Posted on 01/14/2015 6:48:43 AM PST by upbeat5
A former Kentucky police officer is suing a local gun store after he shot his finger off inside the store in a case of bad gun handling vs. horrible gun handling – plus a complete lack of personal responsibility.
According to a civil lawsuit, former Glasgow police officer Darrell Smith went to Barren Outdoors and asked to see a .380 caliber handgun.
An employee removed the gun from under the counter and handed it to Smith without checking to see if the gun was loaded.
Smith then takes the gun, likewise failing to check if the weapon was loaded, and holds it with one hand on the grip and the other hand near the muzzle. Smith says the gun “accidentally” went off (when he pulled the trigger), shooting off part of Smith’s index finger.
Smith’s attorney, Alan Simpson, said the incident caused him to lose his job as a police officer.
“He’s permanently disfigured. He went through a lot of pain and suffering. He’s gone through several surgeries. He’s got a lot of medical bills that have to be paid. It ended his career and he’s going to have a lot of lost income,” Simpson told local reporters
The lawsuit further claims that the store employee didn’t do a safety check to ensure the gun was unloaded, therefore smith is suing for negligence.
Conveniently left out of the suit is the fact that Smith failed to a safety check, then violate all of the firearms safety rules.
1. Treat all weapons as if they are loaded. FAIL.
2. Never point a gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. FAIL (unless he hated his finger).
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you are on target and ready to fire. FAIL.
I understand testing the trigger on that next gun purchase… but not when the barrel is pointed at your own hand and other patrons in the store.
...and even if his finger had fully recovered, he should STILL have been forced out of the police department for being an unsafe-gun-handling-dumbass.
Uh.. Roosevelt left out #4.
No matter what else ... the store should not be handing loaded guns to customers. That’s going to go bad for the store!
Even though the guy was foolish in his actions, I’d have to side with him because the gun should not have been loaded when taken from the display case in the store. He wasn’t expecting it to be loaded straight from the display case.......Yes, I know you should treat all guns as if they are loaded..................
He belongs in PRISON
reckless endangerment involving the use of a firearm
Attempted Suicide(he shot himself)
Aggravated Assault on a Police Officer
Assault with a Deadly Weapon upon a Police Officer
ALL FELONIES
and just plain being STUPID
20-30 years should do the trick.
If a gun store employee or anyone else hands me a gun, EVEN IF THEY DO A SAFETY CHECK, I always do a sfety check , also.
It’s just the way it should be done.
Never take a gun in trade without opening the action and confirming it is unloaded. Never put such an unchecked gun in a display cabinet for sale to the public. Never handle a gun or allow a gun to be handled until its been confirmed that it is unloaded.
Never shoot yourself in the hand. This last one doesn’t seem necessary to state but,to me, neither do the previous ones.
Exactly right. Check for yourself. Do the same thing when driving, YOU look, don’t trust your passenger’s “all clear over here” signal. The one behind the wheel and the one with the gun in his hand are the ones responsible.
Yep. It looks like each person is 50% responsible here, and each one should be liable for 50% of the medical bills, etc.
Thank goodness it wasn’t a Glock!
I wouldn’t expect that a clerk in a gun store would hand me a loaded gun, but I’d check anyway. It’s just a habit of mine.
Unloaded guns are just as dangerous as loaded ones.
Of course that’s a 1970’s meme I learned from my parents. But it echoes in my head anytime a gun is present so it serves its purpose.
He doesn’t belong in prison for dong something stupid, though I guess you could argue reckless endangerment. If he had shot the customers to his left, instead of his own finger he would deserve jail time, though.
The gun shop employee also shares responsibility and may be even more culpable than the cop. While it is stupid and foolish to ASS/U/ME (you know what Felix Unger says happens when we do that) that a gun handed to you by a gun shop employee is unloaded, it really ALWAYS should be the case.
There was negligence in allowing the loaded gun to get into the display case, then negligence in the employee not checking to see if it was loaded, and then finally the cop was negligent in violating rules 1, 2 and 3 of gun safety.
I seriously doubt the cop was fired for having only 9 1/2 fingers. I’m sure they would have given him some sort of desk duty if he couldn’t do normal police work with half a digit missing, if he had been injured in a different manner.
I suspect he was fired for some combination of having an extremely, negligent discharge, that COULD have killed an innocent person, and possibly for going gun shopping while on duty (unless he was on break at the time).
“No matter what else ... the store should not be handing loaded guns to customers. That’s going to go bad for the store!”
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I agree, they both share in the negligence & this thread’s title aptly includes the words “2 IDIOTS”. There may be a 3rd idiot if someone else placed the loaded/non-cleared weapon in the display case.
F”ng Idiot!
>>>Unloaded guns are just as dangerous as loaded ones.
Of course that’s a 1970’s meme I learned from my parents. But it echoes in my head anytime a gun is present so it serves its purpose.<<<
I have also heard that most accidental/negligent shootings are with “unloaded” guns.
The first thing you do when picking up or being handed any gun is check to see if it is loaded, (while pointing it in a safe direction). That is true, whether it was handed to you at the range, by a gun shop employee, or if you pulled it out of the gun safe it has been sitting “unloaded” in for 6 months.
“I didn’t know it was loaded!” in an indictment on the person who had a negligent discharge. Of course you knew it was loaded. ALL guns are loaded. You can know a gun is not loaded (if you check), but you can never not know it was loaded.
A .380 ?
“...I seriously doubt the cop was fired for having only 9 1/2 fingers....”
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Particularly since the missing 1/2 (or 1/3, 1/4?) finger is apparently on his non dominant hand.
I agree with what was a loaded gun doing in the display case. Was it a trade-in? In which case the store should have taken the weapon down to check for wear and functionality and cleaned. Someone at the store dropped the ball on this weapon.
On the other hand the LEO should at the very least checked the chamber with the weapon pointed in a safe direction. However my experience with LEO’s at the range is when they show up I leave. Most unsafe group I have ever been around
He doesn’t belong in prison for dong something stupid,
If this happened to an ordinary citizen, he/she would be PROSECUTED, No Questions asked, and considering he shot a POLICE OFFICER, Attempted Murder of a Police Officer charges are in order.
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