“A University of Texas police officer accidentally shot himself Tuesday morning outside of the campus police department, according to UT police. Paramedics took the officer to University Medical Center Brackenridge with injuries not considered to be life-threatening.” What happened? We’ll probably never know all the details, but “(i)nitial reports were that the officer shot himself accidentally while performing a weapons check. UT police are investigating the incident, UT police said.” The four rules of gun safety — always keeping the gun pointed in a safe direction paramount among them — apparently aren’t part of the curriculum at this august institution of higher education. Go figure.
We will see news footage of scores of LEO’s gathered at the hospital in “support” of the “fallen” officer.
The Chief will hold a news conference both somber in tone for the grievous injury to his officer yet also celebratory that his officer is still alive but will face a long hard recovery.
Never mentioned will be the officer’s negligence or that the taxpayers will be picking up his hospital bills, time away from the job and ultimate disability payments. The officers gathered at the hospital will also be collecting overtime for showing support to their fallen “hero”.
Got gun? Check.
Got ammo? Check.
Gun loaded. Check.
Safety off? Check.
Trigger works? Check.
Pointed in safe direction? …
Bob? Bob, are you alright! Ouch, that looks like it hurts.
C’mon guys, it’s a campus cop. In the hierarchy of police, these guys are maybe a step above Paul Blart.
No one ever aspires to being a campus cop, it’s what you do when you get injured so badly the real cops won’t let you work anymore, and all the desks to ride are full. Or you just didn’t make the cut to be a real copper, but damn it, this is my stepping stone. Did I tell you, one day I’m gonna try out for the Feebies?
Back in the day, guys would do it for the, umm, fringes, but politics and policy being what they have been for the last decade, it’s got nothing to attract anyone worth doing the job.
Huh, who would’ve guessed.
“Uniformed Duty Handguns:
Department Issued:
The departmental issued handgun is the Glock”
There was also that Austin High school teacher that tried to kill his ex with a hammer and then attempted to commit suicide… Keep Austin Weird
Suicide by hammer? Yikes.
Nah, the hammer was just used to attack her. The suicide attempt was jumping off a bridge. He failed to kill her, and he failed to kill himself. Some folks just aren’t very lethal.
I was just being deliberately obtuse. 🙂 Good that no one died, though.
Cue teacher joke in 5. . .4. . .3. . .2. . .
I used to have a homicide investigation book that had a picture of a dude that committed suicide by axe…to the top of the head. Numerous chops.
It was brutal.
That’s pure determination.
This would never have happened if UT had a policy that required all campus police to carry their handguns with an empty chamber…
They should be keeping their ammunition in their breast pocket till needed.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
I guess we know why that weird stipulation made it into the policy. The admin might have made their opinion based on guys with guns already on campus. We can’t fight the police union BUT…
Another stellar display of competence from the Only Ones.
Good lord, I’ve been warned about Austin….now it gets a little clearer.
So let me see…1 load mag
2 rack slide
3 point at self
4 pull trigger
✔ it’s loaded!
Insert banjo music
Wait? That’s unfair to a certain group in the population….but didn’t the central Fl police cheif just speak on how regular common every day jerks with guns need training before they run loosey goosey with guns, cause someone gonna get shot?
Only the well trained officer with hundreds of minutes of safety training is allowed to defend the public interest………uh what?….he shot himself?……never mind.
That reminds me of the flashlight test we had at work. Have someone check if a flashlight works. If they point the flashlight at an object to check the beam then they’re union. If they point the flashlight into their eyes, then they’re management.
Wow. I shoot more rounds in a month then most police do in their entire career. I train weekly drawing from a holster. I carry every day. I was a military cop for 7 years. I have handled guns regularly since 84. No NGs…ever. Carrying safely is not rocket science. “Weapons check” sounds like the official story. If he shot himself while holstering, they would have said that. I bet there is much more to the story.
In my experience the root of the problem is what you mention here: cops don’t shoot enough.
That said, even actual special operators have ND’s. There was a story a few years back about a SWAT guy who put a burst into the floor of some appartment from his MP5. He was no lightweight, former ODA operator with multiple tours plus SWAT training. He still made a mistake because he was tired after some crazy long hostage standoff or something.
I’m of the opinion that the retired operators over at BB&C pretty much nailed this in an article months back: with enough administrative handling of firearms a ND becomes highly likely for anyone, no matter how much training they’ve had. People, being people, make mistakes and the more you handle a gun the more likely it is that you handle one when tired or in some other way “not 100%” and that this greatly increases the risk of making a mistake.
Fair enough, except Officer Doofus here didn’t just get back from some 72 hour mission kicking down doors in Kandahar, exhausted and woozy.
He’s just a jackwagon campus cop who’s been trading on unearned credibility in his supposed expertise for far too long, and reality finally caught up with him and he ND’d.
