In a previous post, Put it in a holster and don’t touch it, I recounted the story of a Massachusetts cop who blamed his SIG P320 for going off without pulling the trigger.
I thought, at the time, he fat fingered the trigger when taking his gun out to take a shit.
I was wrong.
What he did was so much worse.
A school resource officer at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School had hung his gun on a hook in the staff restroom and accidentally fired it while removing it last Tuesday, officials said.
At around 1:45 p.m. on April 2, Cambridge Police Officer Frank Greenidge took his department-issued gun out of his holster and hung it on a staff restroom stall hook by its trigger guard, according to a statement from Cambridge police and Cambridge Public Schools. When he took it off the hook, the gun fired, the statement said.
What.
The.
Actual.
Fuck!?
His SIG P320 went off when he put a bathroom stall coat hook through the trigger guard.
This moron needs to be kicked off the police force forever.
This is why I’m not a huge fan of pistols that don’t have an actual safety. Relying on a “trigger safety” ala Glock style is a recipe for eventual disaster. While that design works as intended, meaning it WILL NOT FIRE unless the trigger is pulled it is just too easy for that trigger to be pulled regardless of intent.
External safety is only good if it is used. There was a case exactly like this in the 80s but with a 1911.
An “actual safety” is no defense against a gun in the hands of a braindead moron. All safeties are backup devices; the primary protection comes from having a semi-functional brain capable of following very simple rules.
Skydivers know this. We may have an “automatic activation device” on the parachute to open it just in time, in case we’re incapacitated. But we’re all taught that we, not the AAD, are responsible for our safety.
And just think, this guy probably goes to a public gun range.
I would bet he never shoots except in yearly quals.
Setting aside whether or not hanging the pistol on the hook was wise, how can an adult be unable to simply slide the pistol _off_ of the hook???
It’s not complicated machinery or one of those iron puzzles.
It’s a hook!
And there are signs on fire sprinklers in hotel rooms saying “DO NOT HANG CLOTHES ON THIS”, too.
.
I’ve used these to hang pistols and revolvers on my gun safe door, and somehow never managed to pull the trigger. (Their rifle and carbine units work great, too, if you don’t need a built-in way to lock the gun to the holder.)
(https://www.verticalgunracks.com/store/p4/Pistol_Rack.html)
It’s disturbing how so many of Bill Engvall’s old “Here’s Your Sign” jokes aren’t funny anymore; reality is echoing them just a little too hard.
So his initial claim — that the gun “went off” without pulling the trigger — was a complete lie.
.
He pulled the trigger, just not with his finger.
.
And regardless of what consequences he faces for the ND — if any (big IF) — as an “Only One” nothing will happen because of that lie. Unlike what would happen to you or me if we provided false information on official reports.
.
Think about that for a moment.