over there.
The number of armed police officers accidentally shooting themselves – and other colleagues – has soared in the past five years.
Now, nearly half of all injuries caused by police shootings are the result of officers blasting themselves or a colleague, often during bungled training and demonstrations. (bold mine)
Which, of course, the GFWs are using to say "SEE! NOBODY is safe with guns around!"
Three of the NDs noted are:
• A diplomatic protection officer in Central London shot himself in the leg getting into a car in September 2007.
• A firearms officer from West Mercia Police shot himself in the leg and foot in January 2006 after his gun became caught in his clothing.
• An airport security officer from the Met shot the top of his thumb off when he put it in front of his MP5 sub-machine gun during training in 2005.
As to the third, I realize there's not a specific rule about "Keep your fingers out of the way of the muzzle(that's the hole in the loud end)", but damn...
Thanks to Sondra for pointing to this
5 comments:
Might this have something to do with the fact that they have no base of gun safety knowledge to build upon?
Most likely, the only exposure to firearms these people have ever have has been as a member of their respective services.
Money for training is always tight in police organizations so they probably don't get much life fire practice so it follows that they simply aren't that experienced.
Here, a large percentage of people get at least SOME experience and training in gun handling as they are growing up so firearms safety isn't some completely foreign concept that they must learn from scratch. Plus there are many more venues and opportunities for off duty practice and training for officers to participate in on their own.
When you think about it...this really shouldn't surprise anyone.
Sorry for the typos. I've gotta learn to proof read better before hitting "post."
Probably a factor. Hell, all the best shots in my son's Basic unit had learned to shoot before they joined up.
Most of the cops I've met over the years have been lousy shots, and had very little interest in improving....
Well, "Don't point the gun at things you don't wanna shoot" is one of the standard rules (if re-stated), and I'm pretty sure he didn't want to shoot his thumb half off...
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