Wedding officiant accidentally shoots grandson

#safetySaturday

“It was a blank,” Houchin said in response to a question from a local reporter. “What it was is: it was a .45 Colt ammunition. What he did was put black powder into the casing and then glued it. And what we believe is the glue is what injured the child.”

Actors Brandon Lee and Jon-Eric Hexum both died from blanks fired while filming.

After Alec Baldwin shot and killed his cinematographer on set, Hollywood weapons expert Larry Zanoff commented about blanks.

“[T]here is a minimum safety distance of 20 feet in front of the muzzle because even with a blank, smoke and burning embers can get propelled out of the gun. There should be nothing in front of it when filming is occurring with firearms.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alec-baldwin-shoots-prop-gun-killing-1-injuring-another-set-n1282126

It was reported that the weapon fired at the wedding was a Pietta 1860 snub nose revolver with a .45 Colt conversion cylinder.

“When he decided to cock back the hammer of this revolver it slipped and it shot his grandson in the left shoulder, causing an injury,” authorities said.

Firearms are relentlessly unforgiving of the slightest lapse in attention or competence. The shooter has probably been ‘shooting for years.’ Unfortunately, as is sometimes said of the law enforcement profession:

“Some people have 20 years of experience and some people have one year of experience 20 times.”

This happening was eerily similar to an incident several years ago in which a father accidentally killed his teenage son at an indoor range. https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/04/us/florida-father-shoots-son/index.html  Fortunately, the consequences of the Texas misadventure were not quite as tragic.

If you would like to learn more about Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make and the Negative Outcomes that result, please buy my ebook.

http://seriousgunownermistakes.net

3 responses

  1. lasikdoc1's avatar

    Ordered the e-book but did not receive a confirmation notice, or download instructions.

    1. tacticalprofessor's avatar

      It should arrive today. If not, please let me know.

      1. lasikdoc1's avatar

        Still have not received the e-book.