Remember that late 70’s bumper sticker “Question Authority”? Although TTAG’s internal mission statement is “Speed, Surprise and Violence of Action” all of our contributors are encouraged to approach any gun-related story with a grain of salt the size of the Darwin, Minnesota twine ball. When it comes to negligent firearm discharges involving cops, school officials, politicians or anyone else in a position of authority, we reserve the right to call bullshit. As I’m doing here. “Aurora police are investigating an accidental shooting that happened in the parking lot of Rangeview High School and left one student injured Monday,” thedenverchannel.com reports. “About an hour after school let out for the day, the student was getting a ride home from a school employee who also works a second job as an armed security officer . . .
The employee was trying to put his gun into the glove box of the car when the weapon fired, hitting the student in the leg.
The man drove the student to a nearby hospital, arriving around 4:30 p.m., police said. The student was rushed into surgery with what police described as a “significant injury” to his leg.
The student is expected to survive.
Police said the driver works at the school but is not a teacher, and he and the student know each other, police said. It is unclear if any charges will be filed against the employee.
Sure, nothing wrong with that story. Simple case of a weapon firing all on its own during an attempt to safely stow it. No showing off. No threats. No inappropriate behavior on anyone’s part—save the gun itself and the journalist who somehow forgot to note the name of the part-time armed security officer.
Here’s the honest chain of events.
“Hey,wanna check out my Glock?Its this supercool brick of a pistol.If you look-BANG….”
Its like a case I read last year of an Olive Garden customer whose Sig P226 accidentally shot the toilet when it fell.According to the investigation he had the gun for 4 hours-draw your own conclusion on what REALLY happened.
The Olive Garden was into a chair. The toilet was at a Carl’s Jr. http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5827833
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11451417?source=rss
Agreed, that’s exactly what happened. This employee was trying to impress a student for “some” reason. No school employee should ever give a student a ride. Some serious shenanigans going on here – I hope this douche gets the criminal charges he deserves.
What about bus drivers?
Have you been on a school bus? Nobody should be on one of those.
What about bus drivers? My wife has been one for 16 years. No one has ever complained about her performance and work ethic.
This person in this story certainly did something stupid, and deserves what ever punishment which is meted out. But generalizing from the single to the collective is exactly what the gun haters do. Do we want to be their twins?
Ha! ok, ok…bus drivers excepted
You are right, right, right I think there is a lot more behind this story than anyone was telling. No way the student should have been in that car, and the gun was just part of the mischief and impropriety. When it all comes out, hopefully the employee will be in jail.
You mean like, “unzip those trousers or I’ll shoot you in the leg!”?
Oh come on, really, no school employee should give a student a ride?
Is this where this country is going?
Has to be. AS a school employee not permitted to carry, the gun should have already been in the glove box. The only explanation for it not being locked up is that the owner took it out to show it off. The only question is whether he shot the student or the student shot himself.
Some public schools are allowing a few volunteer employees to carry concealed inside of school buildings after having gone through a training course. I have not gone through it, but I suspect it is more than the conceal carry class we’ve all taken.
As for assumed guilt…wow…just wow…how do you know this isn’t the student’s uncle or family friend picking the student up from school because the student’s military dad is fighting in one of the “stans” and the mother is working the day shift at the hospital and the night shift at the corner 711? That is what I’m going to assume because I don’t know the real story either. I’m not going to tell anyone what to or not to say outside of folks should only say stuff about what they know.
Well, you’re right of course. Making assumptions based on any brief “news” story is dangerous, but as the person was identified only as a “school employee” & “not a teacher” and not as a relative or family friend, I’ll have to stand by it. Besides, if can’t armchair these items, half this blog is off-limits.
This. The kneejerk reactions are getting a little crazy. Maybe the employee is a moron, maybe he isn’t. Let’s wait and find out.
Guns magically going off is a nasty myth that makes my wife fear them
Those sentient guns are a result of that rogue comet from “Maximum Overdrive.”
Guns were about the only thing that didn’t turn against us in that movie.
Are you forgetting the m60 machine gun on the mule?
Well… Motorized.
That might just be the stupidest movie of that decade.
It made Pan 9 look like Citizen Kane.
The thing that pisses me off the most is that these kinds of incidents will be used to argue that “We The people” shouldn’t be allowed to keep and bare. No one will care to talk about proper training and personal responsibility. It’s a negligent discharge, plain and simple and whoever was keeping said firearm should be punished, not the rest of us.
I keep hearing the guns in my safe have arguments with each other. I bang on the door and tell them to knock it off, but I know one day I’m gonna get there too late. I’m just waiting for the day when I come home and find they’ve shot each other.
Sir. I thank you for this post. It msde me laugh out loud in my workplace bathroom and now at least two of my coworkers think I am disturbed.
