Man shoots himself at East Knoxville gun show(TN)

WATE-TV ^ | 01-29-12 | staff

[deoetdoctrinae]

KNOXVILLE (WATE) - A man was taken to the hospital Sunday afternoon after shooting himself in the hand at a gun show.

Gun dealer Bill Adams, 64, of Kodak, was taking a concealed gun out to show a customer, when the gun discharged and shot him in the hand.

Knoxville Police said the man removed the magazine from the .45 semiautomatic Kimber handgun, but a shell remained in the chamber.

[Slings and Arrows]

It is funny, but the antigunners will hold this doofus up as their poster child. This we don’t need.

[Fido969]

I wonder if the hole in his hand is the “gun show loophole”.

[eyedigress]

Aah! At least the Knoxville gun show guys don’t crap on NYC police cars. These are interesting times.

[Vendome]

Seems like a pretty “handy” fellow.

What kind of frickin moron doesn’t clear the weapon?

[Slings and Arrows]

At least the Knoxville gun show guys don’t crap on NYC police cars.

This is a fact.

[Dogbert41]

I no longer attend gun shows, nor public shooting ranges. Not that I'm better than everyone else, not that I'm pointing fingers.

Human being do stupid things from time to time. Every darned one of us.

[fireman15]

I used to work at our family's small lumber re-manufacturing plant. Several million board feet of lumber passed though my hands. One day we were running wood through one of our moulders making siding out of a batch of wood that had been cut very badly. Some pieces would go from about an inch thick on one end up to 3 or four inches on the other.

The machine had a hellaciously powerful motor on the top head, but as it tore the thick ends into shavings it would sometimes draw so much current that it would blow one of the 480v 3 phase fuses. The fuses were used because they could handle a larger amount of over-current than breakers for this type of application.

Each time a fuse would blow I would turn off the main disconnect to the machine, open up the motor controller box and pull out each of the three fuses which were protecting the motor and shake them to see which one had blown. They were about 8” long and 1” thick with brass ends that fit into the fuse holders. About the 12th time I got into the motor controller box I forgot to pull the disconnect and grabbed a live 480v fuse while standing on a wet concrete floor.

That was a pretty stupid thing to do and I got one heck of a jolt for my trouble. I knew better, but frustration with that repetitive task that day caused me to become complacent. It is my habit to always pull the bolt back on any semiautomatic handgun, rifle or shotgun and look and feel for shell before assuming the chamber is empty. It probably was this poor guy's habit also, but for some reason this time he didn't. The hand with the new hole in it will probably never be the same. If it had happened to someone else he probably would be jumping on the bandwagon with everyone else here.

My point is... it is often people who think it could never happen to them who are most vulnerable to this type of mishap. I have done enough stupid things in my life that I know that I am more lucky than good. It helps me to be more careful and develop better habits when I remind myself that I am just as capable as the next guy of grabbing the business end of a live 480v fuse while standing in a puddle of water. Don't ever think that you are so smart that you couldn't make a stupid mistake because you can... if you are sure you can't... eventually you probably will.

[Oiao]

Idiot. Idiot. Then again, I repeat myself.

[yarddog]

That is a good point. We have to constantly remind ourselves to be super careful with guns. I always pride myself on my safe gun handling but around 6 months ago I dropped a small French Unique on the floor.

Nothing happened but it was a very old gun which probably did not have a firing pin block. If it had fallen on it’s hammer it may very well have fired.

That is the pistol I routinely stick in my pocket when walking around the yard or the woods around the house. Never let yourself get careless.

[jboot]

I hear you about complacency. I had something really strange happen a few years ago that almost certainly permanently evaporated my complacency when it comes to guns. I had a 1911 pistol in deep storage. It had been off to a smith for a trigger job a couple years prior to that, and I had taken it to the range exactly once afterwards. I cleaned it (which with me is always a thorough disassembly) and stored it. Anyway, when I took it out of storage I did a few quick draws from concealment and was ABOUT to do a spot of dry firing when on a whim I decided to clear the action. Lo and behold, there was a live round in the chamber!

I have wracked my brains trying to imagine the scenario by which that round got chambered. The only thing I can come up with is there must have been a single round in the magazine that I inserted into the gun when I reassembled it. The part that troubles me is that I don't have any recollecting of cycling the action to chamber the round. But one way or the other it has convinced me that truly "all guns are always loaded". I clear any gun, even if I KNOW it isn't loaded...it doesn't hurt to clear the action. Just do it.

[Red in Blue PA]

I was at a local gun show and was asked about any concealed firearms I had on me. Stupidly, I said yes. They wanted to take it out of the holster and unchamber it. MUCH more dangerous than me keeping it in the holster.

I walked out.....and learned never to let people know you are carrying.

[Red in Blue PA]

the .45 semiautomatic Kimber handgun

That is what I carry. You need to do no less than 4 things to make it go bang.....2 of them concurrently.

Clear the holster (possibly no holster in this case).

Drop the thumb safety.

Push in the grip safety.

while at the same time pulling the trigger.



Then, and only then, will it go bang.

[goat granny]

Yea but if he was trying to shoot himself he did good..he hit his target...