Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Indoor gun range customer unintentionally shot by another customer having a "problem" with his gun

A customer at the Trading Place Pawn Shop & Indoor Gun Range in Monroe, Georgia was standing at the counter filling out a form to use the indoor gun range when he was unintentionally shot by another customer.
The other customer came in with a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun and was speaking with an employee about a problem he was having with the gun. According to police, the man "began to manipulate the slide on the weapon" when he discharged the gun. The bullet struck the victim in the right hip.
The victim had to be airlifted to the hospital where he is listed in serious but stable condition. He has already had two surgeries and faces a long recovery.
The customer who shot the gun has a valid concealed weapons permit.
The victim declined to pursue charges, believing the incident was an accident.

Monday, July 30, 2012

7-year-old girl finds grandfather's hunting rifle, unintentionally shoots and kills her brother

7-year-old Halee Clark and her 10-year-old brother Christian were playing inside their grandfather's recreational vehicle outside of his home in Dix, Illinois. According to the sheriff their grandfather, Jason Clark, had opened up the camper so "the kids could watch movies and stay in the air conditioning."
Clark uses the RV as a hunting cabin and keeps it parked in a wooded area next to his house.
Halee picked up a loaded, unlocked long gun and unintentionally discharged a round. The bullet struck Christian in this face, killing him. Christian was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the sheriff, "All indications are that this was a tragic accident. Foul play is not suspected at this time."

Friday, July 27, 2012

Couple both pulled guns during domestic dispute. Husband unintentionally shoots wife in the hand.

42-year-old Pete Tano, of Hatfield Township, Pennsylvania was estranged from his wife of 17 years, Christina. According to court documents, the couple got into an argument in January when Tano arrived at her apartment and saw another man there. Christina told Tano to leave and when he didn't she "panicked and grabbed her gun" , a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver.
Reports indicate that she was waving her gun around and told Tano to get out but instead he pulled out his own gun, a 9 mm Glock semi-automatic handgun.
Christian testified that she dropped her gun, hoping Tano would drop his, but instead, he swung his arm down at her. She said she went to block the blow with her hand, but his gun hand struck her head and the gun fired, shooting through her wrist, a Marilyn Monroe poster and into the wall.
Christina testified that Tano told her, "You know I didn't mean it," and then called 911. She later yelled at Tano from the stand, "You know because you can't ever control your jealousy I can't ever control my last two fingers."
The bullet injured Christina's ulnar nerve and resulted in the loss of all feeling and strength in her left pinky and ring fingers.
Tano pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of recklessly endangering another person and was sentenced Thursday to 23 months in the county jail. The judge reduced the sentence to five months already served and placed Tano on parole for the remainder of the 23-month sentence.
According to Tano's lawyer, "We maintained that she (Christina) grossly overreacted under the circumstances by pulling the gun on him. But his actions in retrieving his firearm resulted in the accidental shooting."

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Lawsuit against Glock claiming gun has high risk of unintentional discharge allowed to continue

In July of 2006, Enrique Chavez, a policeman in Los Angles, California, was driving his then 3-year-old son, Collin, to his grandfather's house. The boy was not in a car seat and Chavez had forgotten that he left his service pistol, a Glock handgun, loaded and unlocked in a holster underneath the front seat. At a red light, Collin picked up the handgun and shot his father in the back. Chavez was left paralyzed by the injury.
Chavez sued Glock claiming the gun lacked adequate safeguards against an accidental discharge because it had a light trigger pull, thus allowing the 3-year-old to shoot the gun, and did not have a manual safety or a grip safety, a device attached to the pistol grip that the shooter must deactivate before firing.
A Los Angeles judge dismissed the case but the Second District Court of Appeal reinstated the case on Tuesday.
Glock has argued "that they had no duty to design a firearm that an unsupervised 3-year-old could safely play with when left loaded and unsecured by a trained police officer who had ignored every warning and instruction he had read about firearm storage safety."

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Concealed weapons permit holder drops gun in Walmart, gun discharges injuring four people

23-year-old Todd Canady, of Waco, Texas, went to Walmart in Dallas to buy some milk Monday night. While he was reaching for his wallet he knocked his .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun out of his pants where it was holstered.
The gun hit the ground and discharged. The bullet struck Canday in the leg, then ricochet off the floor and broke into pieces. The bullet fragments struck two nearby children and a 27-year-old woman.
Canady responded by fleeing the scene.
He was caught after a brief chase and has been charged with evading arrest and could be charged with injury to a child.
Canady had a concealed weapons permit for the gun.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Man sentenced to probation after unintentionally shooting his wife in the face

22-year-old Private First Class Randy Blevins, a soldier at Fort Riley, Kansas, was sentenced Monday to probation for the unintentionally shooting of his wife.
Blevins had pleaded no contest in connection with the 2011 incident. He was cleaning his .357 revolver when he unintentionally discharged the weapon, striking his wife, Cersi, in the jaw.
Cersi was 19 at the time. The bullet penetrated her jaw on one side of her face and came out the other side, breaking her jaw bone and several teeth. Her face is still scarred from the injury.
Cersi and her mother both testified in favor of Blevins at the sentencing hearing, asking the judge to please not send Blevins to jail. The judge said the testimony of the women played a big part in his decision to not send Blevins to prison.
"It won't happen again," Blevins told the judge. "It shouldn't have happened to begin with."
Blevins has since gotten rid of all his firearms.