I disagree. I’m sorry, but if Sgt. Knucklehead accidently shoots his buddy in a training exercise because he mishandled a firearm and he was tired, he will be apprehended, he will face a court martial, and he will be dishonorably discharged when done with his prison sentence. NGs (negligent discharges) are not inevitable, and they shouldn’t be even if the person is some sort of super soldier, civilian police officer, or Joe blow citizen. Equipment malfunctions, sure, I buy that, but negligently mishandling a gun, an NG, there is no excuse for that.
I agree with all your points, but can’t figure out how “NG” is an abbreviation for Negligent Discharge…
🙂 It is not. I blame it on spellchecker and tiny keyboard on phone.
Disagree all you like, it doesn’t change the reality that people make mistakes. This doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be consequences for those mistakes but I’m not suggesting there shouldn’t be consequences.
The statistics say you’ll file a car insurance claim for something YOU did every 17.9 years. That doesn’t mean everyone is a bad driver it means that people make mistakes. Again, I’m not saying there shouldn’t be consequences for mistakes, just that people make them and we should stop acting shocked that people make mistakes. I’ve seen older guys say “I’ve never had an ND and never will” at the range have have one two days later. That’s how Mr. Murphy works, kicking you right in the dick for your arrogance.
Queue the anit- cop derr…
More like queue the anti-Glock hate.
Glock Perfection: the defensive pistol that you need to change the trigger, sights and frame to get what you want.
Springfield should build a production facility for it’s XD series so America’s police Can avoid self inflicted wounds.
But the barrel is perfectly round.
I own a couple Glocks and have never felt the need to change a thing.
Trigger is acceptable, sights work well and the gun shoots fine.
Guns are intensely personal, if Glock doesn’t make something that works for you then don’t buy one. If they do, go ahead and buy one.
That is actually my point. If someone is happy with an out of the box Glock for a carry gun then it’s the right gun but so many people by a Glock and then fix everything that is wrong with it for a carry gun. They bought the wrong gun. I didn’t by my XD and XD/m pistols as anti-Glock. Objectively they are better guns but I got them because I am a 1911 guy and they are the closest modern striker fired polymer pistol to a 1911 in design.
But my post was actually to punk the anti-cop comment.
LOL. Can you imagine if it was student who had done this, right after the policy change? It would be a NATIONAL story. Some flack at the Whitehouse would say something if not the President. Relax the article doesn’t even mention the officer’s name. If I were him though I would sue Glock. They cut checks for this kind of thing.
We should have a variant of the IGOTD award, for professionals only. I humbly suggest the name “Professional Enough To Carry The Glock 40” award.
I like “Lee Paige Trophy” better.
I see what you did there
Proves those opposed to campus carry are right!
Murphy’s law for pro UT campus carry indeed
Time for UT to impose Barney Fife regulations.
So, would this be one of John Farnam’s purely accidental, non-negligent, “unintentional discharges”, since a cop was involved?
So once again, why am I expected to “stop and wait for the police?”
As much as I hate to admit it, the guys over at BB&C are probably right. If you handle firearms enough you’re extremely likely to eventually have an ND which is why always pointing a weapon your administratively handling in a safe direction is important.
Well, well–did you all catch how the Austin American-Statesman originally carried the story as “a man who was shot on the UT campus” being taken to the hospital by EMS? I’m kind of surprised they updated it to, you know, reflect the actual facts of the situation…
And the hoplophobes want only the police to be armed (police state).
Riiiiiiight……I’ll pass.
Hope the guy is alright…but it’s on him.
They don’t want the police to be armed either. But they can’t disarm the police until they disarm the non-police (see Europe)
That’s not how I check my weapons. Am I doing it wrong?
This must be the new, department approved procedure for clearing a firearm. Obviously, the UT campus cops are trained to the same level of professionalism that’s exhibited by Art Avocado’s Austin PD.
This guy only shot himself. That would put him in the top 10% or so if he were in Acevedo’s department. They’d probably promote him to Lieutenant afterward.
“(i)nitial reports were that the officer shot himself accidentally while performing a weapons check. UT police are investigating the incident, UT police said.”
I wonder if he was looking down the barrel and pulled the trigger to see if the firearm was unloaded? Nah, even he wasn’t that stupid … although he was clearly stupid enough to shoot himself.
PoliceOne.com: Texas university officer shot, wounded when gun accidentally fires in holster
?
Issue him one glock brand glock unloaded and 1 round of 9mm fmj to be kept in his shirt pocket.
Just one more School Shooting statistic for Everytown for Gun Grabbing and Moms ignoring their families. I hear they want to count every ricochet impact to bump up the shot numbers too.
Actual footage taken just moments before the incident:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlthhaQag6Y
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