LEO Discharges Gun in Airport

[BarryLee]

Ok, another story about a guy carrying a firearm through the security checkpoint at Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta. The only unusual thing about this is that when the Police attempted to secure the weapon somehow, “the passengers’ gun went off” . I suspect the Police Officer and all the other folks in the area were lucky it was only loaded with snake shot.

A few observations:

Still blows my mind that 67 folks forgot they had guns in their bags at this specific airport this year.

Not sure exactly what happened, but it seems a LEO would be more careful clearing a gun that they were unfamiliar with.

Also, this continual reference in the media to “guns going off” makes me wonder if this is lazy journalism or if they have an agenda to make guns seem more hazardous thus promoting more restrictions.

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/passengers-gun-goes-off-1258011.html

 

[Dino.]

What LEO is unfamiliar with a revolver?
Unbelievable.

 

[shortwave]

Passenger gun goes off at security checkpoint...

Even the title of the story makes me laugh.

Makes it sound like the expiration date on the firing pin elapsed or the exp. date on the ammo expired and the gun just went off.

You can bet if the guy that owned the gun had had the gun out fooling with it and shot it, the title would read much different.

 

[oneounceload]

Used to work there as a guard during college in the 70's - even then we confiscated, and arrested, a lot of folks trying to bring guns and drugs through the metal detector - including airline personnel, cops, even uniformed military

 

[griz]

The only way to "mistakenly" fire a revolver I can think of (other than just not knowing it will fire when the trigger is pulled ) is if he was trying to unload a single action that required the gun be at half cock. Not a good excuse, but I could see that happening.

 

[drail]

Many many LEOs under 25 to 30 have never held or fired a revolver. The problem is lack of training and the whole idea of "let's unload it immediately even if we've never seen one of these before". On the job training, right? I have seen a number of officers attempt to clear a weapon that they have never seen before and it's pretty frightening. I am not bashing here, they simply don't know any better but think they are obligated to "clear the gun" so it's "safe". Anyone who handles a weapon without understanding how it works is an accident waiting to happen.

 

[Erik]

"Still blows my mind that 67 folks forgot they had guns in their bags at this specific airport this year."

I'd bet a beer none of them forgot. Of course, absent an admission on their part that can't be proved.

 

[MLeake]

Bear in mind, the only other candidates would be Houston, Orlando, or DFW.

Most people can't legally bring guns to JFK, LAX, O'Hare, or Newark, or carry them in the vicinity.

That would skew such errors toward large-volume airports in states where the masses own handguns. Of those, ATL is far and away the busiest.

 

[Mello2u]

shortwave
Passenger gun goes off at security checkpoint...

Even the title of the story makes me laugh.

Makes it sound like the expiration date on the firing pin elapsed or the exp. date on the ammo expired and the gun just went off.

You can bet if the guy that owned the gun had had the gun out fooling with it and shot it, the title would read much different.

This is a type of story that is written by failed journalists. How many times have we seen headlines like "SUV plows into crowd and kills x people" or "[fill in the blank inanimate object] kills . . . . "?

 

[langenc]

What LEO is unfamiliar with a revolver?
Unbelievable. from post #2..

In MI we are blessed with handgun registration!! Back in the early70s afer moving here from another state I took my K22 in for registration.

I passed it thru the window to the duty officer. Pretty soon he is back at the window asking "HOW MANY SHOT IS IT?" I should have said 'one to six, depending'..

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

What LEO is unfamiliar with a revolver?
Unbelievable.

Maybe 30 years ago.

Today, cops who are RETIRING may very well have NEVER used a revolver. Many who started their careers within the last... 30 years?.... have likely never been issued a revolver by their department. Many departments were transitioning to semi-autos AT LEAST as far back the early 80s.

 

[GM1967]

Many many LEOs under 25 to 30 have never held or fired a revolver

Today, cops who are RETIRING may very well have NEVER used a revolver. Many who started their careers within the last... 30 years?.... have likely never been issued a revolver by their department

Never been issued, never fired, that's one thing, but I think it's inexcusable that trained police officers have never held a revolver, a gun that they are very likely to encounter in the course of their duties and may have to confiscate as evidence if it is illegally possessed or used in a crime. They get some rudimentary training about narcotics and how to safely handle/collect those, right? So why not some basic gun safety and familiarization? Class would take an hour at most, to give them some basic knowledge of the general types of firearms

 

[drail]

I hate to have to tell you this but firearms training in police training institutions consists of very little time or money. Most LEOs are very poorly trained on one sidearm and one shotgun. That's it. Most departments require requalification shooting once a year. Everybody passes. They don't have the funds to spend range time and ammo anymore. The adminstrators don't believe it is worth the money.

