« NSA survellience opinion | Main | Another "grassroots" surrogate of Joyce Foundation »
Unintentional discharges at LAPD
LAPD appears to be having some problems with unintentional firearm discharges.
"Officers over those years shot themselves or one another nearly as often as they were shot by suspects.
Since 1985, there have been more than 350 accidental discharges by LAPD officers. There also have been more than a dozen so-called friendly fire incidents....
One off-duty officer shot himself in a leg as he sat behind his desk and, according to department records, contemplated "a complex mathematical problem." Another officer inadvertently pulled the trigger when his African gray parrot flew into his face.
One officer accidentally shot his girlfriend in a leg while trying to retrieve a cartridge from his handgun as a "memento" of their date. Yet another officer admitted that he accidentally fired his gun because he was startled by a woman holding a teddy bear. Two officers accidentally discharged their weapons as they handled them at home while watching themselves in mirrors."
[Hat tip to Dan Gifford]
Comments
Ugly and unfortunate, but not unexpected, particularly if you've ever been at a firing range frequented by police officers.
Posted by: gattsuru at August 17, 2006 07:05 PM
Andy needs to take the bullet away from Barney again.
Posted by: Devil Dog Dad at August 17, 2006 07:42 PM
When I read things like this, I always come back to my preference for the term 'Negligent Discharge' over 'unintended'.
Posted by: Anon at August 18, 2006 09:08 AM
All examples of some idiot having their finger on the bang-switch when it didn't need to be there.
The four rules work, folks... pay attention! Giving his date a round out of his duty gun, and managed to shoot her? What a moron...
Posted by: chris at August 18, 2006 11:07 AM
I suppose Lon Horiuchi the FBI hero that shot Vicki Weaver could have said he was startled by seeing the mother holding her baby through his sniper scope!
Posted by: The Mechanic at August 18, 2006 04:14 PM
Of course these are the people who have been trained to handle deadly weapons and according to the gun control crowd can be trusted to use them safely and effectively, where the general public are just a bunch of trigger happy fools //sarcasm off.
Posted by: Windy Wilson at August 20, 2006 03:09 PM