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Posted on 07/10/2003 4:04:58 AM PDT by jalisco555
A student in a gun safety class accidentally shot his instructor in the leg Wednesday while unloading a Glock handgun at the instructor's home in Salina, Onondaga County sheriff's deputies said.
Patrick Sacco, 48, a former Liverpool police officer, suffered the wound to his right leg about 10:45 a.m. in the basement of his home at 110 Tempo Circle, where he was instructing three students on firearms safety.
Gary Kassel, 56, of Syracuse, was unloading the .40-caliber Glock and didn't realize there was still a round in the chamber when he pointed the gun at the cement floor and pulled the trigger "to render the gun safe," deputies said. A bullet ricocheted off the floor and struck Sacco.
Sacco, owner of Verdad Investigations and Protection Institute, refused treatment from medics and was planning to get medical help on his own, deputies said. No charges were filed. The investigation will continue, deputies said.
The students were licensed handgun owners taking a class that would certify them to be armed security guards, Sgt. John D'Eredita said.
At least two Onondaga County law enforcement agencies have had a history of accidental shootings with Glocks since 1992. The county probation department had three in the past eight years, and the sheriff's department had three in the past 11 years.
In the most recent case, a probation officer was unloading her Glock at home last year when it accidentally fired into the floor of her apartment and struck a downstairs neighbor.
The description of the shooting in Sacco's basement typifies Glock accidents, said Joseph Cominolli, a firearms expert and former Syracuse police officer.
Glocks are safe weapons if the handler knows what he or she is doing, Cominolli said. But a common problem is unloading the gun in the wrong order, resulting in a round of ammunition being left in the chamber without the user realizing it, he said.
"He screwed the procedure
up," said Cominolli, who designed and patented a manual safety device that can be added to Glocks. He based his opinion about Sacco's shooting on the description given by deputies. "It's a typical screw-up with the gun."
The correct unloading sequence is to take the magazine out, then pull the slide back to eject a round that might be in the chamber, then look in the chamber to make sure it's empty, Cominolli said. The trigger shouldn't be pulled at all when unloading, he said.
Cominolli questioned why Sacco was using live ammunition if he was teaching the students how to load and unload the gun.
Sacco hung up on a reporter seeking his comment. Kassel could not be reached for comment.
"If you're doing a malfunction drill or teaching someone how to load and unload, with a student you don't use live ammo," Cominolli said. "You don't even do that with cops."
Um, I must have have been daydreaming during that part of my firearm safety course. I sure don't remember being taught that!
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is the transitional events that are problematic.
The correct unloading sequence is to take the magazine out, then pull the slide back to eject a round that might be in the chamber, then look in the chamber to make sure it's empty, Cominolli said. The trigger shouldn't be pulled at all when unloading, he said.
Thatsssss riiiiight.....at least he had the weapon pointed in the right direction...unfortunately the right direction was made of cement.......
I think firearm safety has been a chronic problem with Onondaga County law enforcement. They've been trying to blame Glock for years for their own negligent behavior.
They didn't say he flunked. He just shot the teacher. As to the correct sequence of unloading, I thought this was the sequence for every semi-auto (drop the clip, clear the chamber, check for a round). Pretty obvious that you can't clear the chamber with a loaded clip in the weapon.
NRA rules are VERY specific and emphatic regarding the prohibition of live ammunition in the training area. This guy was IN HIS HOUSE, not at the range, teaching what was probably basic operating principles.
Substituting live ammo for snap cap/dummy training ammo in a classroom environment is exceptionally foolish.
Sometimes all the safety precautions and instruction in the world cannot prevent a dumbass from doing dumbass things. Had a guy next to me in a CCW class do almost the same thing, luckily no one was hurt. He was quickly yanked out of the firing line. He was an old man and when we finished and were leaving the instructor was "instructing" him one on one.
Sorry, bud - natch. The only way to "decock" a Glock is to pull the trigger.
And the gun isn't truly considered "unloaded" until the striker is released.
Yep. This was the procedure we followed in Bosnia. Drop the mag, charge the weapon three times, inspect chamber, point in a safe direction (into clearing barrel for example) and pull trigger.
What's funny is- people still screwed that up every once in a while. How? Don't ask me, but there's always some dim bulb that will dick up the safest "safing" procedure.
My initial reaction to the fact that the instructor donned a vest before starting the inspections was amusement until I thought about the number of accidental discharges that occur each year, and that the instructors had no way of knowing whether any given student was a yahoo or not.
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