"Safety training to be stepped up, but accident won't affect airport security."

Seems a Guardsman out here at SFO was clearing his weapon at the end of his shift, and managed to shoot himself in the hip.  No-one is able to figure out how he did it...

Easy.  This damn fool disregarded basic safety practises and drew his weapon with HIS FINGER ON THE TRIGGER before acquiring a target.  Of course, as long as he was ignoring his training, he did it completely and fired before he was sure of his target.  I hope they find a nice desk for his while he's waiting for his discharge papers to come thru...

Now, THESE guys are supposed to keep me safe, because I can't be trusted with a sidearm, right?  In almost TWO MILLION rounds over 30 years, I have NEVER rpt NEVER had a Negligent Discharge of my weapon.  There has never been a shot fired by a weapon under my control that I was not expecting, aiming, or personally and intentionally responsible for.  Period.  I have, however, been "plinked" three times by my own ricochets while doing pistol practise (no injury, kind of neat really) and that's the limit of my shooting accidents - if you want to call them that.  Period.

Of course, this also stands in my mind as another argument against the general issue of DA/DAO sidearms among the armed forces, as any damn fool can shoot himself given half a chance.  You didn't hear of this sort of thing with the 1911.  Kind of like the number of "own weapon" shooting in the LE circles when the 1911 was in common usage - zero.

Anyhow, the man shot himself in the hip while going off duty for the day, and was in an area designated for the clearance of weapons following shifts.  The most telling phrase: "Specialist Louis E. Alvarez _accidentally_ shot himself Friday in a courtyard off-limits to the public while removing his gun from its holster." (emphasis mine)

Of course, the "guardsmen use manufacturer-installed safety locks on their guns," and "disarming the guardsmen is not an option."  I guess remedial safety training IS.

I have been shooting and hunting for 30 years, and instructing for 15.  ZERO ND's in all that time and all those rounds ain't bad, and I probably pop more caps in ONE session than most of these guardsmen do in a year.  

But they get sidearms, and I don't

Some of my stats...

Rounds fired - approx. two million
Shots fired in anger (non-wartime) - TWELVE
Justified shootings - TWELVE
Mistaken ID shootings - ZERO
ND's - ZERO
Hit rate for shots in anger (non-wartime) - 100%

I also hold CCW permits in seven states, and thru reciprocity can maintain coverage most of the way across the country - on land.  BUT, I can't carry my sidearm in the air.  Just as well, I can't fit in the damn seats anyhow...

FFZ

Forgot the newspaper cite...

San Jose Mercury News, 4JAN2002, Page 1B and 8B.

FFZ

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