“It’s so easy to get complacent with our guns and with all of our firearms and so you know safety is important and always reminding ourselves to keep them safe, to keep them out of the reach of youngsters. If we do have them out, render them safe.” Oh for Christ’s Sake. If gun safety was so god damned important to Malheur County Undersheriff Brian Wolfe he’d name and shame the officer who was stupid enough to do the following: “A 15 year-old-girl had went to a closet to get a suitcase that she was going to pack for an upcoming trip. While doing that, she bumped into a hand gun, it fell from it’s resting place, fell onto the floor. When it hit the floor, it hit the hammer and it discharged one round,” Wolfe told KTVB.com. The station reports that the gun shot the girl below her knee cap. She treated and released by the Holy Rosary Medical Center in Ontario. The police chief said the gun was the unnamed officer’s personal .22 revolver. No charges will be filed. Why the hell not? The Idaho statute couldn’t be any more clear:
TITLE 18
CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS
CHAPTER 33
FIREARMS, EXPLOSIVES AND OTHER DEADLY WEAPONS
18-3312.Injuring another by careless handling and discharge of firearms. Any person who handles, uses or operates any firearm in a careless, reckless or negligent manner, or without due caution and circumspection, whereby the same is fired or discharged and maims, wounds or injures any other person or persons, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six (6) months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
Twas ever thus, Robert. Though I hasten to point out that the decision to file charges should be that of the DA, not the police chief.
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