Just after 11am Saturday morning the Hot Springs Police Department responded to the Lions Club Gun Show at the Hot Springs Convention Center in reference to a shooting.
Once on the scene officers discovered that Charles Pike, 42, picked up a pistol off of a vendors table and the gun went off striking Pike in the left hand. The bullet them ricochet off the floor and struck William Bennett, 37, in the left side of the chest. The bullet did not penetrate Bennett's chest but both subjects were transported to a local hospital for treatment of non life threatening injuries.
Hot Springs detectives are investigating the incident and its unknown if there will be any charges.
This happened in genius country - perfect examples of this are the vendor who displayed a loaded gun and the customer who picked it up, aimed it at his hand and pulled the trigger. I'm sure our local commeter will explain it all away.
The reporting was pretty ingenious too. All that negligence and stupidity and they made it sound like it was just an accident, the gun just went off.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Mike, since you are so intent on reporters determining negligence, what if some of these cases aren't negligence, but intentional acts (guy murderers his friend and says it was an accident). Now you got the reporter downplaying an act of murder by proclaiming it as negligence. Isn't that what you hate?
ReplyDeleteOf all the repeated arguments you make, this one is the most baffling. On the face of it, I can't see how that supposedly helps our cause to say guns randomly go off by themselves. Only in your mind I guess.
Who's your local commenter in Hot Springs?
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Hot Springs, and have been to gun shows at that convention center. You get the worst types in that show, including neo-Nazis, paramilitary hillbilly militia members, and the really extreme gunloons.
ReplyDeleteYou and Jadegold, claiming to have gone to gun shows. What's that, like an atheist going to church?
DeleteBut I bet he hasn't spend tens of thousands of dollars going to gun shows every weekend for 40 years like Jade has.
Delete"This happened in genius country"
Delete" I grew up in Hot Springs"
Nuff said
Yes, how could they not arrest someone immediately! The guy who picked up the gun and fired it was probably saying he didn't load it. The dealer may have been denying loading it. Why not arrest them both and figure it out later--it's not like the innocent party would be able to sue for being arrested with no probable cause.
ReplyDeleteUnless someone admits fault right then and there, you have to investigate to see who put the ammo in the gun and who missed that it was loaded.
Usually, the best practice is to open the chamber and run a tie wrap through the action to prevent the gun going to battery. Sometimes the wrap goes through the barrel as well, preventing a round from being stuck in there. However, for some types of guns that you can't do this with easily, they are supposed to check that the chamber is empty and then tie wrap it shut, so you see revolvers with wraps around the cylinder, lever actions with the lever tie wrapped to the grip, break actions wrapped shut, and bolt actions with the handle tie wrapped down.
Now, if you want to look at these, you're going to have to handle a weapon that (except for the revolvers) you cannot verify is unloaded. Yes, rule 1, treat all guns as loaded. That doesn't change the fact that if you know the gun IS loaded, you don't want to be handling it in a crowded room because the chances of an accident go from zero to greater than zero as soon as you start touching it.
For this reason, if I'm interested, I cut the tie wrap off, check the chamber, and re-tie the gun--if the owner won't let me, I move on. Others, unfortunately, trust to that the tie wrapper, whether it was the vendor, or the cops who check everything at the front door, checked properly. They also trust that nobody screwed up and foolishly or maliciously snuck a round into a gun after the original inspection, then re-tied it.
So, when you have one of these discharges, it could be that the dealer/owner loaded the gun in the show, that some trouble maker did it, that the person looking at it who fired it loaded it, or that the owner of the gun loaded it before hand, and that he and the cop at the door missed this when attempting to clear the gun before the show. Lots of potential responsible parties, with only one or two of them right.
T., your lengthy comments justifying aberrant behavior are really pathetic. The customer broke safety rules which should be considered criminal acts. The vendor allowing a loaded gun to be displayed should be held responsible for that.
DeleteWhy do you try so hard to justify this bullshit.
Mikeb, why do you push so much for punishing people?
DeleteWhere did I justify aberrant behavior? I just described some of the factors complicating the real world situation and pointing out that the two parties you listed may be the responsible parties, but there may be other responsible parties.
DeleteI'm not justifying ND's at shows. I hate them as much as the next potential victim. I do, however, want the right person held responsible.
Also, I'm more than a little peeved by poorly thought out safety rules imposed by local cops who, along with some dealers, tie wrap actions shut so that the gun could still fire if it's loaded, but so that I can't double check and make sure that it's not loaded. I don't care to trust that some cop knew how to properly make sure that everything from an FN bullpup to a 1860's lever action was properly cleared.
"I do, however, want the right person held responsible."
DeleteIt sure doesn't sound like that to me. It sounds like you want NO ONE held responsible.
I point out that the people you want to blame could be the ones responsible, but that there could be other breakdowns in the system and others responsible and that investigation is needed to determine who was responsible.
DeleteYour response: Clearly you don't want anyone held responsible.
Honestly, I think you're just accusing me for contention's sake, because the only alternative is that your reading comprehension is nil.
"Mikeb, why do you push so much for punishing [negligent and dangerous] people?"
DeleteBecause people who do this kind of shit are too reckless to own guns safely. What do you do when you pick up a gun? Do you immediately aim it in an unsafe direction and pull the trigger? If you do that then you're a dangerous person who should forfeit his rights.
If you were the seller, is there any chance in hell that you'd display a loaded gun and not know it? C'mon man, stop defending these losers.