A NEGLIGENT DISCHARGE inside a Bass Pro shop outside Richmond, VA??

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stevekl

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Has anyone heard about this? This is third or fourth hand knowledge, so take it with a grain of salt. I am only posting this to see if anyone else has heard of this incident.

SO: I have been told the following story from my dad, only a few hours ago.

My father's coworker visited the Bass Pro Shop nearest Richmond, Virginia (I forget the specific county where it's located). And he saw a guy draw his CCW carry piece and place it on the counter. APPARENTLY he was looking to trade it in.

This handgun was fully loaded with a round in the chamber.

At some point, this person, along with the salesperson he was talking to, walked down the display case, leaving the LOADED handgun laying on the counter.

And at this point, ANOTHER Bass Pro employee comes along and sees the handgun. Apparently he thinks this handgun belongs to the store, so he proceeds to install a trigger lock on the firearm.

And BOOM, it goes off, putting a round in the employee's leg.

...

Okay at this point, I want to mention, I am not claiming any veracity to this story. I will only say that I am not lying to you, and my dad is not lying to me, and he (my dad) heard this from a coworker who saw all of this happen. And apparently this happened over the weekend, either saturday or sunday.

I would think this would be important news, but I didn't see any of it posted in the local news websites.

I know many of you are residents of the Richmond area and must visit Green Top, De Goff's, BPS and Gander. Have any of you heard of this?
 
I asked a guy I know (teaches CCW classes there) and he said there was an ND, but it didn't go down like that. I think he will be around to fill in the gaps.
 
I'll address this since I teach CHP classes at that Bass Pro and I do not want anyone to think that it happened in my classroom.

It was Saturday, August 1 around 1130am. I was on the other side of the store teaching our Utah permit class when I heard the gun shot. I told my students that I heard a gunshot and they didn't believe me....

Anyway, the true story is that a customer came carrying, from what I understand, a Glock 27. He asked the counter person about another gun in the case and said that he wanted to see how it fit his holster. He removed his gun and told the counter person that the mag was loaded but that there was not a round chambered. He was absolutely correct in that. The counter person took control of the gun, and set it down on the back counter behind them. While the counter person/customer were checking out the second gun/holster question, another store employee was on the phone nearby. When he got off the phone, he saw the gun, picked it up off the counter, racked the slide (chambering a round, it was really unchambered before that). He then pointed it at the floor and pulled the trigger....boom. No one was injured, the round struck a rubber floor mat. Pretty much end of story.
 
There was a VA gunshow negilgent discharge recently (Salem/Roanoke).


There was one at a gun show more recently at Chantilly 2 weekends ago. Its becoming more and more common.
 
I hope that guy gets fired. What kind of idjit does that? He worked behind the gun counter nonetheless? Sounds like BPS may want to include the 4 rules in their training.
 
"What kind of idjit does that?"

One that doesn't have enough experience to notice that a gun is heavier than the similar ones in the case because there is a loaded mag in it.

John
 
You'd have thought the slide not locking back when he racked it would have been clue enough, assuming they keep empty mags in them like the one down here.
 
I was 30' away not on the other side of the building ...

OKay, I was not on the other side of the store, i was 30' away at the knife counter.

Several issues here, it is more than boom nobody hurt end of story.

When the crack went off, there was notifier over the PA announcing that everything was okay, shoppers were still holding and looking at firearms after the round was dispatched. Not only were these employees trying to sell firearms as if nothing happened, but so were the others down the counter line.

There was an off-duty police officer present who had to wait before approaching, (I spoke with him later at GreenTop about it) this was his take "he is assessing the situation; round fired." Individuals at counter still holding firearm on customer side of counter for close to a minute or more. Is this someone going postal or what, after the shoppers starting placing firearms down on counter after finishing their look at them, he finally removes his hand from his weapon that was still under his shirt and approaches lays his wallet down on counter and flips his badge and asks if everything was okay and if everyone was safe, all involved say yes then he asks what happened.

I was under the impression from him, that the employee was putting a safety lock on the pistol and that the chamber was not verified. When I was standing around being nosy, the employee 2 that were present and shopper said that I did not pull the trigger; yea right. Whatever, all I know is someone could have been killed or severley hurt and here we go again, more damage against our freedom to bear arms/// Not good and not acceptable.

The 2 employees involved should have been removed immediately from the counter when the manager came running up, when I left over an hr later they were still trying to make BPS money behind the counter trying to sale guns.... Not to mention no notification to shoppers that all is clear, nothing is wrong (I'm not saying announce what happened, just everything is fine) as well a directive from behind the counter to all shoppers holding weapons to place them down until the situation was assessed. The other issues are that later when I was asked how my day was going prior to leaving I made a comment related to the shooting, the hunting lead completely ignored me and my friend and walked away.

Later Sunday I sent an email to BPS corporate about my concerns on gun safety at the counter, which their policy is to respond within 1 business day, yet to receive an email. Last night i was at BPS and made a comment about the incident, the employee smirked and somewhat ignored it and brushed off the severity of what could have happened. I asked if the employees were still there, he said 1 employee was fired, so I guess the other employee is still there. I asked if any refresher training had been given to address gun handling in the case of another incident like this and he said no....

