This was a fail on many levels.
-It should have never been loaded
-The salesman should have checked the chamber before he handed it to the cop
-The salesman should have locked the action open before he handed it to the cop
-The cop should have inspected the chamber upon getting gun
-Neither His hand nor anything living should have been in front of the barrel when he pulled the trigger.
Had any of the prior been handled properly, nothing would have happened.
That said, why can’t he work with a missing finger? I have a family member that lost his middle finger when he was 25, he worked 35 more years before he retired and working in the Oil Field is more demanding on your hands than a cop.
I also worked in the logging and wood working industry for some time and people were always cutting on their fingers....they still work.
“The salesman should have checked the chamber before he handed it to the cop”
Yep, dat’s da one right there.
Maybe the police department wanted him gone because he is stupid, and the loss of his finger was a good excuse to get rid of him.
“-The salesman should have locked the action open before he handed it to the cop”
Not being a gun shop expert myself, but a curious sort of fellow, I asked my salesman at my favorite gun shop why he DIDN’T leave the action open on the autoloader he handed to me after checking the chamber himself, showing me the empty chamber, closing the action and re-inserting the empty magazine. He explained the store’s protocol thusly; with the action closed and the empty magazine in the pistol, it will take someone with bad intentions several moves in order to insert his own loaded magazine into the firearm and therefor give the salesman enough time to prevent it or draw down on the creep before really bad things can happen.