Marcus Dixon was once a homeless young teenager who made a "180-degree turn" when a family in Stamford, Conn., adopted him at age 17, the Connecticut Post reported. He went on to become the football captain at Stamford High School -- where he graduated from in 2009 -- before making it to West Point.I'll never understand how people can "forget the one in the chamber." Wouldn't that be the first thing you think of when pointing a gun at your head and preparing to pull the trigger?
Dixon died shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday when he accidentally shot himself in the head with his .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol, according to local reports. Dixon was showing his gun to two friends at an apartment in Stamford at the time of the incident. He had removed the magazine from the pistol and, thinking it was empty, tried to show the gun was safe by pointing it toward his head and pulling the trigger, the newspaper reported. One round was hidden in the gun's chamber.
Which brings up another question. Why would anyone do that?
And what is it with football players and guns. We've seen quite of few stories.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Yet again, the inclusion of a load indicator would have saved a life. Gun companies know how to add them to a wide variety of handguns for pennies, yet don't, and there ain't no one to make them do it.
ReplyDeleteYes, of course, blame the manufacturer. It would have been just as easy to avoid this by checking the chamber and oh, yeah, him not pointing a gun at his head and pulling the trigger.
DeleteI'm always trading firearms and when the neighbors come by, or when I go to the neighbors' house, I'm always asked "what are packing today"? I pull my firearm out, remove the magazine, rack the slide, catch the round in my hand and hand the firearm over. I know the firearm is safe, without pulling the trigger and without a loaded chamber indicator. Of course, that's just common sense.
Every gun I own has a loaded chamber indicator. It's between my ears. Before I clean or inspect a firearm, I go through the procedure to verify that the chamber is empty. I still treat the gun as loaded even then.
DeleteOregonian, there's no saving knuckleheads. You advocate ruining the world on their behalf, but it would do no good.
A guy points a gun at his head and pulls the trigger, then Baldr says the problem was the lack of a little lever with a blob of red paint. Amazing.
DeleteBaldr - how do you know the gun did not have an LCI. Many popular models do have this idiotic, dangerous feature.
Assuming the guy was not intending to kill himself, the load indicator might have helped. Baldr is right.
DeleteGreg, I believe you. That makes you one of the majority who are smart enough and careful enough to handle guns safely. It's the others we need to worry about.
DeleteWhy can't you and I agree on this? You have more at stake than I do. Proper gun control would benefit you more than it would me.
Mikeb, stop saying that. Either you're lying or you're insane. "Proper" gun control would hurt me. I wouldn't be allowed to carry a handgun. I'd have to get approval just to own a gun. There'd be limits on how many I could own. I'd have to keep them in a condition in which they couldn't be used in an emergency. And on and on. That's what you've proposed.
DeleteYou're desperate to save people, but the fact is that a significant percentage of the population cannot be saved. There's not one thing that any of us can do about that, and ruining the world for the rest of us won't achieve any good.
It does continue to astonish me that the safety worshippers here don't call for a ban on football. Regarding this case, there's nothing to say other than to note that idiots will act accordingly.
ReplyDeleteApparently I am in good company. Every trainer and gun store salesperson that I have encountered has always, always, always removed the magazine on a semi-automatic handgun and moved/locked the slide back in the open position before showing it, handling it, or transferring it to someone else to handle.
ReplyDeleteThat method guarantees that the chamber is empty and forces the person who is going to show or handle the firearm to verify that it is empty. I don't know why so many people are failing to follow that protocol.
“Hidden in the gun’s chamber”? That is like saying “gasoline was hidden in the tank of the car.”
ReplyDeleteYou guys should answer the question. How do you know it didn’t have the indicator? What does that do to you argument if it did? Or are you assuming that all gun control works, so if it had a red flag, it would have been impossible for him to point it at his head and pull the trigger.
Yup, TS, that whole thing about point a gun at his head and pulling the trigger don't matter to the control freaks. They suggest that people should be responsible for themselves, and that's a position that gun grabbers can never accept.
ReplyDelete