Want to share with you an experience I had today at a small gun shop near my house.

This is a small, cluttered, 'old school' gun shop. Been in business nearly 40 years. Eight people in the sales area is nearly standing room only. This late afternoon there were four patrons and the owner/son who run the place. Three of us are regulars. The fourth unknown guy came in with three gun cases with rifles he wanted to sell (a common situation with the economy around here).

There are some glass display cases with handguns and the cleared portion of the display case top is where most transactions take place. A friend of mine had just completed a trade transaction and the two guns he swapped to the gun shop were to the side of the cleared space, still atop the glass counter top.

The unknown patron that was next lifted one of his rifles onto the display case top and started talking to the owners son. Two of us moved off eight feet away to discuss something. The third regular was eyeballing the two recently acquired trade-ins. As the unknown patron started to pull a rifle (a Winchester Model 100) from the canvas gun case there was a loud 'boom'.

For a couple seconds there was the typical 'WTF' chaos.

Seems the rifle was loaded and the guy got enough trigger depressed while pulling it from the case to fire the .308. The display case glass was broken in several places and a lot of stuff stacked on the end of the display cases took a hit. Dust, debris, and secondary projectiles were flying. One of the recently traded in rifles took a hit to the stock. Everything from holsters to gun catalogs went flying. The third regular (an accomplished Urologist still in scrubbs) was beyond the muzzle and he caught fragments to his face/neck that drew blood and something opened up his right hand pinky finger more seriously.

I loaded the Doctor up and took him to a nearby hospital emergency room. They removed a piece of bullet jacket out of his finger about the size of a match head. They closed the wound with four stitches and it looks like he will be okay.

Because of the damage/injury the police were called for a report. The bullet did not make it intact very far due to all the stuff it was hitting on the top of the display case.

Amazing how fast an 'accident' can happen. I've been around a couple 'accidental discharges' but this was the first with injuries.

I hope the DOC gets better soon and glad it wasn't worse.Good Luck

wow... there are morons among us!

been in the shop many times. It is reall old school stacked from floor to ceilinG. MATT TOOK ME TO THIS PLADE THE FIRST TIME HE OPENED HIS HOUSE FOR ME TO CRASH AT FOR SCI FUNCTIONS, tHE GUYS AT THE SHOP ARE HIGHLY SKILLIED AND KNOWLEDGABLE ABOUT MOST THINGS GUNS. tHEIR SKILL IS GOOD, BUT THEY CURMUDGEONLY AND OUTRIGHT GRUPMY AT TIMES. tHESE IDIOSYNCHCIES DONT DETRACT FROM THEIR ABILITY TO MAKE GREAT TRADES AND SALES sTILL i WOULD HAVE WANTED TO HEAR WHAT EVERYONE SAID. i WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HEARE THE CONVERSATIOM ONIF EWVERYONE WAS OK, WHAT ELSE WAS DAMAGED OR DESTROYED ? DAMAGEDONE OFFER TO COMPENSATE?

Very fortunate that more serious injuries did not take place. The description of your local gun shop pretty much describes the one I frequent and I will copy this "accidental discharge" and give it to the guys at my location just as a reminder of what can happen.

After retiring from my real job, I worked part time in a gun shop for awhile. I called it my "hobby job." Anyway, all the sales people made it a policy whenever a customer brought in a gun that we would immediately take control of the firearm. I would nicely tell them that I'll take it, and check to make sure it was unloaded. Had one guy hand be a semi auto pistol in a case and tell me, don't worry it's not loaded. When I racked the slide a live round popped out. He looked confussed and said, "how did that get in there."

Ahhh accidents: Many of you in CA know Jim Gaston, long time professional gunsmsith. A few years ago, he "checked " a 25 auto, unfortunately his palm partially covered the muzzle (we've all done this with this mini handguns) Bang! Pretty well messed up his ring finger for good

I have guns come in from time to time loaded. I don't like surprises anymore and so I personally have resorted to opening gun cases and remove the guns myself. I have a couple of 'swell' bullet holes and a nice pattern from a shotgun in the shop walls as a reminder of why I no longer accept walk in customers. When you are open to the general public, shit like this can happen, it comes with the dinner. As the proprietor of the business, you have to always stay one step ahead of the customer. I've even had guns shipped to me loaded.

