Accidental Shootings in US Go Way Back
Excerpt 04.09.16 11:01 PM ET
Accidental Shootings in US Go Way Back
From America’s earliest days, we have been morbidly fascinated with accounts of accidental shootings—Melancholy Accidents they were often headlined, and they were never rare.
Peter Manseau
Excerpted from Melancholy Accidents: Three Centuries of Stray Bullets and Bad Luck:
Just short of the muzzle of the upturned pistol that is the state of Idaho, Kootenai County is home to an adult population of around one hundred thousand, and nearly twenty thousand concealed-carry gun permits. Every year, county officials process so many new requests from citizens hoping to wear firearms hidden under jackets, slung on their hips, or strapped to their ankles, that you might think this picturesque community of mountains, lakes, and backcountry was a lawless wasteland, rather than a popular destination for outdoor sports enthusiasts. Over the past decade, the number of annual concealed-carry permit applications has increased tenfold, from fewer than 300 in 2007 to nearly 3,000 in 2015. The sheriff’s office has limited the number of hours its lobby is open for other business because the paperwork involved in arming the public simply takes up too much time.
Few Kootenai residents would want it any other way. Even the county commissioner has a concealed weapons permit. He wears his holstered sidearm during town meetings, because, he once explained, “You just never know when something is going to happen.”
A 29-year-old mother spending the holidays in the county in 2014 must have felt similarly. As she and her two-year-old son walked the aisles of the Walmart Supercenter a few miles west of Coeur D’Alene National Forest just before New Year’s Eve, she kept her legally concealed 9-millimeter Smith & Wesson semi-automatic in a purse designed for that purpose, within a zippered pocket on the side of a leather shoulder bag almost indistinguishable from many available in the women’s accessories section of the store.
A Christmas gift from her husband, the concealed-carry purse was a $100 “urban shoulder bag,” made by an Illinois company called Gun Tote’n Mamas. According to the manufacturer’s site, the bag can hold a weapon ranging in size from a snub nosed revolver to a 1911 Commander, along with a water bottle or book, maps, wallet, and “munchies.” Beneath the front flap, a six-pocket organizer provides ample room for “pens, papers, cell phone, keys, loose change, iPOD, BlackBerry, etc.” A loaded handgun was just one more tool for the modern mom on the go.
More:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/10/accidental-shootings-in-us-go-way-back.html
