Occasionally, people who should know better do really stupid things. Those stupid things can leave a person dead, as they did in the early morning hours of January 24, 2019. St. Louis Police Department officers Nathaniel Hendren and Katlyn Alix played a game of Russian Roulette at Hendren’s home. Katlyn Alix lost. On February 28, 2020, Nathaniel Hendren pleaded guilty t … [Read more...]
RCMP and Fredericton Police: Accidental or Negligent Discharge of a Firearm?
When accurately describing unintended firearm discharges, accidental covers the smallest number of incidents. An equipment failure causing a firearm to discharge is accidental. A poorly designed or poorly constructed firearm that fires when bumped (somewhere other than the trigger) is also accidental. If your finger, body part or part of your gear touch the trigger and … [Read more...]
Zurlon Tipton and Gun Safety’s Basic Yet Very Hard Lessons
There is no middle ground when it comes to handling firearms. You either do it properly or terrible things happen. Basic gun safety means following some very simple rules. Break those rules and bad things happen. Sometimes those bad things even happen to you. That's precisely the case with former Indianapolis Colts running back Zurlon Tipton, who managed to kill himself … [Read more...]
Former NFA President James Murray Hinter dodges the bullet again
James Murray, as he calls himself today, is the former President of Canada's National Firearms Association (NFA) when he called himself James Murray Hinter. He currently resides in Thunder Bay and a couple of years ago he found himself, once again, in legal hot water over guns. In pleading guilty in Ontario Superior Court to charges of unauthorized possession of a firearm … [Read more...]
Negligent Discharge: Miami-Dade Police Officer’s Failure to Follow Safe Gun Handling Rules
I'm sure it's every cop's worst nightmare. Handling a firearm and it "just goes off". Except that's not what happens. A firearm doesn't "just go off". Someone puts their finger on the trigger and pulls it. Then the gun "just goes off" precisely as it is designed to do. When this happens unexpectedly it is called a negligent discharge. Someone was negligent in their attention … [Read more...]