Posted on 06/20/2002 11:07:13 AM PDT by Henrietta
In reality, the first sign of a problem is often a knife stuck in your side or a bat from behind which breaks one of your arms.
What then?
I recently investigated a "shots fired" call at a residence in my jurisdiction. In this case, the elderly gentleman had an older (1932 I think) Colt .32 semi-auto pistol that he had carried for years (he is a local merchant and has a permit). He claimed to have removed the gun, in its "inside the pants holster" and laid it on his kitchen table, where it suddenly just discharged hitting his kitchen wall. No injuries, just a shook up citizen. I took the weapon to our alleged state firearms "expert" where he examined the gun and declared the citizen a liar and told me that I should press charges. My Chief and I agreed that it was most unlikely that this particular citizen would do anything so stupid, so, the Chief and I did a little test at our range. I repeated the claims of the citizen, and lo and behold, after about a minute of just sitting on the shooting bench, the damn thing just went off. I took it to a local gunsmith, who, after carefully examining the action determined that there was a notch worn on the striker and when laid down at a certain angle (such as when still in the holster with the belt clip down), gravity pulled the retainer into the notch and caused a discharge. (He went into great detail, about worn parts etc.) When I told the state "expert" about it he literally laughed in my face and declared that the gunsmith was a liar too! Needless to say, the citizen was more than slightly unnerved about his "carry" weapon discharging of its own volition. The Chief and I have lost all faith in our alleged expert, and the citizen has since retired the little pocket piece to his collection and now carries a nice little Taurus Millinium PT-145 in .45ACP.
Just remember, KAKA DOES occur!
Semper Fi
Then carry a ruger or a taurus doulbe action revolver with transfer bar safety . Ready to fire at ANY time.
Broken ejector slides do not cause a gun to "accidentally" fire. The only thing that causes a gun to fire is a person with his or her finger on the trigger.
Or maybe it will be your head rolling down the street and some dude in a robe wiping off his damascus steel scimitar. There's only so much a man can plan for when he just needs to go to the post office sometime today and then mow his lawn.
Parker’s .380 semi-automatic accidentally discharged
Note that the gun is the subject of this sentence, when in reality, Mr. Parker caused the discharge.
The bullet put a hole in a window...
Note that Mr. Parker put a hole in the wondow, but the story makes the bullet the subject.
“The only thing I would consider charging Parker with is reckless endangerment, but the bullet traveled out the window, not into the building iteslf,” said Flaherty.
If it had been an ordinary citizen, it would have been: "the perpetrator shot out the window."
Reid said the handgun had a mechanical malfunction with the ejector slide.
Bad Handgun!
Sheriff David Huffman said Parker turned the handgun over to authorities and asked that it be destroyed by the State Bureau of Investigation.
After all, if the handgun were an ordinary mechanical tool, but Parker were a dangerous fool, we'd destroy him, not the gun, right? Punish the gun for its wrongdoing. Put down that mad dog?
Ya got me there pardner! What a mental image! ROTFLMAO! You win! ;^)
It's possible they've revised the instructor curriculum. In the NRA Basic Pistol course I took, they taught hammer down on empty chamber for revolvers. I'd have to check if their companion textbook says the same thing. I figured they just kept the old method so that people who are not savy about such things as transfer bars wouldn't go putting a live round under the hammer of Grand-Dads Colt.
An excellent object lesson about maintaining firearms in good working order, especially with older guns that don't have the kind of redundant safeties that modern handguns usually have.
Whatever happened to the Western movies?
Actually, on a 1911, even if you were foolish enough to leave the thumb safety off, the grip safety and half-cock sere (and on newer ones like the Series II Kimbers, the trigger-actuated firing pin block as well) will prevent the sort of discharge you describe. Note: professional driver on closed course. Do not imitate!
Sure, for one static target. Those five rounds go away very quickly if you've ever been through a shoot house drill engaging multiple targets with recovery of missed shots and a failure-to-stop head-shot or two. Of course, if you're a lot better with a speed loader than I am, the point is moot. :-)
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