Cop Who Shot Off His Own Finger Points the Finger at Gun Shop
Russ Chastain 01.14.15
A police officer walks into a gun shop, asks to see a 380 pistol, shoots off a portion of his anatomy with said pistol, becomes former cop, and then sues gun shop.
Yeah, that’s right.
The former officer is reportedly suing for negligence on the part of Barren Outdoors, the gun shop where the incident occurred.
We all know that guns in display cases should be unloaded and safe. We also know that the gun shop employee should have checked the gun to be sure of that before handing it to customer Darrell Smith. But we also know the customer should have checked it himself, and furthermore should not have allowed the muzzle to point at himself or anyone else.
This is the most basic of all gun safety rules: Always point a gun in a safe direction, especially when it’s cocked or being cocked! Period. End of story
The officer’s attorney, of course, lays the blame on the gun shop rather than the fellow who pulled the trigger. It’s the same old story of personal accountability or the lack thereof. Because Smith’s own actions caused him to lose his job and incur medical expenses, he and his attorney are seeking to hold another party accountable.
“He’s permanently disfigured. He went through a lot of pain and suffering. He’s gone through several surgeries. He’s got a lot of medical bills that have to be paid. It ended his career and he’s going to have a lot of lost income.” – Smith’s attorney Alan Simpson
In the uncensored video (below) in which Smith shoots himself, the store employee not only fails to check the gun, he too violates the first rule of gun safety when he offers the pistol to the customer with the muzzle pointing at himself. If the gun had been fired as the customer took it, it appears that the bullet would have penetrated his hand, wrist, and arm.
So yeah, the employee showed a distinct lack of smarts.
The officer, though, did much worse. Most of the time he handled the gun, he held his hand and fingers in front of the muzzle. He also pointed it to his left – toward at least four other people.
He worked the pistol’s slide without paying attention to whether he was chambering a round, and then he pulled the trigger with his finger in front of the muzzle and with the muzzle pointed towards those folks!
I cringed repeatedly as I watched the video. This guy could easily have injured or killed one of those people with his careless handling of the firearm. No wonder he was subsequently relieved of his job.
I feel thankful that nobody else was hurt in this senseless incident. I sincerely hope that Smith’s case is dismissed and that he and the employee both learned a lot about gun safety from this.