That is why you are supposed to store your ammo separate from your guns, so the guns don’t shoot each other.
Heh.
People have been shot by unloaded firearms.
(I removed that link to a youtube page, it was screwing up the layout!)
LOL! One more office somewhere in America has just been disturbed by a sudden burst of laughter…
I go into the bathroom upon arrival at my armed job. I remove my weapon from the holster, place it on the sink as I use the toilet, I then align my suit and tie and re-holster my pistol. It has never magically gone off. Maybe it’s because I realize it is a GUN and treat it with the respect a potentially dangerous item is due. Lack of firearm discipline is more often than not the culprit in off-range, cold gun discharges.
You should really figure out how to “do your duty” without clearing leather. (or Kydex)
I take the whole holster off with the gun still inside and place it on a level spot. Responsible crapper carry, folks. The life you save could be your own.
Oh no, not another crapper carry options thread.
“Professionals” leave their piece in public restrooms fairly regularly it seems. I am a fan of the rebuckle just above the knees method.
I haven’t offered yet, but I have thought that it would be fun to demonstrate(with a bathing suit on) in my friend’s CHL classes. Break up the monotony of a 10hr course.
J&D- LOL yes. I had to go there.
I unclip it from my belt and put it in the seat of my pants (still holstered). Impossible to forget, you have to move it to pull your pants up.
It’s so easy with an AIWB holster. Don’t even have to remove it at all. Just hold the holster while you drop your drawers and set it down so it’s stable in your pants. Can’t forget it, can’t have an ND with a properly holstered firearm.
+1
The weapon didn’t fire. The unnamed security officer fired the weapon. Journalists are so bad at hiding biases.
I have had in my possession firearms of all varieties for over 40 years….and not one of them has mysteriously “gone off”. Do you think something is wrong with them?
how old is this school employee? How old is the student? What are their sexes? There is more going on here, and dollars to donuts, someone was trying to impress someone else. . . . . .
The pronouns used in the article indicates that both are male.
Maybe the gun was homophobic?
And yes, I don’t know what was really going on but you can bet sex or drugs were involved.
Or they could be family.
Could be, but that would have made the story “Father shoots son in car on school property.” I’m drawing a logical inference.
Everybody knows that guns HATE to be caged up and will aggressively react to the threat of confinement. Personally, I have a lot of difficulty wrangling my compact M&P into its gun safe. I can only imagine what it would be like to try to cage up a large, mean S&W Model 629.
Here’s a tip — keep the gun in its holster. Covering up the gun renders it virtually sightless, allowing you to sneak up on it so you can put it away with getting shot.
I’d rather not be shot when putting it away (reread that last sentence 😉 ).
You think it’d be ok if I asked it nicely?
Ralph,
You NEVER want to get shot while “putting it away”……….
Jus sayin………………
Hmmm… now I’m wonderin’ ’bout them new TrackPoint musheens, an’ iff’n they’re liable ta get pissed iff’n their human mistreats ’em. That there artifushul intelligence is kinda scary…
What was the school employee doing with a gun on school property? Isn’t that a place where students are regularly suspended for pop tarts and such and not real guns and a disarmament zone?
But….but….but….GUN FREE ZONE!!! Think of the children!
I am a 1911 fan , so I carried a para-ordinance P-12 for years , when I wanted a new one , they were no longer available , so I purchased a Springfield XDM compact , it has the high capacity I liked in my P-12 but does not bear the resemblance to the 1911 I loved . However , It does have both a loaded chamber indicator AND a cocked indicator , very light because it is ” plastic ” like the Glock , but I never liked the feel of the Glock , maybe because I have small hands . My point is , I bought this almost on a whim but have come to to like it better than any auto handgun I have ever owned and will never willingly part with it . GREAT job Springfield , now just get all your production OUT of the anti-gun New England and New York area and you will be THE top firearms company in my book .
After teaching many classes and seeing student do the strangest things, I am wondering if the story is partly true. I have seen people who while attempting to rack the slide, pull the trigger. The trigger finger thing is a tough thing to remember.
It’s not that tough. Training and a healthy respect for firearms keeps people safe.
My 11 year old daughter indexes her trigger finger when she is holding a spray bottle.
^^ That’s awesome! LOL!
I’ve seen the occasional revolver go off when the hammer caught on something and then came free. This could happen in a jamming-it-into-the-glovebox scenario.
Not all guns have a trigger/hammer lockout.
While it does sound fishy, stranger things have happened. Just sayin’.
I have a feeling that when the insecurity guard tries to demonstrate how this shooting happened, he’s going to look like Rosemarie Woods demonstrating how she accidentally erased 17 minutes of tape.
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