 

[mes227]

"Still blows my mind that 67 folks forgot they had guns in their bags at this specific airport this year."

I'd bet a beer none of them forgot. Of course, absent an admission on their part that can't be proved.

Don't be so sure. A number of years ago I grabbed my road-trip bag by mistake when flying Reno to Elko. You should have seen the look on the xray operator's face when he say the loaded .380 auto, loaded spare clip and box of ammo! Turns out they do have a jail at the airport!

 

[mes227]

I hate to have to tell you this but firearms training in police training institutions consists of very little time or money. Most LEOs are very poorly trained on one sidearm and one shotgun. That's it. Most departments require requalification shooting once a year. Everybody passes. They don't have the funds to spend range time and ammo anymore. The adminstrators don't believe it is worth the money.

I'll accept that the formal training is limited, but why aren't they teaching themselves? I'm an engineer and 99% of what I learned was after school and most of that on my own time.

 

[griz]

I hate to have to tell you this but firearms training in police training institutions consists of very little time or money. Most LEOs are very poorly trained on one sidearm and one shotgun. That's it. Most departments require requalification shooting once a year. Everybody passes. They don't have the funds to spend range time and ammo anymore. The adminstrators don't believe it is worth the money

.

I still have a hard time believing they don't know this basic rule: when you pull the trigger a big noise happens. But if what you say is true, why do they call for a LEO when they need a gun unloaded? I see an opportunity here, "Griz's unloading service. No gun too complicated. Call 800-no shoot"

 

[drail]

Most LEOs are not "gun people". They look at their sidearm as just one more heavy tool hanging on their belt all day and which hardly ever gets used. I know. Ask any police firearms trainer and they'll tell you that 90% of new recruits have never touched a handgun before the academy.

 

[Jim March]

I'd be willing to bet it was an NAA minirevolver. They're tricky little beasts. Perfectly safe so long as you read the manual but if not, in a tense situation with an idiot packing a badge...yeah, not good.

If I'm right, I can tell you exactly what happened:

1) The gun was in it's proper state for carry, which is hammer all the way down *between* any two loaded chambers. This concept was borrowed from the 1858 Remington percussion wheelgun(!).

2) The proper thing to do as the first unloading step is "half cock" it, which is actually more like "one sixth" cock or so - in other words, hammer back maybe 3/16ths of an inch or so.

3) Idiot cop gets this message and full-cocks it.

4) Owner freaks out (rightly so!) and explains that no, the hammer needs to gently come back down.

5) Cop fires it. Sigh.

For the record: what you do is, you bring it just that little bit back to the first click, pull the base pin out the front, pull the cylinder. The trigger isn't touched throughout.

Setting it back up for carry is hairier!

Hammer at "half cock" again, base pin out, cylinder in, base pin in. So far, easy. Now you line up one of the half-chamber "safety notches" in the cylinder with the hammer, ease the hammer back a hair more, pull the trigger, lower the hammer all the way into a safety notch. You can now carry it full-up loaded. It is seriously unlikely that it will accidentally half-cock and then the cylinder rolls into a battery condition. It can happen but it's not very likely.

As long as you practice all this with an unloaded gun first, you'll be OK. I'm not dissing the NAA minis, I think they're cool little critters.

But tricky .

 

[baccusboy]

More and more article links don't work on my mobile device, and this really angers me. Instead the sites tell me too view the full website first.

 

[baccusboy]

I wa s a journalism major. It was the major many took to get a college degree without having to take much, if any math. Right there you have one filter that captures lazy people. Then many of those are extemely left-wing types who were either anti-establishment by ingrained belief, and/or just because they hated doing work and forever blamed that they have to work on the establishment (the right).

Then there are serious journalists who work very hard because they have a view to push.. And they see journalism as their chance to make a difference -- their Liberal difference.

I never once met a student in my school of Journalism who had the dream of becoming a conservative journalist.