I was at the pistol line shooting my 1911 when the range master called cease fire. Everyone stopped shooting and then all of the sudden I hear BOOM!
I look and see this fat guy holding his hand while screaming at the top of his lungs. Laying at his feet was a stainless .357 magnum 4" barrel Smith & Wesson. How he shot himself I have no idea.
After a short while the paramedics and sheriffs dept. showed up and did their thing. They took the guy away but the range stayed cold for a while until they found all of his fingers. Then we got back to shooting.
Pics of the marksman:
Note the guy in the red shirt showing how many fingers the guy blew off his hand.
Taking him away.
One more reason I prefer going to the range when the parking lot’s empty.
On a separate note and based entirely on my own curiosity, are there any privacy issues involved with posting photos of an individual involved in a mishap such as this?
To ghostman1960: Please don’t misapprehend my question as an admonition or condemnation of your post. I trust that it was offered as a cautionary example of the inherent dangers associated with firearms, particularly when in the hands of careless, inexperienced, or distracted users.
I do not think there would be any privacy issues involved. It occurred at a public range. Plus if there was a news paper guy there it would have at least made the local section. Here he is anonymous and a lesson to us all.
He swept his hand and squeezed the trigger. 'Bet he won’t need to repeat this lesson. Thanks for telling us about this, it’s a grim reminder of what can happen.
Personally, I fail to see the value added by the pictures in this case. They don’t provide us any lesson or added information about the case: they are just voyeuristic and probably have put a number of people onto the internet who might not have wanted to be on here.
Do the photos violate privacy laws? I’m betting they do not. That doesn’t mean that a little prudence wouldn’t have been better. It would take 2 extra seconds of time to obscure people’s faces in the photos.
If I seem a bit harsh on the subject, maybe so. I take a lot of photos at firearm related events and I go to great lengths to satisfy people’s preferences for personal privacy.
Without any facts of the accident, what purpose does this all serve? Just to remind us that people can hurt themselves with guns? I would think the people who frequent this site would already know that.
Privacy issues would be for the first responders to deal with. HIPPA. Damn that must have hurt. I’ve had powder burns from shooting revolvers and my finger never went beyond the cylinder face. I hope he is right handed.
Would they or should they? They would but IMHO they shouldn’t without permission, unless the person was a public figure or someone charged with a crime. YMMV.
Thats funny because I was a bystander at the scene of a fatal auto accident once and a news crew was there. That night I saw myself on the 6 o’clock news. No one asked my permission to air my image. But yet there I was.
This is always a fear of mine. Not because it will hurt but because I will look like an idiot LOL.
As to the issue of privacy, I was a journalism student once in another life. You are taught here is no such thing as privacy in public. There is however a code of ethics that is to be followed. This photo doesn’t break any of them that I remember. Essentially you don’t show the face of the dead, you don’t show naughty bits, and you don’t get in the way of emergency crews to take the photos.
I have left the range or just turned around before getting out of the truck after seeing the parking lot full. Just before deer season around here is the worst time.
You weren’t the person the story was about were you? I don’t recall anyone making a case that the original poster should black out everyone’s face just the guy who is the story and thus likely to be publicly embarrassed.
As to the thread one of the reason why I no longer shoot at public ranges or on a firing line with anyone I don’t personally know and trust is because of the stupid shit I have witnessed. I had an elderly gentleman trying to clear a live round from a 1911 with his muzzle pointed down the firing line and directly at me. Did I mention his finger was on the trigger the entire time. After reaming him a new one and packing up I was half way to the car when he had a ND right into the bench. I saw another guy look right down the bore of a Model 19 when he had a misfire. I could go on and on but I am sure everyone else that has ever spent any amount of time at a public range has their own horror stories. I guess this guy had to learn the lesson about gun safety the hard way.
As to the thread one of the reason why I no longer shoot at public ranges or on a firing line with anyone I don’t personally know and trust is because of the stupid shit I have witnessed. I had an elderly gentleman trying to clear a live round from a 1911 with his muzzle pointed down the firing line and directly at me. Did I mention his finger was on the trigger the entire time. After reaming him a new one and packing up I was half way to the car when he had a ND right into the bench. I saw another guy look right down the bore of a Model 19 when he had a misfire. I could go on and on but I am sure everyone else that has ever spent any amount of time at a public range has their own horror stories. I guess this guy had to learn the lesson about gun safety the hard way.
Those type of fellas are usually rejects from the RSO monitored ranges.
This kind of shit scares the hell out of me. I have never once had a safety issue with people that I know that I shoot with. But I have had over 10 scary situations at gun clubs and public ranges. I miss back in Wyoming when I could just drive out onto BLM land and shoot with no assholes around.
