News coming out of Columbus, Ohio is not very good.  Sgt. Michael Mourne was shot by fellow officer Stephen Lazar as the team was exiting their vehicle to serve a search warrant.

The admonition “Keep your finger OFF the trigger until you are ready to shoot” is one that I drilled into then heads of my firearms students so often they get sick of hearing it.

There’s a reason I do that.

It’s so you don’t shoot your buddy as you get out of the car, like Stephen Lazar did on Wednesday evening.

Lazar is a 20-year veteran of the Columbus Police force, so you’d think he was better trained than this negligent shooting would seem to suggest.  I understand that tensions run high when serving search warrants, but there is absolutely no excuse for shooting your fellow officer when you’re getting out of the vehicle.

That’s just plain stupidity.  Negligence, to be exact.

I imagine Sgt. Mourne is pretty upset about being shot point-blank in the leg with a shotgun.  That just can’t be a pleasant experience!

When handling firearms, no matter how many years of experience you have, it is critical that you keep your finger OFF the trigger until you are ready to shoot.

And even then, be darned sure of what you’re shooting at, so you don’t mistakenly shoot some poor girl taking a pee in the bushes.