(courtesy abc7ny.com)

We’ve heard a lot of debate about Florida’s “Docs with GLOCKs” law, prohibiting physicians from asking patients about their firearms. While that law remains stuck in the courts, it’s also true that some conversations between doctor and patient go better than others. abc7ny.com reports on a tete-a-tete that went seriously awry: “It happened at about 10:30 a.m. inside the office of Dr. Matthew Nester, a podiatrist, on Long Beach Road in Oceanside. According to Nassau County police, the 77-year-old retired officer had removed his licensed .10-mm semi-automatic pistol from a leather briefcase to show to the doctor.” Yes, .10mm. And here’s what happened . . .

The weapon accidentally discharged a round, which struck the owner in the thigh and continued through his leg and into doctor’s right foot.

“They both came out on a stretcher,” witness Hope Pearlstein said. “They were very alert, and then I heard that he was showing the doctor his gun, and he accidentally shot him in the foot.”

Business people next door and patients were rattled when they heard the shot, and that another doctor had to rush in and apply a tourniquet.

Both victims were taken to an area hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

There is no criminality suspected at this time, and the investigation is ongoing.

The weapon “discharged” all on its own. Right. As for “no criminality is suspected,” The Empire State has a law against reckless endangerment (New York Penal Law 120.2). new-york-lawyers.org:

Recklessly Engaging in Conduct Which Creates a Grave Risk of Death to Another Person: In order for prosecutors to prove this element beyond a reasonable doubt they must establish that you were engaged in conduct that created a grave and unjustifiable risk of death, you were aware of and consciously disregarded this risk and this was a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that of a reasonable person in the particular situation. It is critical to recognize that no matter how reckless the conduct, the evidence must also show that you acted in a manner evincing a depraved indifference to human life.

Not that they’d use it against a cop, but it’s there.

50 COMMENTS

  1. The old saying when you screw up mightily is that you “shoot yourself in the foot.” Typical NY cop–he missed and shot someone else in the foot. But it can’t have been that bad for the victim; after all, being a podiatrist, the doctor can “heal thyself.”

    • That’s the same as the .00393701 caliber (we round it off to .0040) S&W, but with a .001417323-inch longer case. With a muzzle velocity of 10.17fps and 4.24 foot-pounds of muzzle energy using a 1.85 grain bullet, you could certainly put out an eye with it.
      Or shoot through schools.

      • 10.17fps and 4.24 foot-pounds of muzzle energy using a 1.85 grain bullet

        Remember, if you scale all three dimensions down by a factor of 100, mass (both of the bullet and the powder charge) goes down by a factor of 1 million.

        • Now, where’s the fun in that? I deny your reality, and substitute that of Modern Journalism, wherein words and facts mean just what I want them to mean.
          Besides, in a world in which there exists a .10mm cartridge for a firearm, anything is possible including a suspension of the laws of physics.

  2. So a retired cop GLOCK-legs himself…and in the process shoots his podiatrist in the foot?

    You can’t make this stuff up!

  3. .10mm? That’s even smaller than the .223mm rounds the San Bernardino shooters used. Does he use a hair as a boresnake?

  4. .10mm is about 0.0039″ – or about the thickness of a piece of notebook paper.

    More evidence of the innumeracy of J-school majors.

    • I don’t mind a flowery vocabulary, but there’s no need to use the word “innumeracy” when “stupid” is actually a more accurate description.

      • innumeracy – unfamiliar with mathematical concepts and methods; unable to use mathematics; not numerate.

        stupid – lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; dull. characterized by or proceeding from mental dullness; foolish; senseless:

        Innumeracy is by far the more descriptive word, and the more accurate. As to that being ‘flowery’? Innumeracy is an educational term,. hardly rococo. Innumeracy is scrupulous in circumscription, not as prolix as ‘stupid’.

        /Buckley mode “off”.

    • These kinds of errors remind me of signs I keep seeing at the grocery store; “Limes .25 cents” etc. They use the cent sign but my keyboard doesn’t even have one, and I refuse to waste time looking up the ASCII code.
      Its hard to believe that there are adults in the media world, as well as produce managers, that don’t know what a decimal sign is, isn’t it?

  5. I’m surprised nobody has said, “Hey, so he got shot in the foot; what is it, a big #^%*!@& deal?!”

    Yes, I’m going to hell.

  6. I’m surprised in a place like NY the retired cops can remain only ones.
    The political class can trample over plebes day and night without consequence but tread lightly when it comes to regulating their foot soldiers.

  7. Yes, but was it a high capacity, powerful .10 MM handgun with one of those 30 clipizine thingies that goes up.

    As reported by Eyewitless News….

    • I thought it was the shoulder thing that goes up, and the clipizines contained the high capacity ammunition…

      I’m constantly confused by these liberals.

    • .1MM (megameters) is pretty big. About 60 miles, for those still stuck in archaic units of measure.

  8. Why would he want to show his doctor his gun? I am uneasy about showing people my gun even at the range.

  9. Rule for cops. “Familiarity breeds contempt.”

    In my 60 years of experience cops, as a class, are the WORST gunhandlers.
    I can tell immediately is a public range is also used by police by observing
    the number of chips in the ceiling and side walls.

  10. I could see negligence here, both criminally and civilly, but I’m not seeing any legal basis here for recklessness.

  11. I have to say if you’re going to have something like that happen – a doctor’s office or hospital is the place to have it. My wife had a stroke in the hospital 15 months ago. I hate to think what would’ve happened otherwise.

  12. no criminality?? see how well that worked out for Plaxico Burress. and yes, he was an idiot also. even with winning a super bowl, his butt still got locked up

  13. Wonder where our anti trolls are? Where are the calls to disarm cops?

    Funny how they are silent when it is their precious government whom they think are so highly trained when they commit these acts on a regular basis but you won’t hear it replayed ad nauseum by the leftist media.

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