Dear Mr. Norman:

Around 10-12 years ago, a similar occurance happened at the local Army Navy store in Reading, Pennsylvania.

A patron brought in a small 25 or 32 automatic pistol to sell, and handed the "unloaded" handgun to one of the salesmen. The salesman had pretty big hands that were sweaty (middle of a hot humid summer), and when he went to clear it, the slide slipped, and boom!

Fortunately, it missed the tendons in his left hand, but the bullet after passing through his hand, literally went through the roof.

I had to apply a tourniquet (he was bleeding like a stuck pig), relieve the tourniquet from time to time, give him a blanket to counteract shock and basically hang out with him until the EMT showed up. Thank god for boy scout training.

Funny thing was, the injured salesman was a former Marine, who had fought in Gulf I, but had not been hit. He was kind of astounded that he was wounded in a civilian capacity.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

All I can say is WOW....and all I can do is shake my head.

This makes a great case for having someone check and triggerlock anything comming into the store at the door (like cabela's does for example). I've never been in a store when one went Boom! but I have had several conversations with clerks who did not properly control the muzzle when they brought a handgun out from the case and started waving it around.

The majority of these kinds of accidents can be traced directly to the persons finger being where it shouldn't be, on the trigger.

quote:

Originally posted by ted thorn:
All I can say is WOW....and all I can do is shake my head.

+1

A long time friend and Gun shop owner had a sign in the door way of his shop .

If your bringing a firearm in then this is far as you are allowed to come STOP !.

A smaller sign underneath that said failure to do so may result in your ultimate demise !.


Nicest guy you would ever want to know and not a hard ass at all . A women brought in a Hawkins Rifle

that was loaded for an appraisal or sale . She set it on the counter and it discharged a round through

the wall into the next door business !.

So after that incident the sign went up and stayed up . It also served notice too would be armed

robbers if you were packing you had better be firing upon entering the second set of doors .

Because ole Tim was !!!. I personally have never known anyone ignorant enough to carry a loaded

firearm into a gun shop !. If I take a weapon into a gun shop ,it's out of it's case or I've called

in advance or the Bolt , magazine is in my pocket !.

I want to remain on the " Good Side " of the gun shop or Smith .

By showing them they're dealing with someone of reasonable intelligence .

This has " NEVER FAILED " I walk into the shop ask the Owners permission to bring a weapon in FIRST !.

Then go back too my vehicle and retrieve it to show it too them !.

if I was that urologist I would be pissed.

The Doc went out Saturday and shot a round of sporting clays, posting his personal best. Feeling has returned to his pinky and his wound is healing nicely. Saturday night we all went to a surprise 80th birthday party for the owner of the gunshop and we were laughing about the incident (what else can you do?). There is talk of the Doc getting some kind of a 'Purple Heart' award out of this.

I suspect the dummy pulling the gun out of the case will pay for the damages and various bills.

We might get out of this deal with no lawyers getting involved. Wouldn't that be nice!

Might I suggest the owner of the gunshop locate an M1A and place the offenders trigger finger beneath the hinge on the butt plate and slam it. That's how the Marine Corps of 1969 dealt with such idiots.

In gunsmithing school students were not permitted to handle ammo -a good idea. Guns accepted from the public were inspected before being given to a student .When I was there I watched a student cycle a 12 ga auto and rounds came out the magazine !! Someone had forgotten about the mag cutoff !! Student was furious !

quote:

If I was that urologist I would be pissed.

What if you were a proctologist?

Local gunshop had the same thing happen. Customer brought a pistol in. The owner's son put a 22 bullet right through the meat between the thumb and first finger.

When I go in carrying a gun, the action is open, and I have already checked to makes sure it is unloaded.

Every time I walk into Jim Anderson's shop and hand him a rifle. The first thing he does is manually check the chamber with a finger sweep.

When somebody hands me a gun in the gunshop, the first thing I do is check it. They always look at me interestingly and don't say a word.

Matt, I am glad to hear everyone is ok. I imagine everyone was pretty stunned at the time.
It must have been quite a shock. I know people get complacent and careless but there is no excuse for something like this. Hell of a birthday surpise!