With all this being said, it took me about 3 beers and 3 1/2 hrs for the uneasy feeling to leave by legs and stomach, as well it makes it awful hard to bend over in a BPS at the gun counter to look at pistols. The poor approach that Boom it hit a rubber mat no one hurt end of story shows a lack for the reality of what happened or what could have happened. But hey, at least I was able to get a response from a BPS representative on what happened. :banghead:
 
One that doesn't have enough experience to notice that a gun is heavier than the similar ones in the case because there is a loaded mag in it.
Click to expand...
Thats kind of what I meant. Even if he couldn't tell you ALWAYS verify that the gun is unloaded!
 
"One that doesn't have enough experience to notice that a gun is heavier than the similar ones in the case because there is a loaded mag in it."

No, it's one that doesn't check the chamber first when handling a weapon.
 
The poor approach that Boom it hit a rubber mat no one hurt end of story shows a lack for the reality of what happened or what could have happened.

By no means was I trying to dismiss the severity of the incident by relating the story as I knew it. It is utterly stupid on several fronts that this situation happened and management is fully aware of that. Naturally, personnel issues will prevent them from detailing exactly what happened to the employee. A whole host of things were done wrong in this case, just like just about every ND story I've heard. I'm just glad that no one was injured and hopefully they'll use this as a learning tool for the staff. The problem is, people are people and they do dumb stuff, computer programmers, funeral directors, cops, firearms instructors, housewives and gun store employees - they're all people and complacency can occur at any time to any one.

It was about 4:30pm when I got the story, several hours after the fact. By that time, it appeared to be business as usual and the story I related was the way it was told to me.
 
stating the obvious

Wow. :( The consumer was very wrong to hand over a gun in such condition.
The first supposed employee was very wrong to leave a gun in such state on the counter! The second (former?) employee was very wrong to handle the gun as he did and merely rack the slide without inspecting. Goes to prove that multiple parties do not always create checks & balances. That was three strikes and an out (all were foul).

Ignorance\forgetfulness doesn't excuse stupidity. And neither the gun owner or store employee's have any excuse for ignorance!!

Glad no one was hurt, its a shame the natural consequence of bad publicity this leads too. Makes a potential case for such retailers to increasingly not allow carry in their stores in any fashion. This situation serves as a reminder for all of us.

On the plus side it is nice to know the people in the store didn't run around like crazy, but apparently handled it well?
 
I've said it before and I'll say it again, this happened because some people have a compulsion with pulling the trigger on an empty chamber. I see it time and again. Check the chamber, it's empty, pull the trigger. WHY? Why pull the trigger? The only time I pull the trigger on a handgun is when I want a bullet to come out the other end, except in the cases where I've reassembled a handgun and want to function test everything. I don't know if people don't want to "wear out" the trigger spring, or if they think it is safer to have the hammer or striker uncocked, but it is definitely NOT. It is something I'll just never understand.
 
TX1911fan said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again, this happened because some people have a compulsion with pulling the trigger on an empty chamber. I see it time and again. Check the chamber, it's empty, pull the trigger. WHY? Why pull the trigger? The only time I pull the trigger on a handgun is when I want a bullet to come out the other end, except in the cases where I've reassembled a handgun and want to function test everything. I don't know if people don't want to "wear out" the trigger spring, or if they think it is safer to have the hammer or striker uncocked, but it is definitely NOT. It is something I'll just never understand.
Click to expand...
When I competed in IPSC, the drill at the end of every stage was to "unload and show clear" (drop magazine, open slide, show RO an empty chamber), then drop the slide and pull the trigger with the pistol pointed into the backstop. In this very controlled situation, it is verifiable that the pistol is unloaded and the hammer is down on an empty chamber. I doubt the BPS employees were IPSC competitors because they missed the unload and show clear part.
 
Gotta be with my fellow Texan on this one.

Dry firing by policy after an event is dumb enough (especially after verifying an empty chamber!), but people dry firing just because they want to pull the trigger is really dumb and dangerous if only because it breeds complacency that ends up in what happened here. I don't even like doing a necessary trigger-pull in the house or anywhere else with a new firearm. I do a double-take, get real nervous, find a safe direction and pull. Racking a slide and pulling the trigger just to make sure it isn't loaded seems REALLY stupid, because if it is it won't be and now you have a potentially lethal situation. Whatever happened to "don't pull the trigger unless you're prepared to destroy whatever's on the muzzle end"?
 
Proshooter, in your first log you said
"It was Saturday, August 1 around 1130am. I was on the other side of the store teaching our Utah permit class when I heard the gun shot. I told my students that I heard a gunshot and they didn't believe me...."

In your last post you say
"It was about 430pm when I got the story, several hours after the fact. By that time, it appeared to be business as usual and the story I related was the way it was told to me.

I'm not sure i undertsand;were there or not during the discharge???
 
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