos: Where did the bullet come from?

Elementary, Watson,

The bullet came from the cupboard full of Canadian High School students growing pot!


Yeah, yeah... Orlando...

I volunteer to teach the dangers of Alcohol class!!!!

"Treat every weapon as if it is loaded." Can we sign the agent up to provide bazooka safety training?

Maybe his other job is "Florida Driving Instructor".

dj, you are definitely in the groove today! :-)

If he drew the slide before he removed the clip, then a bullet would have been removed from the clip and in the loading mechanism, but not chambered. In fact, I bet he was about to demonstrate to the kids that the gun they had just looked at and thought was empty did in fact contain a bullet. Whatever it was, this guy needs serious gun safety class. What the heck was he doing pointing a gun at himself?


How exactly DID this audience member "look inside the gun"? The obvious answer would seem to be by looking down the barrel.......

Which may have turned out to be extremely unfortunate for all involved.

I don't see what so funny with this story! It could happen to anyone!

- Jason Williams

Yes, he shouldn't have pointed it at his leg under any circumstances. If this is the whole story, that pistol was broken or defective. Pulling back and releasing the slide should never cause any pistol to fire. The slide is supposed to slam forward after you pull the trigger, without causing a second round to fire.
However,I bet the idiot had his finger on the trigger and is just to ashamed to admit it. Modern pistols are designed to shrug off insane amounts of wear and abuse, with out becoming unsafe.
Oh Mike, when you draw the slide back, you can look inside the chamber through the ejection port, but this is NOT the reccomended way to check if a pistol is loaded, because it is easy to make a mistake, like this guy did.

Hey, I just figured out how I am going to get out of teaching class for the next four weeks!!!

Thanks judi!

And when the story hits this blog, please send my Florida Teaching license to my home address.

Reminds me of the time Trent was telling Kristen how to load a shotgun and she pointed it at me and I was like HEIFER *except I didn't really use the world heifer :)* Don't you point that me, no telling what will happen with you holding it. She said it wasn't loaded. And Trent goes, I wouldn't be so sure about that, took out a bullet. Heifer.

Sumting like dat happen to my brother nut lang ego wen my Unkle Joey was showing me and my brother his guns.

Unkle Joey told us dat you shood make sure dat theres no bulets in the gun and he ask my brother if there was a bulet in his gun so my brother made a joke and said no so my Unkle Joey took the gun back an said dats good becorse sumone mite aim the gun at you like dis for fun an shoot you by axcident. Unkle Joey shot my brother in the arm!

After dat my brother never made a joke like dat eggan.

I have been away from this blog two days, and you people have fallen apart!!
Folks, it's like this:
"Guns don't kill people, DEA agents kill people."

(LEO's, don't get mad... I'm a training officer.This one becomes part of class.)

I suspect the extractor was broken, and the cartridge remained in the chamber when the DEA guy pulled back on the slide after removing the magazine. At that point a cartridge should have been ejected, which was his first clue that something was wrong. The audience member looked in the ejection port (which is where you look to confirm the gun is unloaded) but didn't know enough about guns to realize that the little brass thing in the front was a cartridge base. When the DEA guy let the slide go forward the extractor contacted the primer, firing the gun.

Moral: Don't rely on people in the audience to know how to do what you are ostensibly training them to do. And look yourself.

A few years ago, I read about a guy training new workers on the safety of transporting anhydrous ammonia--He said, "Don't ever push this button" on the hose connected to the truck--and dropped the hose, which landed ON THE 'DON'T TOUCH' BUTTON releasing all the anhydrous into the air. They had to evacuate the whole town. Maybe, after he got fired, he joined the DEA...

Sounds like either:

1. The agent had a malfunctioning weapon and was not careful enough to inspect the back end of the chamber to see that there was still a live round in there, and the malfunctioning weapon slamfired when the slide was released.


2. The agent is lying his butt off.

The DEA agents carry .40 caliber Glock pistols. The Glock has no external safety but I have never been able to make one go boom without actually pulling the trigger. I have been in many a training course and have not seen one go boom without someone pulling the trigger.

Unfortunately to disassemble the Glock pistol one has to pull the trigger, which may have been what the agent was trying to do. But you have to make good and sure the weapon is unloaded.

When I safe a weapon, I eject the magazine first, then set it aside. I then make sure the weapon is pointed in a safe direction and work the slide SEVERAL TIMES. I do this because if there is a magazine still in the weapon and I work the slide several times, rounds will keep spitting out, letting me know there is a problem.

THEN AND ONLY THEN do I do the standard buddy check of having at least 2 other people check the weapon and confirm it is unloaded.

When guns are outlawed, only DEA agents will have guns.

Wait. That didn't come out like it was supposed to.

"But the point of gun safety hit home." Yeah, in the guy's leg, bozo.

Isn't the first thing you learn about an unloaded gun is that it is ALWAYS loaded?

I saw it coming from the grassy knoll. And there was more than one shot.

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