It's always an accident

[Katya Mullethov]

Unless you do it on purpose . And then it is still an accident .
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Atlantic City Officer Dies On Duty ATLANTIC CITY (CBS 3) Atlantic City Police Officer Kevin Wilkins, 31, died in the line of duty on February 18, 2010 when he
accidentally shot and killed himself while on duty Thursday morning.

Police Chief John Mooney said 31-year-old Kevin Wilkins was putting a rubber sleeve on the grip of his weapon when it discharged, striking him in the face. Chief Mooney said Wilkins had removed the ammunition clip, but was struck by the round in the chamber.

The incident happened at about 1:30 a.m. while the officer and his partner were sitting in their parked vehicle near Kentucky Avenue.
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I present this as a brief excercise in the hopes that the resident editors in chief might rework it so as to properly illustrate what REALLY happened .

[rfranklin]

1. I suspect he was depressed...

and saw no other way out.

[cowman]

3. Oh so

you must be the Great Carnac. How the hell do you know his state of mind.
All he was doing was putting a rubber sleeve on the grip of his gun. There is nothing to suggest this is anything other than a tragic accident

[rfranklin]

4. Sure, I always hold my gun with the muzzle facing me...

This story sounds totally fishy.

[cowman]

2. Deepest

condolences to his family

That is why you always assume that the gun is still loaded even if you know for a fact it is unloaded

[aliendroid]

5. probably a glock

they don't have a real safety, just a trigger safety which is a little trigger on the big trigger. Police have been shooting themselves in the leg with glocks.

[Euromutt]

6. And a Hogue HandAll grip sleeve

That would be one of these: http://www.getgrip.com/main/overview/handall.html

Glocks actually have a few more safeties than just the trigger safety, but those serve to prevent the weapon from discharging unless the trigger is pulled. Glocks are simple to operate: if you pull the trigger, it will fire; if you don't pull the trigger, it will not.

The fact that negligent discharges occur rather frequently with Glocks (and bear in mind this is partly a function of the sheer number in use) is not because of a flaw in the gun's design, but because of unsafe handling practices on the part of the operators, to wit, failure to observe Cooper's Rules #1 ("all guns are always loaded") and #3 ("keep your finger outside the trigger guard unless and until you are actively engaged in the process of firing the weapon" - that's the Ayoob modification to the rule). It's a matter of few too many people having become lazy and relying on their weapons' mechanical safeties instead of on adhering to proper procedure. Yes, Glocks are rather unforgiving of that kind of behavior, but it's not the gun's fault that the operator didn't check the chamber and keep his finger off the trigger like he was supposed to.

[spin]

8. That sums it up neatly. (n/t)

[spin]

7. Sounds like he had a Glock...

he did violate several gun safety rules.

Firearms are serious business. They are not forgiving if you make a mistake.

This is a tragedy and I feel sorry for the officer's family. Better training might have helped.