Officer accidentally shoots foot while at nuclear plant training

[Janitor]

I reread the post, no need to cuss or bang your head on a wall.
You call it a politically correct "negligent discharge" I call it an "accidental discharge", same-same whatever you wish to call it.
All the other ADs that occured involved somebody stupidly pulling the trigger at an inappropriate time because firearms don't generally go off for no apparent reason and playing nomenclature games doesn't change the fact that accidents are caused by negligence.

There is a real difference between an accidental and a neglegent discharge.

There are true accidental discharges. For instance - the firing pin jaming in a forward position and every round after the first slam fires turning your nice, safe 1911 into a class III weapon.

If your finger is on the trigger when it shouldn't be, and the gun goes off, it's an ND, not an AD. If it's not caused by the gun or other equipment breaking or behaving in a fashion nobody would have predicted, it's neglegent.

You can rail against nomenclature all you like - but the way we use terms is the way we use terms. Up is up, and down is down. It has nothing at all to do with being politically correct. It has to do with using common terms the same way others do.

 

[TheEgg]

Huxford said the woman was practicing at the range when a hot shell casing popped out of her gun and went down the back of
her shirt.
As she attempted to remove the casing, she accidentally pressed the trigger of her weapon, shooting herself in the foot, Huxford
said.

If you don't have enough self control to suck it up when you have a silly piece of hot brass down your shirt long enough to safe your weapon and put it down before you go diving into your clothes for the brass, you have no business even shooting guns, much less being a security agent of any kind.

 

[Janitor]

While that sounds a bit harsh, I think you're right. How hard is it, how long does it really take to make a weapon safe? Learn to play with pain. What happens when a toe gets stubbed in a firefight?

Thinking about it, she's pretty lucky. What if her first reaction during all of that was to hold the gun pointing to the side, sweeping one of her mates?

 

[JamisJockey]

I reread the post, no need to cuss or bang your head on a wall.
You call it a politically correct "negligent discharge" I call it an "accidental discharge", same-same whatever you wish to call it.
All the other ADs that occured involved somebody stupidly pulling the trigger at an inappropriate time because firearms don't generally go off for no apparent reason and playing nomenclature games doesn't change the fact that accidents are caused by negligence.

No "PC" to it. There is a real difference between the two, let me enlighten you.

An accidental discharge involves a discharge beyond your control. A defect, a dropped gun, the thumbreak snagging on a Glock trigger on the way into the holster....
A Negligent Discharge involves some idiot pulling the trigger when it shouldn't be pulled.

Now, you're no longer ignorant.

 

[Cosmoline]

Wait a minute.

There's a SHOOTING RANGE at the nuclear power plant?



To paraphrase Sean Connery's character in "Red October", "There's a lot of things there that react badly to bullets."

 

[carebear]

Cosmo,

I assume the backstop isn't the containment vessel.

Course, it is probably the toughest thing there.......

 

[Orthonym]

Hold yer heads tight when holding guns!

I mind the time I was shooting a friend's .58 Enfield replica and a bee got excited about the smell of the bullet lube. (Mostly beeswax) I immediately said to friend, "Take the weapon, NOW.", while carefully not pointing it at anything valuable.

I wanted to shoo the bee away without having to think about what I was going to do with that there antique, but deadly, weapon.

The bee went away after a while.

This was before those nasty African bees got here.

 

[Mnemesyne]

I can sympathize with the whole hot brass thing, except mine was during my qualification for my ccw class and went down the front of my shirt ....not only did I maintain proper muzzle direction, but I finished my shot and then still kept the gun pointing at the target while using the other hand to lift the shirt to remove it from between me and the center piece on the bra lol....After I fished it out, I finished shooting...Funny thing was, no one on the line noticed I had been the recipient of the "hot brass dance"

Worst part is, my husband works for this same company as a guard in a different state...his comment to the story was "and I work for these people???"

Mind you...he's a Navy vet and a 2yr police science degree holder.....I certainly hope they do the smart thing and remove her from that facility....


Mneme

 

[Orthonym]

There is of course an Heinlein reference.

I don't have the book (Starship Troopers) before me, but I think I remember reading that Juan Rico got punished for reacting to some ants which were biting him in a training exercise. He was supposed to just suck it up and ignore them.

Firearms are *Deadly Weapons*, dangit!

One would hope that firearms training includes the notion of ignoring unimportant stuff, no matter what physical sensation happens, in favor of paying attention to things that really matter. Owhell.

 

[Ryder]

We have to realize we are being burned, make safe, set the gun down, and then remove the hot brass? It isn't going to be hot enough to bother with after all that. They cool down pretty fast. Maybe she was thinking hurry up and get it while it's still hot.

Can I get a special exemption to just keep shooting and ignore this miniscule pain as I've done numerous times in the past? Chalk it up to my sense of adventure or something.

Bet she doesn't think that brass was all that hot now, does she. Glad she only shot herself.

 

[AK-74me]

Wait a minute.

There's a SHOOTING RANGE at the nuclear power plant?

Ofcourse there are! Many nuke planks own several thousands of acres, many times most of which is wildlife refuges ect.... why shouldn't they build there own range. At our plant we have a very nice range with 200 yd. elevated postions, 100 yd. elevated postions, 75 yd, 50 yd with elevated, 25, 15, 10, 7, and 3. We have baricades that simulate plant equipment, simulated defensive positions, smoke machines the whole 9 yards. It is like a 1/2 mile from any plant equipment. Local PD is always trying to use our range.

Byron,

just like any thing else there is a big variation from plant to plant in the knowledge and training recieved on firearms, like police depts. from what I understand. We are very lucky where I work we have knowledgable instructors and for the most part the Security Force members have intrest in firearms. We recieve 40 hrs of range time quaterly, and that does not include FATS training and other Force on Force training we do using MILES gear.

When asked I have told many people what I do and most don't know the difference between what I do and Mall security, then I tell them how much I made last year and they are asking me to get try to get them an interview. But again the pay varies widely based on where you are located and if you work for private or federal facality, I see in FL. they get paid next to nothing but here in MD and in NY we make a couple times what the local LEO's make.