[i]County officer shoots self at firearms training course
By: Daily Progress Staff Reports
Published: November 10, 2011
An Albemarle County police officer was transported to the University of Virginia Medical Center with non life-threatening injuries after accidentally shooting himself in the hand at an annual firearms training course Thursday afternoon at the Rivanna Rifle and Pistol Club.
The officer was preparing to clean his handgun when he unintentionally fired a bullet into his left hand around 4 p.m.
“The important message for everyone is that firearms should be handled with extreme care all the time,” Sgt. Darrell Byers said.
This happened at the club I was just elected into the Board of Directors into and we just received the first report from the Police Department about it. Here are the facts as they were presented:
The Officer pulled the trigger in preparation to field stripping his issued handgun (Glock 22).
The round entered his left hand through the fleshy part of his thumb joint (basically the palm) and traversed semi-diagonally and exited out the side of his palm below the small pinky. No bone was hit and he is back on light duty and may be back on street patrol in a week or two.
After exiting the officer’s hand, the bullet traversed through a closet and exited an interior wall putting a dent in a steel cabinet that sat on an adjacent room. Noboyd else was injured in the incident.
The department had just transitioned to Glock 22s from HK USPs which they carried for about 11-years.
The ammunition was .40 S&W FMJ (training and practice ammo - not sure what make but I believe they are using Federal HRT for duty).
The Officers had just conducted training at an outdoor range that is on another part of club property. The Officers had to get into their vehicles to drive to the clubhouse where they normally clean their weapons.
The handgun was supposed to have been cleared prior to leaving the shooting line at the outdoor range. The ongoing investigation should determine if this was accomplished or not.
Their training is taken directly from the Glock Training.
The clearing process they were trained in were as follows (while adhering to the rules of gun safety):
Remove magazine from the weapon.
Rack the slide at least three times - counting each rack loudly.
Lock the slide open.
Visually and digitally clear the chamber.
Release the slide.
(While pointing in a safe direction) pull the trigger.
The Officers were also trained to follow the facility policy which specifically disallows the handling of a loaded firearm where the ND occurred. NOTE: It is still unknown at which point the round ended up in the chamber of the pistol and why. This should be determined by the ongoing investigation.
The department already adheres tot he strict process of unloading their weapons at an Indoor Range (attached to the clubhouse) under the observation of an FI prior to starting training. They also load in the same range prior to leaving for the club.
What may have happened:
The FIs failed to properly clear the weapon involved off the line OR the Officer loaded his handgun when he entered his cruiser out of habit and forgot that he did so. No other viable scenarios are available.
The Officer was probably distracted while he was field stripping his weapon for cleaning and he forgot to take the proper steps to clear it.
What the Department is implementing or is considering the follow to prevent future occurrence.
They are implementing the use of a barrel flag while at the range.
They are looking at changing their weapons clearing procedure to include a second FI off the firing line (as conducted in most military ranges).
I’m glad the Officer is fine and nobody got hurt. But this is one case where stupid does hurt. To the credit of the department, they have been very proactive in addressing the issue from the get go.
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In the “What may have happened:” they should add, “The officer did not clear his weapon”
Instead of racking it 3 times they should rack it once and look, what are the other 2 times supposed to do??
All kidding aside, I would think this was a complacency or distraction/tired issue. At the end of the day some people can be exhausted, and that’s when things go bad.
I had a woman student once. She had been clearing her pistol all day long when I told her “unload and show clear”. Late afternoon I gave the same command, what did she do? yank on the trigger!! Freak me out to say the least. I was pissed. She took a break after that. It’s really inclredible how quickly things can happen.
Like I was Taught in the Military and even before then .I ALWAYS visibly look into the chamber to make sure it is unloaded , as this report Proves it only takes a second of stupid to mess your day up
Kidding aside, putting your hand over the muzzle of a gun and pulling the trigger to slide the barrel forward - REGARDLESS OF HOW MANY TIMES I DID MY SAFETY ROUTINE - does not compute for me.
It’s just a really bad habit, which on the rare case one does not go through the full process, ends as above.
Full safety check, put hand on top of slide, pull trigger (if gun requires it to remove slide) while pointing gun in safe direction, is the only way I ever do it or did it, and that does not change with gun.
