Teen, shot while cleaning rifle, advocates gun locks

Orlando Sentinel ^ | April 24, 2004 | Lavanya Ramanathan and Keith W. Kohn

[Gun142]

Teen, shot while cleaning rifle, advocates gun locks

By Lavanya Ramanathan and Keith W. Kohn | Sentinel Staff Writers
Posted April 24, 2004

An Osceola County teen who narrowly escaped tragedy this week wished Friday that the rifle he and a friend were cleaning had been equipped with a gun-safety device that's being dispensed all over Florida.

Quentin Jones, 14, was nursing a wound in his shoulder caused by a .22-caliber bullet that went "under my armpit and through my fatty tissue" after the gun discharged accidentally.

Had the rifle's angle been slightly different, Quentin said, he could have been seriously hurt. His mother, Beverly Jones, called it a "lucky learning experience" for her son. "It could have been a big deal," Jones said.

Central Florida law-enforcement agencies trying to halt such accidental shootings, which killed more than 100 Florida youths in a 10-year period, are joining an aggressive push to distribute 655,000 gun locks statewide.

[pabianice]

...the .22-caliber bullet that went "through my fatty tissue" after the gun discharged accidentally...

Head wound, huh?

[RonF]

A gun can be made idiot-resistant, but it can't be made fool-proof.

[verity]

"Teen Dumbass, shot while cleaning rifle, advocates gun locks"

[fso301]

I think there's some humor here based on This is my rifle and this is my gun...

What would a gun lock be, a picture of hillary?

[sean327]

And a gun lock would have prevented this dumbass from shooting himself?

Safety Rule No 1.
TREAT EVERY WEAPON AS IF IT WERE LOADED MORON!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gun142]

a picture of hillary?

No, that's birth control.
Her image stops a man cold.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Unloading a weapon prior to cleaning it is a pretty good idea as well.

And having a trigger lock on a loaded weapon isn't a great idea, either. Was he going to clean it with the lock on--"Oops, the rod won't go through, let me look in this end to see what's wrong?"

[7.62 x 51mm]

Note to sh!t-for-brains teen: clear the weapon and make sure it's unloaded. And don't point it yourself while pulling the trigger, moron.

[bondjamesbond]

The nice thing about gun locks is that you never have to unload your weapons while storing them and you never have to worry about where you point them. With a gun lock, a gun is perfectly safe and you can leave it in the baby's crib.

< /sarc>

[Conservomax]

The title should be changed to:

Retard cleaning loaded gun bitches and moans

[Oztrich Boy]

With respect, rigid application of Safety Rule No 1. TREAT EVERY WEAPON AS IF IT WERE LOADED would mean that the gun was never cleaned.

Because, as I alluded to in #10, you should never clean a loaded gun.

Yeah I know you really meant TREAT EVERY WEAPON THAT COMES INTO YOUR HANDS AS IF IT WERE LOADED UNTIL YOU HAVE PERSONALLY CHECKED AND UNLOADED IT.

But, that's getting complicated. Which is why some people think gun locks are better than training people properly in the first place.

The only value of a gun lock is if it can prevent some bozo from loading a gun he shouldn't.

[spunkets]

"I'm lucky I didn't blow my head off."

You're lucky the folks upstairs didn't return fire. LOL.

[spunkets]

"And don't point it yourself while pulling the trigger, moron."

Can you imagine the contortions required for the story to be true?

[Gun142]

The title should be changed to:
Retard cleaning loaded gun bitches and moans


I believe Rockpile nailed it in post 27.

This kid was not "cleaning his gun". He's lying. They were screwing around and he either
goofed up good or more likely the buddy did it and they are coming up with a cover story.

[FRMAG]

HAve literaly handled guns for most of my life (age 8 up) to include 26 years in the Army. One standard I always apply is to open tha action of a weapon and lock it plus drop the mag if its a semi before I pass it to someone else. If they fail to look at the chamber and verify that its empty/clear I take the weapon away and they never handle a weapon in my presence again.

[William Tell]

Rockpile said: "This kid was not "cleaning his gun". He's lying. "

I agree.

The press reports this lie in order to support the anti-gun campaign to require trigger-locks on all guns.

If what this young dope described was true, then he could have easily killed someone else while installing a trigger lock. By their very design, a trigger lock violates two of the four safety principles of firearms.
1) Treat every firearm as loaded.
2) Never touch the trigger of a gun unless you are ready to fire.

If the police wished to prevent "accidental" shootings of this sort, they would be providing education. Instead, they are wasting their time and threatening our right to keep and bear arms.

[LTGStonewall]

Makes me think of the oh so famous line from Forrest Gump. "Stupid is as Stupid does"

[ArrogantBustard]

Generic Gun Cleaning Procedures:
1) Unload the gun
2) Make darn sure it's unloaded
3) Remove all ammo from near vicinity of gun
4) Field strip the gun

...