Posted on 03/17/2018 1:18:41 PM PDT by marktwain
It happened on 15 September, 2017. An Illinois Judge, Patrick O'Shea, 67, accidentally fired a short barreled Smith & Wesson five-shot in his apartment in Wheaton, Illinois. The bullet went through a mirror, the wall, and into the next apartment. No one was hit, and there was little property damage. He checked to see if anyone was in the apartment. There was not. He may have thought “No harm, no foul”, and proceeded to attempt to lie his way out of the problem. Big mistake. It changed his life. From dailyherald.com:
On Sept. 24, the neighbors told police they found what appeared to be a spent bullet on their living room floor. They turned over the bullet to police, along with photographs they had taken of their damaged wall.
Police reports say O'Shea gave property managers at least three excuses for the hole, including that he accidentally put a screwdriver through the wall while hanging a mirror and that his son accidentally caused the hole while using a pneumatic nail gun.
Ekl previously called the shooting an “accidental discharge of a gun” that O'Shea believed to be unloaded.
As a condition of his bond, O'Shea was ordered to turn in all his weapons, ammunition, FOID card and concealed carry permit to Wheaton police.
I have a strong suspicion that this was a dry fire accident. They happen to people who take carrying a firearm seriously, and while rare, happen often enough to take precautions so they do not happen to you. The common situation goes something like this:
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
Sherlock Holmes used a pistol in his apartment to slug out the letters VR on an interior wall. Watson was alarmed. Mrs. Hudson dismayed. And Holmes: simply bored. Still, not a responsible thing for a hero like Holmes to do.
He was just taking an office pop.
You’re right. A guy in his position should have no difficulty in finding a home with a basement to dry-fire to his heart’s content.
Some people got the short end of the divorce. Some like it when the landlord does all the work. And some are keeping a separate residence in town, just in case of, oh, whatever.
What does that mean? That's up there with police say an SUV struck and killed a man.
Should'a been, two in the chest of drawers and one in the headboard.
Those practices included the following (from memory):
1 - Have a dedicated portable target which is only taken out for dry-firing and is stored away from the dry-firing location when not in use. Use no other target for dry-firing.
2 - Unload the firearm BEFORE putting the dry-fire target into the place where it is to be used.
3 - When done dry-firing put the dry-firing target into its storage location.
4 - Only reload the firearm AFTER the dry-firing target has been put into its storage location.
Evidently there had been some dry-firing incidents in nearby hotels and the implementation of this policy was to address that problem.
“Distractions” kill people.
... I had a .45 pistol go off one day inside my Suburban driving down a street in Galveston, Texas..
A similar thing happened to a friend who once had an early morning outdoors radio show in Houston. The only difference is that he blew his starter off the car engine.
The rule in my house is that you check if a gun is loaded every time you pick it up or if it is out of your sight. If I want to look at a gun I will check it, if my daughter is sitting next to me and wants to see it, I hand it to her and she checks it, just to be sure. There are no exceptions. Checking a gun is quick, simple and cheap. An unintended discharge can be a disaster.
No liquor was spilled or transsexual hookers injured during the incident...
NO ONE should write anything to do with firearms unless they become a certified firearms instructor to learn WTF they’re talking about.
“It’s hard to have a dry fire incident with a revolver. Either he wasn’t paying attention or he was drunk. I guess he could have just hated his wallpaper”
You are correct! Revolvers are incredible safe but I do carry a semi with a round in the chamber. A live round in the chamber is perfectly safe in a semi (a quality weapon only). It should be noted that I have lived in apartments in my youth where the wallpaper was vile and I hated it. I never had the urge to shoot it!
Glock weapons are a little different and that is one of my carry weapons though my main weapon is a Browning Hi Power. If you carry a Glock one must really understand it. It is a fine weapon but a weapon that should only be carried by those that shoot it often and understand it and that damn safety on the trigger. Mostly I carry my Browning Parabellum but will carry the Glock when I want to be discrete.
Weapons are not evil they are but tools. In the hands of evil they can create tragedy. When the innocent do not have these weapons much death occurs. When the innocent are armed and ready to defend themselves and other innocents much death does not happen. It is really that simple.
When we landed at Normandy our boys were carrying MI Garands and our ships and aircraft delivered hell on the enemy. This was the reality of evil verses good. We landed with the full intention of killing evil. We did. It happened on the beaches of Normandy and can happen next door at your child’s school. Good men with guns is good! Those boys at Normandy, American, Brit, Candadian, French Polish and a few other nationalities sacrificed much and many paid the ultimate price. It is simply good verses evil.
I firearm in the hand of a good man or good woman is a force for good. They are your protectors.
“Spent bullet” on the floor? The one that went through the wall? The was most likely empty brass case, or a cartridge. What a bunch of morons.
We do not know what it hit inside the wall. It went through the mirror, the plasterboard, maybe hit a stud, and went through the plasterboard on the other side.
Then we do not know what it hit inside the apartment on the other side of the wall before it came to rest.
An expended case is unlikely because it was found in the apartment on the other side of the wall, and it was a revolver that was fired.
“It’s hard to have a dry fire incident with a revolver.”
That thinking will get you in trouble. It’s harder to accidentally pull the trigger on a revolver but it’s easy to mistake a loaded one for an unloaded one. That’s what probably happened to the judge. I came within a hair of accidentally discharging a revolver I would have bet $1000 was empty. Now I check every time a gun has left my hand.
Did it once. Over-familiar, whatever. I racked the slide, dropped the mag and then pulled the trigger while pointing it at the floor.
Oops.
Never happened since.
The first, he was holding a 12ga shotgun with the barrel straight up, when it fired. He was in a downstairs apartment. I also knew the people who lived above him. Their 8 year old daughter was sitting on the floor doing her homework on the coffee table. The shot went thru the concrete flooring and it all erupted right under the coffee table. The girl was unhurt.
The second, He was supposedly sitting on his bed cleaning his 357 and it went off. Across the street the neighbor was on his driveway working on the lawnmower. The garage door was open behind him and my friend noticed liquid running down the driveway. He went over to tell his neighbor that he had just plugged the gas tank on his car. His neighbor hadn't even noticed.
The garage door was open behind him and my friend noticed liquid running down the driveway. He went over to tell his neighbor that he had just plugged the gas tank on his car. His neighbor hadn’t even noticed.
Consider the volume of a normal gun silencer/suppressor. Consider the volume of a house.
Had an accidental discharge at a skeet shoot when my glove caught the trigger while I was waiting for the second house to be reloaded. Scared the piss out of me, luckily the shotgun was pointed down range.
Did it once. Over-familiar, whatever. I racked the slide, dropped the mag and then pulled the trigger while pointing it at the floor.
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