5 ms·

An officer accidentally fired a gun? Is it just me or is that something that just should not happen?

ethanbond 3y ago
No accidents should happen, obviously. But put poorly trained people in the most terrifying moment of their lives with a dangerous weapon in their hands, and you better believe there are going to be some accidents. Thus: the whole problem. Some unarmed kid running for their life down the halls is gonna get shot by a police officer sooner or later.
jabroni_salad 3y ago
Yes, it's very simple. If you do not wish to shoot the gun, do not put your finger on the trigger. Firearm safety really is that straightforward, which is why it's so stupid when stuff like that happens.
- hedora 3y ago
  /s? The NRA used to be mostly focused on gun safety, and not lobbying for gun manufacturers in DC. Their courses were much more involved than "don't pull trigger if you don't want to shoot". Other pieces of advice included "keep the safety on", "never aim at a person" and "always assume the gun is loaded, especially when cleaning it".
  - giantg2 3y ago
    They used to even teach those classes in schools decades ago.
    - DavidPeiffer 3y ago
      My high school in Iowa had a shooting range (not sure what type) that had long been coordoned off. In 2007 it was unthinkable that people used to be able to come to school and practice shooting.
      - giantg2 3y ago
        Some schools use gyms or hallways for air rifle competition still. Most have to go to a range if they also compete with 22s anyways.
dmoy 3y ago
On average cop training with firearms in the US is quite minimal. Most cops are extremely bad shots when intentionally firing their guns. There's a long, long history of cops negligently firing their guns, even after gun safety tech progressed to the point where true accidental discharges are neigh impossible. It's always negligence now. "Glock leg" was a common trope among cops, because so many of them were shooting themselves in the leg. They sued both Glock and Sig multiple times because cops were convinced it must be the guns fault. Spoiler alert, it wasn't (well, some hand waving on a certain sig issue, but glocks are impossible to fire without pulling the trigger). I shoot competitive 3p rifle, and the closest range to me is a cop range. I've seen cops struggle for 5 minutes trying to figure out how to put their targets up. We have rules against drawing from holsters because cops have shot themselves in the leg so frequently (though the cops are still required to do it for testing lol). I've seen cops shooting rifles at the pistol range, which destroys the backstop. I've seen cops shoot at targets on the wrong range. Like literally other people's targets, up in the air, from a different range. In the direction of an interstate freeway, at an upwards angle. I've seen cops (with aforementioned rifles) shoot groups at 50 yards while rested on a bench that are straight up worse than what I can do at 200 yards while standing up. (For an average non-olympic-tier competitor, you'd expect 200 yard standing groups to be 4-5x larger than 200 yard bench groups, and closer to 20x+ larger than 50yd bench groups). The average cop doesn't know shit about guns, and doesn't care. And largely that would be fine because most cops will never draw their guns in the blind of duty. Unfortunately we've built up a law enforcement ethos in the US where every cop must be armed even though they really shouldn't have to be.
- dmoy 3y ago
  Oh yea I'm pretty sure that for decades new york intentionally issued guns with 2.5x heavier triggers because cops couldn't keep their fingers off the trigger. Like in the 10+ pound range. This of course very much hurts accuracy when intentionally firing the gun, and makes bullets more likely to go places they shouldn't.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
pyrophane 3y ago
I don't think we've figured out a good way to prevent this sort of thing while also making is possible to be able to fire the gun quickly when needed. The easy answer is "more training," but I suspect it has a lot to do with the fact that police in many places don't find themselves in dangerous situations that often and training only goes so far.
fatnoah 3y ago
It definitely shouldn't happen. By all accounts, including video surveillance available of the incident, the officer's finger wasn't on the trigger, but was on the side of the barrel, which was pointed downward.

No accidents should happen, obviously. But put poorly trained people in the most terrifying moment of their lives with a dangerous weapon in their hands, and you better believe there are going to be some accidents. Thus: the whole problem. Some unarmed kid running for their life down the halls is gonna get shot by a police officer sooner or later.

jabroni_salad 3y ago

Yes, it's very simple. If you do not wish to shoot the gun, do not put your finger on the trigger. Firearm safety really is that straightforward, which is why it's so stupid when stuff like that happens.

hedora 3y ago
/s? The NRA used to be mostly focused on gun safety, and not lobbying for gun manufacturers in DC. Their courses were much more involved than "don't pull trigger if you don't want to shoot". Other pieces of advice included "keep the safety on", "never aim at a person" and "always assume the gun is loaded, especially when cleaning it".
- giantg2 3y ago
  They used to even teach those classes in schools decades ago.
  - DavidPeiffer 3y ago
    My high school in Iowa had a shooting range (not sure what type) that had long been coordoned off. In 2007 it was unthinkable that people used to be able to come to school and practice shooting.
    - giantg2 3y ago
      Some schools use gyms or hallways for air rifle competition still. Most have to go to a range if they also compete with 22s anyways.

dmoy 3y ago

On average cop training with firearms in the US is quite minimal. Most cops are extremely bad shots when intentionally firing their guns. There's a long, long history of cops negligently firing their guns, even after gun safety tech progressed to the point where true accidental discharges are neigh impossible. It's always negligence now. "Glock leg" was a common trope among cops, because so many of them were shooting themselves in the leg. They sued both Glock and Sig multiple times because cops were convinced it must be the guns fault. Spoiler alert, it wasn't (well, some hand waving on a certain sig issue, but glocks are impossible to fire without pulling the trigger). I shoot competitive 3p rifle, and the closest range to me is a cop range. I've seen cops struggle for 5 minutes trying to figure out how to put their targets up. We have rules against drawing from holsters because cops have shot themselves in the leg so frequently (though the cops are still required to do it for testing lol). I've seen cops shooting rifles at the pistol range, which destroys the backstop. I've seen cops shoot at targets on the wrong range. Like literally other people's targets, up in the air, from a different range. In the direction of an interstate freeway, at an upwards angle. I've seen cops (with aforementioned rifles) shoot groups at 50 yards while rested on a bench that are straight up worse than what I can do at 200 yards while standing up. (For an average non-olympic-tier competitor, you'd expect 200 yard standing groups to be 4-5x larger than 200 yard bench groups, and closer to 20x+ larger than 50yd bench groups). The average cop doesn't know shit about guns, and doesn't care. And largely that would be fine because most cops will never draw their guns in the blind of duty. Unfortunately we've built up a law enforcement ethos in the US where every cop must be armed even though they really shouldn't have to be.

dmoy 3y ago
Oh yea I'm pretty sure that for decades new york intentionally issued guns with 2.5x heavier triggers because cops couldn't keep their fingers off the trigger. Like in the 10+ pound range. This of course very much hurts accuracy when intentionally firing the gun, and makes bullets more likely to go places they shouldn't.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

pyrophane 3y ago

I don't think we've figured out a good way to prevent this sort of thing while also making is possible to be able to fire the gun quickly when needed. The easy answer is "more training," but I suspect it has a lot to do with the fact that police in many places don't find themselves in dangerous situations that often and training only goes so far.

fatnoah 3y ago

It definitely shouldn't happen. By all accounts, including video surveillance available of the incident, the officer's finger wasn't on the trigger, but was on the side of the barrel, which was pointed downward.