Bass Pro Shops’ store in Rancho Cucamonga, California has an upstairs firing range. Not that you’d know it from the website. “The store offers nearly 180,000 square feet of outdoor excitement including the area’s largest selection of quality gear for fishing, hunting, camping, boating and marine. Much more than a hunting and fishing store, however, Bass Pro Shops also offers equipment for hiking, backpacking, outdoor cooking and more. Shoppers will find outdoor apparel for men, women and children, along with a fine selection of outdoor, casual and athletic footwear. A gift and nature center serves up a wide variety of outdoor-related items from lamps and dishes to bird feeders and furniture.” Fishing instruction! Footwear workshops! Kids events! The gun range was on the lowest setting of down-low. Not anymore. dailybulletin.com reports:
A Chino Hills man who brought six guns to test fire at Bass Pro Shops accidentally shot a woman in the buttocks inside the store Sunday.
The 52-year-old man, whose name wasn’t released, was checking in the weapons at the front desk when he noticed one of the guns had the hammer cocked. He reached for the .45-caliber weapon and it fired.
“(The bullet) exited through the bag, traveled about 40 yards away and hit a female shopper in the left side of her bottom,” said San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Tracy Dorsey.
The round penetrated the woman’s clothing and gave her a minor wound, but didn’t penetrate. The round fell to the floor.
Explanation: box, not bag.
Customers bringing a firearm to Bass Pro Shhhhhhops gun range check their weapon(s) at the front desk. An employee places the firearm in a metal box and attaches a lock. Upstairs, another employee removes the weapon from the box and takes off the gun lock. We can assume that the box slowed down the .45 just enough to prevent a tragedy.
Bass Pro Shops PR did the damage control thing. Unfortunately, they missed irony class at Dark Side University. “Anyone can bring their gun in to shoot,” said Larry Whiteley, Bass Pro Shops flackmeister. “We have policemen come in, other groups come in to learn gun safety.”
I was at the store on the date the accident happened, I was standing not to far away from the person checking in the firearm, she had already correctly secured two of the firearms using the bullet barrel (A small bullet proof device that the barrel of a firearm is placed into before the slide is pulled back just enough to ensure the firearm is cleared) The third firearm and the one that had the accidental discharge had not been handed over to the bass pro associate, it was still inside the customers range bag. The Round was most likely a hollow point round, a heavy canvass range bag can easily cause the round (due to its open cavity) to "mushroom". There was a loud pop, I wasn’t sure what happened at first, but quickly realized that a gun had discharged. I've been to the store several times, it is a very safe environment…I would not hesitate to go back…there are several protocols in place to ensure that things like this don’t happen, one of the stores policies even ask that firearms that are brought in to be fired in the range are unloaded. Furthermore the staff at the store acted in a very calm, professional manor, there was little panic and things remained very under control. Overall if the incident had happened anywhere else I don’t think things would have happened in such a calm cool collective way.
They did damage control alright, what they fail to mention is the customer checking in the guns was in fact an off duty police officer. I find it funny yet scary that a person trained in weapons safety let that happen let alone him roaming the streets with one.
Another anti-police comment from someone who hates LE and does not know the truth. I worked the range on that day and your comment is the farthest from the truth.
It doesnt surprise me that a Police Officer would be so careless a person in that leadership position should know better. That so-called police officer should have cleared his gun and the front desk should have spotted that safety infraction
Just like someone from the Army has never accidently shot himself or someone else or handed a loaded weapon to someone right…and they handle weapons far more than LE.
This is not law enforcement bashing…anybody can screw up…so if you screw up, you have to be able to take the heat!!!..those comments are right on..that is bullshit for a cop to make a mistake like that and we don’t know that he is LE until later !!!..if that had been a working class regular joe…his face would have been spattered all over the media and every detail of his life exposed (just the bad stuff..crap is king)..but a law enforcement officer makes a mistake and it’s just an accident or as they like to call it an A D ….I don’t know what is more scary the fact that they abbreviated accidental discharge or that it happens so much they had too????…
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