Editor's Notebook - Guncleaning Shooting Injuries

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SeekHer
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Editor's Notebook - Guncleaning Shooting Injuries

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Editor's Notebook

By Rich Grassi

Over the period of the past week, we've had several notices of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. This is bad news especially when the victim is a nonsworn citizen. This creates calls of "only the government should have guns," "the people aren't well trained enough to be armed," and other gems of nanny-state wisdom.

The most recent cases however involve members of law enforcement service, with two having considerable years in service. Those two cases involved the act of "cleaning" the firearms in question. In one case, the officer involved was "cleaning her gun when it accidentally went off."

No, really. That's what the news report said. And, while cleaning her gun and it going off, she was shot in the calf. I'm trying to figure out what one had to do to receive such an injury, but I know how the "gun went off." The trigger was pulled by a human being. The appropriate statement from our erstwhile journalist would more likely be, "The officer pulled the trigger without checking the condition of the firearm. The muzzle was pointed at the officer, who received a gunshot wound."

Our other case was accompanied by long and loud statements about the officer involved. This was the safest officer in the department. He always cleared his sidearm, checking the chamber visually and physically. Careful to keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, he also provided his own lidded container in which to place the cartridges from magazines and chamber. He had a patterned set of behaviors, a ritual for ensuring the condition of the piece before he went about field stripping and cleaning.

Even after all that, "the gun went off" and he received a nasty injury to his left hand. The story goes that his ritual was interrupted by other people and he failed to check the chamber again before pulling the trigger to disassemble the pistol. At that, he was the only one injured - he mostly took care of the muzzle direction rule.

Here was someone who knew the deal and took care of business, still receiving an injury. Well, have you ever driven a car? You have? Okay, ever been in a wreck?

That's what I thought. It's extremely likely you'll have an accident if you handle guns enough. Let's tweak our safety procedure a little and let our Officer #2 provide an object lesson.

I wish I could show the photos of his injury; it looked like a deeply plowed crease in his left palm starting at the middle and skidding along the palm toward the small finger side of the hand. He modeled for a photo for his home town paper, his hand over the slide, palm down, between ejection port and muzzle. His hand is large such that it hangs over the slide's front in this position.

This is a place where custom makers often put "forward grasping grooves." The tradition location for grabbing the slide to draw it back is behind the ejection port. The reason they are placed in back is because that keeps one's hand further from the muzzle.

Use the rear grasping grooves. It doesn't matter if your hand is over the slide with palm down or you use the "pinch" or "sling shot" technique - keep the hand away from ejection port and muzzle. If you have a gun on which some helpful soul has placed front gripping grooves, consider them an attractive decoration - or not - and use the ones in back. When I had a 1911 customized by Robar in Phoenix, I was asked if I wanted front slide grooves. I told them no, as they wouldn't get used.

The second issue, getting interrupted, is easily handled as well. "Make Ready."

If you've been interrupted during the process of unloading (or dry fire or just wiping the pistol down), before you go back to working with the gun, "Make Ready."

To make ready: (1) protect your eyes, (2) protect your ears (it may be going off), (3) point in a safe direction, (4) check the chamber, and (5) check the magazine.

If you find it loaded, put it in the condition you need it to be in. Then proceed.

If you do nothing more than check the chamber, check the magazine, every time the gun leaves your immediate control, it'll pay dividends.

Thanks to our Officer #2. His dedication to safety prevented more devastating injury to himself and injury to other officers in the room. We'd like to thank him for letting us reinforce the point that hands and muzzles don't mix - and that this can happen to anyone.

Stay safe!
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Frankingun
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Re: Editor's Notebook - Guncleaning Shooting Injuries

Post by Frankingun »

The one who shot herself in the calf. I bet she uses a Glock and had a round in the chamber when pressing the trigger before dismantling the gun. I'm very reluctant to own a gun that requires that. I also need a sand barrel in the gun room.
Buy ammunition and magazines.

You'll shoot your eye out!

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MarkD
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Re: Editor's Notebook - Guncleaning Shooting Injuries

Post by MarkD »

Quite a few years back a NYC cop "accidentally" shot at killed her husband (also a cop) while cleaning her gun. At the time NYPD still carried .38 revolvers. I never heard any more about it, but I swore at the time there was more to the story (hence the quote-marks around "accidentally" above). Let's face it, while cleaning your revolver you swing out the cylinder, so the gun isn't even capable of being fired even if loaded.

I've also heard lots of stories about cops accidentally killing themselves while cleaning their guns, then the responding officers had to dig thru the house to find the cleaning kit to prove that's what happened.
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