Monday, July 23, 2012

3-year-old finds gun, shoots and kills his father

33-year-old Michael Bayless, of Martinsville, Indiana was watching television with two of his children when his other child, a three-year-old boy, found a loaded, unlocked .45 caliber handgun nearby.
According to police, "He picked up the gun and it discharged, striking the deceased victim."
Michael was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to a neighbor, "It's a bad tragedy. He was carrying the gun for his personal safety."
The police are still investigating the incident but have called it "a tragic accident and a tragic mistake" of leaving a loaded, unlocked gun within a child's reach.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Man may lose leg after unintentionally shooting himself

A 32-year-old Teaneck, New Jersey man was carrying a .45-caliber handgun in the waistband of his pants when the gun slipped. When he tried to catch the gun he unintentionally pulled the trigger and shot himself in the leg. The bullet ruptured his artery.
He was taken to the local hospital where he was stabilized and then transfer to a medical center. Doctors say due to the size of the bullet and the injury to his artery that the man might lose his leg.
Police are investigating the incident.

Monday, July 9, 2012

8-year-old unintentionally shoots 5-year-old friend, leaves him bleeding in the park

Two boys, ages 5 and 8, were playing together at the High Sierra dog park in Billings, Montana. Both boys had permission from their parents to be out together. What the parents didn't know is that the 8-year-old boy had a .22-caliber rifle.
Police are still investigating the incident, but what is known is the 5-year-old boy was shot in the lower abdomen and the 8-year-old dropped the gun, left the boy laying on the ground, and went home. Police found the boy at his home later that evening. He was taken to the police station with a parent to be interviewed.
Two girls, ages 12 and 14, were in the dog park riding dirt bikes when they spotted the 5-year-old boy.
"We saw him laying there covered in blood and not crying, which scared me the most," said the 12-year-old girl.
"He couldn't answer anything I was asking - his name, if he was hurt - he just moaned," said the older girl. "I think we was in complete shock."
Police believe the boy was shot at least 15 minutes before the girls found him.
The boy was taken the hospital where his injures required two surgeries and a blood transfusion. He is recovering from a broken femur and a punctured femoral artery and is in a half-body cast. The doctors hope he will be out of the intensive care unit soon.


Friday, July 6, 2012

Woman killed by stray bullet at city's Fourth of July fireworks show

A 34-year-old Lansing, Michigan woman was at Adado Riverfront Park waiting for the city's Fourth of July fireworks show when she was struck in the head by a stray bullet.
Police were first notified at 9:45 p.m. that the woman was having a seizure. It wasn't until after she arrived at the hospital that it was discovered she had been shot. She died of her injuries the next morning.
Police are confident that the bullet that killed her was not fired from within the park.
At the request of her family, the woman's name has not yet been released.
Mayor Virg Bernero issued a statement calling the shooting "a senseless act of violence." He added that "it is a shock to us all that something like this could happen after we took such extensive precautions to keep everyone safe. Yet an innocent bystander was still killed by the reckless discharge of a firearm."
Police do not have any suspects and are asking anyone with information to please contact them.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Boy struck in the head by New Year's celebration gunfire still struggling

On New Year's Eve Diego Duran, then 12-years-old, of Ruskin, Florida, was standing in his front yard watching fireworks when he was hit in the head by a stray bullet.
Diego spent weeks in the hospital and is still recovering from the injury. In the months since being injured he has undergone six surgeries. He still suffers short term memory loss.

To bring awareness to the dangers of firing guns in the air as a way to celebrate, Diego's mother and godmother have launched a campaign called Bullet Free Sky. According to their website:
What goes up, must come down. We want to open eyes to this reality, to keep something so preventable from happening to anyone else. When someone shoots randomly into the sky, we are all in danger.
They promoted the campaign on the 4th of July knowing people may be tempted to shoot their guns in the air to celebrate.
No one was every charged in the shooting that injured Diego.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Man cleaning handgun unintentionally discharges weapon, shoots toddler in apartment below


24-year-old Matthew Bairney, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, was in his apartment, cleaning his handgun when he unintentionally discharged the weapon. The bullet went through the floor of his apartment and struck 3-year-old Keneja Long in the apartment below.
Keneja's father told police he heard a noise, saw a hole in the ceiling of his apartment and realized his daughter had been wounded in the arm. A few minutes later, Bairney called police to say he had accidentally fired his weapon.
"The gun shouldn't have been loaded," said Keneja's mother. "Thank God that bullet didn't hit my daughter in the head."
Keneja was taken to the hospital and treated for her injuries.
Bairney has been charged with reckless handing of a firearm, a misdemeanor.

Monday, July 2, 2012

19-year-old unintentionally kills friend while shooting at gun range

Four friends, three 19-year-old males and a 16-year-old female, went to the Livingston Conservation & Sports Association's gun range in Brighton Township, Michigan. One of the males was shooting an AK-47 when the gun jammed.
According to the sheriff, the gun had been malfunctioning but the owner had the gun serviced and wanted to try it out. After firing it a few times the gun jammed again.
The owner was trying to fix the gun when he unintentionally discharged the weapon. The bullet hit 19-year-old Charles Kimball, of Howell, Michigan, who was standing about 12 feet down range. Kimball was killed instantly.
The sheriff reported that the teens were not members of the gun range and did not have permission to be there. Prosecutors will decide what, if any, charges are filed.