I have seen many put their palm of hand over muzzle and pull trigger to remove Glock slide. It’s not an uncommon habit :eek:
Even saw someone do a press check that way!!!
I know I’m preaching to the converted and all, but just wanted to get it out.
Regardless of whether or not it was annual training common sense tells you to ENSURE that the weapon is unloaded before hand.
This is especially important with Glock pistols that require pulling the trigger first.
Here’s what I would do.
After a shooting evolution while everyone is on the range I would have all shooters line up, unload and clear.
A buddy check would be performed and then with the weapon pointed down range have them pull the trigger and holster.
Then to be extra sure there would be a clearing barrel at the exit of the range or near the cleaning area. All personnel would be required to clear their weapons again with a Safety Officer or RSO verifying that they are safe and clear.
What I found interesting is that they think that just by running the slide a number of times that will clear the pistol. IMO it shows a lack of proper training, if the extractor is not working you can run the slide till you’re blue in the face, it just won’t clear the pistol. All one has to do is visually inspect the chamber once and you’re done.
It’s like the people that sit there and run the slide 10 times really fast because it sounds cool, it’s doing nothing to clear that pistol and put it in a safe condition.
Glad to hear nobody else was hurt and the officer is relatively OK.
Instead of adding more bureaucratic complications to their firearms policies, which IMO only make goofball PowerPoint princes feel good, they should spend more time hammering the 4 rules into the officers heads. They should revisit their firearms training and verify that enough repetitions are included to insure that their officers are capable of doing most routine tasks with their “eyes closed”. The whole annual training mentality also needs to be revisited. People need more than a once a year refresher to retain critical skills and IMO firearms skills are critical.
You guys are reading to much into “annual training.”
It’s a newspaper. It could be wrong.
And if it is annual training, it doesn’t mean that’s the only time he handles his weapon. He may have to qualify quarterly with refresher training tacked on, and then have a more in-depth training once a year…
But RickP is correct. It doesn’t matter if he has weekly training if he’s following poor procedures (ie not checking to ensure his chamber is clear.) I would bet anything he was taught to check his chamber, but got careless or got in the habit of relying on the racking of the slide multiple times, which as RickP points out is a mistake. Or he did chamber check when leaving the line, but forgot that he reloaded again before he decided to clean. (All the buddy checks and clearing barrels in the world wouldn’t have mattered if that is what happened. But following the Rule #2 would have.)
As far as what is it with LEO and accidents, it’s pretty simple. When they shoot themselves, it makes the paper. When some random poster from m4carbine.com or another board shoots himself, no one cares or finds out about it (unless he puts it on youtube.)
The danger is when a task becomes automatic second nature we may tend to observe things as being the way we expect them to be rather than how the actually are. My opinion; when clearing or loading is that I need to slow down and make sure I am really “seeing” what I need to.
No offense to LE, but I know a lot of cops that scare the shit out of mean when they handle guns.
Before I was married I lived with two of my friends; a cop and a lawyer.
I had taken my cop friend to the range a few times and was shocked by his unsafe gun handling. I finally stopped taking him.
One day I come home from work and he is sitting on the couch with his hand wrapped in a bandage. Being the ball buster that I am, I immediately say “What, did you shoot yourself” (not REALLY thinking he did).
He looks at me, eyes wide open, and says “How’d you know!”. The idiot shot himself clearing .22 pistol he pulled from a gang bangers car. He actually didn’t clear it until he was back at the barracks and then used his left palm to push the slide back with his finger in the trigger guard…BANG.
That’s an excellent point. There needs to be visual and if possible physical checking of the chamber.
When I was in the Army we used to have everyone place their weapons on safe, lock the bolt to the rear and then rod the M16 as they left the range. If something was on their it would be knocked out.
The same could be done with a pistol if necessary.
A few years ago I was at a multi-department training when a SWAT cop shot himself in the foot with a M4, didn’t clear his weapon after the day’s training. It amazes me how laziness breeds complacency.
I know more cops who aren’t “gun people” than are.
Annual training programs are a law suit away from becoming more frequent. There is no way you can train someone once a year and develop anything that remotely looks like skill.