A sad story out of Arizona: "Groom-to-be fatally shoots best man by accident on Arizona campground: sheriff." According to the article, the groom-to-be was hunting skunks with his best man, apparently using a .22 rifle. The pair decided to wrap up around 10:30 pm. The groom-to-be cycled the action of his rifle several times to make sure that the action was empty (it doesn't say whether he was cycling rounds out of a tube magazine or had removed a box magazine and was just making sure that any remaining shell in the chamber was ejected). "The shooter, who has not been identified, believed his weapon was empty when he pulled the trigger and fired a .22 caliber round into his buddy’s abdomen on July 26 at the United Christian Youth Camp in Prescott, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said."
Obviously this tragedy could have been avoided by following basic firearm safety rules: treating all weapons as if loaded; don't point the weapon at people. (I could have added keeping your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot, but he was probably intending to decock the weapon). But it also could have been avoided if the man had visually verified that the weapon was empty; or failing that, stuck his finger into the chamber to tactilely verify that the weapon was empty.
Long ago, when I was young and more foolish, I repeatedly cycled a .22 semiauto. Thinking it empty, I aimed it into the trash can (I did at least have the habit of muzzle control) and squeezed the trigger--and put a hole in my trash can & the floor of my trailer!
ReplyDeleteEver since, I VERIFY that a weapon is unloaded.
--Tennessee Budd
The problem I see with the repeatedly cycling an action to make sure there is not a round in the chamber--particularly with a dirty .22--is that the shooter tends to use less force or slow down the cycling of the action over the normal action of the firearm when firing. The result is that the extractor claw may not fully go over the rim of the cartridge and, therefore, not lock onto the rim and pull the cartridge out.
DeleteThe genius about the four rules of firearm safety is that (assuming the firearm is in good mechanical condition) if someone breaks one of the rules but is following the others, that someone might blow a hole in a trashcan or floor (as happened in your case), but not injure anyone.