We talk a lot about small guns around here: mini 9s (the little black dress of the gun world) and .380s. Some people say they suck. They consider them unreliable, less-lethal firearms. Others really like the mighty minis ’cause they’re small (logically enough). If you’re of sufficient stature (and your pants are baggy enough) you can tote one in a pocket. There’s just one thing to remember when you stow a gun—any gun—in a pocket…

You need a holster. First, you don’t want everyone and his brother to see the outline of your pistol right there on your thigh. Printing’s a no-no. Some jelly-spined gun muggle may call 5-0 on you and ruin your day. Second, and more important, the holster covers the trigger so you don’t suffer the indignity—not to mention the blood loss and co-pay—of a negligent discharge.

But using a holster while pocket carrying is one lesson an unidentified MPD cop evidently slept through at the academy. Digesting all that cheese must be exhausting. Your eye in the sky, 620wtmj.com has the story:

Greendale Police Chief Robert Malasuk told us that the Milwaukee Police officer was in front of the pretzel shop at Southridge at 4:00 p.m. Wednesday when the officer reached in a pocket to get money for a purchase.

The chief said that’s when the gun accidentally went off.

No one was hurt, and the chief explained the bullet disintegrated when it hit the marble floor, so nothing was damaged.

Malasuk said the off-duty officer’s gun never fell to the floor.

According to the Greendale chief, the officer was turned over to MPD to review proper safety protocol.

Ah, a proper safety protocol review. Think of it as a little remedial education. And don’t you just love how cops are almost never named with they screw up? As long as no one, you know, dies or anything. You can be sure any Joe Citizen would have been afforded the same courtesy if he’d ND’d in the middle of a busy shopping mall. Right after he was thrown to the ground and frog-marched out the door in cuffs.

Alas, without a name, we’ll have to award our IGOTD trophy in absentia this time. But don’t worry. The way the Milwaukee PD’s been going recently, we’ll probably get to award one of their finest by name real soon.

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10 COMMENTS

  2. second rule of pocket carry-NEVER have anything in that pocket other than the gun in the holster. No keys, no change, nothing.

    • This.

      The real idiot move here wasn’t the lack of a holster, it was that he had other shit in the same pocket.

  3. We should be praising this cop to the high heavens. Most LEOs couldn’t hit the floor if they aimed with both hands, but Officer IGOTD nailed it dead center on the first try. Bravo! I guess all that range time really paid off.

  4. Self ventilating issues aside. I know he’s thanking his lucky stars he didn’t self inflict the family jewels.
    BTW the above rule of nothing else in the pocket works for all SD implements.

  5. The double standard irks me, but the lack of self eucation on behalf of a police
    Officer irks me more. A pocket holster is not expensive, nor is common sense. It is objectively dangerous to carry a loaded gun with a round in the chamber on your person. This is why we have the four rules of firearms safety, and the ability to extrapolate them into safety rules that apply to infinitely variable individual situations.

  6. When I was twenty-two I decided it would be a great career choice to enter the Law Enforcement field so I attended the Criminal Justice program at the local community college as a cadet without a sponsoring agency. I’m thankful that after graduating from there life took me in a different direction and I never needed to actually pursue a job in that vocation. But I was disappointed by the level of training we received in firearms. We were given five minutes of lecturing on how to clear a jam on a Glock. Four Saturdaysof standing in a line shooting at paper (for a total of about six hundred or so rounds) and another week of clearing rooms holding red plastic toys. If it weren’t for the fact that I had been raised by my father, a man who insisted on proper firearm training, I would have been more dangerous to myself then to a potential threat.

    We were all told that if we were picked up by an agency we would receive for specialized training but I had my doubts and it would seem most agencies assume the training cadets get from the state sponsored acadamies is sufficent.

  7. Now that WI is a carry state maybe the citizens can teach the cops how to properly carry. Seems some need it.

  9. It sure wasn’t an LCP or Kel-Tec mousegun. There is NO WAY he could have discharged either one under the circumstances described, unless he deliberately inserted his finger into the trigger guard and pulled that L-O-O-O-O-O-N-G trigger pull.

    What is important here is to realize that some action types should NEVER be carried in a pocket, even with a holster.

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