STUART (AP) -- Authorities say a Martin County deputy accidentally shot himself in the leg.
Deputy Daniel Foote was investigating an assault complaint at a condo complex Monday night, and a woman he was questioning acknowledged that she had a gun in her vehicle. When Foote went to remove the .38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver from the trunk, authorities say the gun discharged and hit him in the left leg.
Martin County Fire Rescue transported Foote to a hospital. A spokeswoman for the sheriff's office says the deputy's injuries are not life threatening.
No charges have been filed, and authorities are still investigating the incident.
Revolvers don't just go off by themselves. Unless it was already cocked even just resting your finger on the trigger shouldn't set it off, not that the officers finger should have been on the trigger.
Really you cannot just make a blanket statement in a scenario like this.
It is likely that the revolver was cocked.
Also remember that we keep our firearms in good "working order" and in good mechanical condition. We also (as a rule) own decently high quality firearms.
However many people do not.
A cheap, cocked, dirty, or mechanically defective or import revolver could possibly discharge just by being bumped enough to dislodge the sear without a finger on the trigger or the cocked revolver could have had a foreign object (in a cluttered trunk) lodged in the trigger guard.
In that case simply moving the revolver or picking it up could have easily discharged a cocked revolver.
Fumbling around for a firearm in a trunk loaded with other stuff is bad enough. I think leaving it there would've been the best idea, at least until backup arrives and the attention to detail needed could be employed to secure the weapon.
without a finger on the trigger[/B] or the cocked revolver could have had a foreign object (in a cluttered trunk) lodged in the trigger guard.
In that case simply moving the revolver or picking it up could have easily discharged a cocked revolver.
There's an old saying, "Nothing is impossible for those that don't have to do it."
In this case, it's easy for us to sit back and take shots at this cop. But we weren't there, we don't have to do his job, we don't know the circumstances, we don't know what might have been taking place when he attempted to remove the gun.
It may have been pure recklessness on his part or it may have been something that would have been very difficult for him to foresee. After all, if we, as a society as a whole, are so good at foreseeing a potential accident, etc., how come we have so many auto accidents?
As far as the gun pointing at his leg, any number of things could have caused that including but not limited to his own recklessness. The gun could have bumped something, caught on something, slipped - anything.
Yet here we are ready to jump on anyone that has an accident with a gun, and in most cases, we know very few details. If harsh critisizm was in any way effective in reducing gun accidents then there shouldn't be any more gun accidents because there's been enough critisizm on this board alone to stop it all.
Oops, someone put their finger where it shouldn't have been, is what it sounds like to me, but as others have said, we can't be for sure. The gun may have been piled in the trunk with a bunch of crap, and while the LEO was moving stuff to find the gun, a pencil or something may have activated the trigger without him actually even touching the gun itself. We just don't know. The OP doesn't say that the LEO even picked up the gun, just that when he went to remove it.
That however will not keep me from turning over my firearm if asked by a LEO, because that is what the law is. It will be turned over with the safety on. So far, none of them have even asked where it is much less to take control of it while I was engaged with them.
PaulG,
I certainly appreciate the wisdom of reminding others this can happen; it never hurts to be reminded of that, but you had what four IFs in your scenario all of which or none of which may be true.
I wasn't putting a pro-gun spin on anything, quite the opposite. It's about not condeming a LEO for an accident we didn't witness and know very little about. It should come as no surprise whatsoever that cops and civies mishandle guns; we know they do.
Maybe he did do something wrong, or maybe he was doing everything he knew to do. Maybe he needed more training as most LEOs do. But since we can only speculate, it's equally valid to say that it's highly unlikely that this cop just thoughtlessly grabbed this gun, paid no attention to the muzzle direction, paid no attention to what he was doing with the trigger, put his finger in the trigger, and pulled a long heavy DA trigger to the point it discharged.
Some will never have an accident with a firearm; but it is totally impossible that all will not have an accident. I know one LEO that had three unintentional discharges and admits that they were his fault. Know who it was? Jim Cirilllo!
I get the feeling that if the article was "Car salesman shoots self in leg", or "Carjacker shoots......" we'd be suggesting everyone leave a revolver in their trunk.
PaulG,
As I've posted several times, he may have done something unwise, then again where's the wisdom of speculating on something we know little about?
I think we all see the possibility that he could have simply mishandled the revolver, but as I said before, this is what would be required: he was paying little attention to handling the gun; he didn't notice that his finger was on the trigger; he didn't realize the muzzle was pointed at his leg, and he didn't realize he was pulling the long, heavy DA trigger on a revolver to the point of discharge. That just seems a unlikely to me, but anything is possible.
My neighbor shot himself in the leg while twirling his .22 revolver like he was John Wayne. I do not wish that on anyone but that is exactly why we have safety rules.
Since I moved to the Modesto area in '87 there've been several instances of police officers mishandling firearms. In one case a handcuffed person was shot and in another an officer lost his leg at the gun range when another officer mishandled a rifle. You don't get a pass on gun safety just because you wear the badge AND we all need to remember that it could happen to any of us with just a short lapse of caution.
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