On 10/13/11 3:50 PM, jps wrote:

Just like it should be, father to son.

Police: Gun safety lesson goes awry when dad accidentally shoots son

A father accidently shot his son in the thigh/buttocks area during a
gun safety lesson yesterday in his apartment in the 900 block of North
96th Street, according to the Seattle Police Department.

I’ll let the SPD take it from here, as I think they really nail the
irony in the incident:

They were showing each other their handguns and explaining to each
other the proper way to safely load/unload and disassemble the
different makes and models of each other’s handguns.

The father had just finished showing his son how to properly make his
gun safe and was about to hand the gun to the son when the father
pulled the trigger.

The son was transported to Harborview Medical Center with
non-life-threatening injuries. According to police, it was reported
the son had shot himself in the initial 911 call.


Sheesh.

Even though I had shot firearms a couple of decades ago, when I bought
my first pistol, I took a multi-day course out at an indoor range not
too far from Dulles Airport. It covered safety in great detail,
including dislodging a stovepiped round and other disasters waiting to
happen. I went back later for another course to get certified for a
carry permit.

As with running a boat, I think "operating" a firearm should require the
would-be operator to take a serious, formal safety course. But we don't
take safety that seriously in this country, do we?

When we're out at our "informal" range in Virginia and sharing shooting
everyone else's firearms, once we empty the mag or the cylinders, we put
the firearms on the shooting table after we check to make sure they are
empty. The next guy does the same check when he picks up the firearm.

One of "us guys," but not me has a federal permit for a fully automatic
assault rifle. I got to shoot the rifle. It would be a very expensive hobby.