You’d think that would be fairly obvious. After all, safe storage practices dictate that a handgun should be on your hip or in your safe. Notice there’s no mention there of major appliances. Besides, there are plenty of good, affordable storage options out there if you want to keep a pistol in close proximity.

But one Ohio gun owner had other ideas.

Robin L. Garlock, 44, put his revolver in the broiler of the oven for safe-keeping because children were coming to the house, Warren Police Detective Wayne Mackey said Monday.

But his girlfriend decided to do some baking Sunday night, apparently unaware of the firepower below the oven.

That went about as well as you’d expect.

While she was cooking, she heard a “bang” and yelled for Garlock, thinking the sound was a gunshot coming from outside. …

Garlock then went to the oven, opened the broiler and tried to secure his revolver. He suffered a minor burn.

“It’s too hot. The gun literally spun around because it’s going off,” (Warren Police Detective Wayne) Mackey said.

The heat of the oven eventaully caused bullets in the gun to explode, Mackey said. Either two bullets or bullet fragments struck Garlock in the front of each of his shoulders, Mackey said.

Yes, bullets explode when exposed to high heat. And reporters’ stories explode when exposed to details about firearms.

The story sounded hard to believe when Garlock first told Mackey, but the evidence confirmed Garlock’s story, Mackey said: There were bullet holes in the stove and the gun “obviously had been in a fire,” Mackey said of his and another detective’s conclusions.

There were empty shell casings in two of the six chambers in the gun’s cylinder, but the cylinder was seized because of the heat, Mackey said. Though Mackey says he’s confident he knows how this incident happened and no crime was committed, police will analyze the gun further, he added.

In any case, we’re glad to hear that Mr. Garlock will apparently recover from his shrapnel wounds. The prognosis on the Maytag oven isn’t yet known. But for his ill-considered firearms storage practices, Robin Garlock is our irresponsible gun owner of the day.

 

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49 COMMENTS

  1. What a fucking moron. Ever heard of a gun safe, Jackass?
    People like this give gun owners a bad name. I bet the local news is having a field day.

  2. At least it wasn’t in the microwave or toaster. The freezer would have been a better choice. Or just unload it. Still a dumbass nonetheless.

  4. Years ago, if I recall correctly, a sherriff did the same thing. I guess one knows when the oven is preheated.

  5. I fail to understand how any incidents over someone visiting your home and unintentionally getting a hand on your guns can happen???? If you have over visitors then just lock them up or leave them hidden unloaded and lock up the ammo. If you don’t like that and cant afford a safe lock them in a cabinet or a closet with a key or even cipher door handle just to keep young hands away. Don’t like not having a loaded gun handy its called Gun Box, Rapidsafe, Vultek, Liberty and a million other options with millions of smart features to get it quick and easy. Dont like that then you’re an idiot too cheap and stupid properly secure a weapon and should get your own dumbass shot.

    • That’s a great idea! Next time I have visitors over, I’ll lock them up! And I will hide them stone cold sober–no loaded guests in MY house!

  6. In the immortal words of Ron White, “You can’t fix stupid, stupid is forever!”

  7. What a maroon! Everybody knows that when kids are visiting, you store your mohaska in the refrigerator’s vegetable bin next to the broccoli.

  8. My father told me that after WWII, he brought home a Full German Ammo Can filled with 7.92×57. And that his mother put it into the Coal Fired Oven and simply forgot about is. Until that Evening when the Oven and Side of the House simply disappeared. So yeah, I can believe it…

    • Good round the 7mm mauser. One of my hunting rifles is chambered in it. It’ll drop nearly anything this side of the world.
      Damn expensive though.

      • Try Khyber Pass of Pakistan! Atlantic Firearms of the USA has a Distribution Licence to sell their products, which includes 7.92×57 ammunition. Hakim Rifles of Egypt, too. Indonesia and Vietnam also produces 7.92×57 ammunition

  9. If all you need is something to keep a handgun away from the rug rats, Harbor Freight has plastic tool boxes for $6 and padlocks for $2.

  10. LOL LOL LOL…Dang what a dumbazz. Glad no one was hurt…I have a drawer with no pull or knob in my bedroom. If shut fully there’s no way to pull it out without sticking a screwdriver in the drawer pull holes. Quick “safe”. Grandkids haven’t been over in years(in Maryland) but it’s an EZ way to stash your revolver😄

  11. Home carry! But I doubt this guy has a proper holster either. Unload and stick gun in pocket. It is like they really are trying to win this prize….

  12. No, Detective Mackey, the bullets did not explode. The primers in the cartridges may have exploded thus setting off the propellant, but unless Mr. Oven Mitt was packing some very unusual bullets, they did not explode. Typical police firearms expertise.

  13. I remember reading about an idiot years ago at his mother’s house who was asked to put a nail into the wall in order to hang a picture. He didn’t have a hammer so he pulled out his carry piece and removed the magazine so he wouldn’t shoot himself. Yep, that’s what happened. He forgot about the one in the chamber and shot himself right in the guts.

  14. “Yes, bullets explode when exposed to high heat.”
    No, they don’t. CARTRIDGES explode, bullets only melt. If even gun writers cannot get this correct, how will the layman? Its also worth noting that cartridges are relatively harmless, in and of themselves. It’s when they are confined in a chamber that they become dangerous. Throw cartridges into a fire and you will notice the brass cases burst(creating some light shrapnel that will only do serious injury if it hits an eye, or perhaps a testicle), but the bullet(the actual projectile) will be found right near the case that it came from.

    • Kenneth, that is correct for center fire ammo. If the cartridge is not contained in the cylinder or chamber, when it gets hot enough, the first thing to happen is the primer is pushed out of the shell releasing most of the energy. However that is not the case with rimfire ammo. They will go off, chambered or not.

      • “Sympathetic Detonations” or “Chain Detonations” aren’t uncommon, but there less common after 1923, then before 1923. In 1923, Virtually all Ammunition Makers stopped using Fulminated Mercury as a Primer in Primer Caps. You’d probably be Hard Pressed to find a Fulminated Mercury Primer Caps for Modern Black Powder Ammunition or those used with Flintlocks. Some “Third World Countries” probably still use Fulminated Mercury, but off hand I can’t think of one.

  15. As a juvenile I’d thot it would be cool to hide my hard earned money in a shotgun shell. An acquaintance arrived one morning wanting to shoot snakes in the pond. I grabbed a hand full of shells. Yup that snake hunt cost more then planned.

  17. “Kids are soooo dumb, I’d better hide my loaded gun in this here unlocked, easily reachable thing that the sweet, delicious cookies come from.” – Proud FIFO

    “Bake me some cookies woman!” – Same FIFO ten minutes later.

    • Sounds more like a Fudd to me. “I’ll hide my gun in the oven so that waskilly wabbit won’t find it”.
      And then stump for gun control after he forgets it’s in there, turns the oven on, and shoots himself.

  21. C’mon guys, he was just trying to clean his pistol using the self-cleaning cycle on the oven. It had a chance of working. 😉

  22. If I was down to one gun, the best place to hide it from visiting children would be the lockable glove compartment in my car. Put the ammo anywhere else, but center console might do, then lock the darn car. Keep my keys in my pocket. Car stored in garage, lock the door to the garage.

    But, that’s just me.

  25. Which is better insulated (and typically of similar construction) an oven or a gun “safe”. More accurately a gun lockbox.

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