DEA Agent Shot Himself - whoops

[GibboNet]

This is a great story ! Turns out the DEA agent took his gun from it's holster in front of his audience, removed the magazine, and racked back the slide. He even got a member of the audience to check the chamber and confirm it was empty, before he released the slide, accidentally shooting himself in the leg.

Read the rest of the story: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=816&ncid=816&e=7&u=/ap/20040501/ap_on_fe_st/gun_safety_shooting

I just posted this on my site last night, but I thought some of you here might enjoy it. I'm still not sure how he shot himself with an unloaded gun.... but obviously something went wrong. :rolleyes:

[tmp]

You should have seen the former governor of Maryland, Parris Glendening,
trying to demonstrate the ease of getting a gun lock off a revolver before a
bunch of news reporters. 2 minutes later, to the laughs of the audience, he
still couldn't get the lock off ! He and that DEA agent must be members of
the putz club !

[aikon]

The really fun thing is that this incident happend during a GUN SAFETY presentation to children!
At first he tries to convince his little listeners to stay away from drugs because they are bad and make you dumb. Next he shot himself in the leg. Maybe he didn't listen to his own advice:) Keep clean

[zaibatsu]

I really can't understand how this could happen. Perhaps a round was held by the extractor and not ejected and they didn't notice it? Letting the slide snap back could give the firing pin enough inertia to set off the primer. But I think even this is highly unlikely, what with the DEA and other 3 letter orgs being paranoid about security devices on handguns, I'd be very suprised if it didn't have a firing pin lock, stopping the firing pin moving unless the trigger is pulled.

Crazy things happen though.

[Bert]

He got exactly what he deserved for taking someone else's word that the weapon was cleared. I hope his audience took that lesson to heart!

[Ropik]

Peculiar thing is this: ...one shot fired into the top of his left thigh. The gun was pointed at the floor.
Heh it seems like that the agent was lying on the floor...
But I heard about similar accident with Norinco 1911... Some guy cleaned it, assemble it, put a cartridge in the chamber and release the slide... The problem was that in Norinco 1911 is firing pin hold in slide with small slat, which was in this case improperly set and the firing pin was stuck in a hole in it. When the guy release the slide, the stuck firing pin hit the primer and bang! He was wounded on the leg.
Maybe some relative of this agent :) !

[vulture]

He drew his .40-caliber duty weapon and removed the magazine, according to the police report.

The agent was treated at Orlando Regional Medical Center and returned to work, a DEA official said.

One would think that if you fired a .40 bullet into your upper leg from point blank that your leg would be seriously fucked, no?

[zaibatsu]

It really depends where he hit it I should think. Don't know about the DEA, but I think that the FBI are really concerned about penetration over expansion, so it's possible the bullet passed straight through the leg without much damage, or just sliced the side. Reporters do like to exagerate a little.

[Ropik]

If he hit the femur, he has most probably ugly shattering-type fracture and this is not good because every femur holds 50% body mass. On the other side, full-jacketed bullet isn't so destructive to mere flesh. It leaves only clean hole which heal without extremely serious consequences most of the time.

[Bigfoot]

...not good because every femur holds 50% body mass. ...
Only if he's standing up! Or kneeling. Crap. I'd like to see some videotape of how he did that. Was his foot on the chair while standing?

[aikon]

...I'd like to see some videotape of how he did that....


Just wait a couple of months. I'm sure we see our little DEA agent again. Next time he's a member of the darwinawards family. :)
http://www.darwinawards.com/

[Ropik]

Yes, but this was mentioned as: it isn't good because femur supports the body and thus healing is extremely long.

[matjaz]

...I think that the FBI are really concerned about penetration over expansion...
Just remembered a scene from The silence of the lambs movie where Jodie F. puts a ring of ammo into her revolver. They look like hollow point bullets. Expansion type, right?
Don't take me too seriously on this one! I know it's just a movie :).

[zaibatsu]

After the LA bank robbery, concerns were raised over the lack of penetration of the (silvertip?) bullets they were using. After this, I think they specified a depth of something like 18" in balistic gelatin, to ensure the bullets could reach vital organs regardless of the position of the human body. Of course, this can result in overpenetration, and I'm not too up-to-date with recent developments.

[nbk2000]

Piggies like using the most destructive and lethal bullets they can, as they don't have a Geneva Convention obligation to use FMJ, so his leg was probably torn up real good.

Couldn't have happened to a better person, either, than a DEA agent. :D

[Narkar]

I dont understand how this could have happened?

If there magazine is removed, the chamber empty, how can an idiot shoot himself? That would be like shooting yourself with a broomstick?

And even if the chamber was loaded, why did the gun fire when the slide was released? Pistols are designed to be reloaded slide back, then let the slide release and chamber a new round ready to fire.

Even the Tokarev-Tula 33, which has no safety exept half-cock and is about the most basic pistol, shouldnt fire when slide is released. Much more if the chamber is empty and the magazine removed.

Impossible. Probability is the same as surviving a russian roulette with a pistol.
Im sure the news reporters made half the story up.

[nbk2000]

"Nothing is sufficiently idiot proof that a sufficient idiot can't overcome it."

:D

[JoeJablomy]

What if he released the slide with the trigger pulled? I'm no expert on pistol mechanisms and triggers in general, but I suppose that might do it. How he managed to have a round in the gun after clearing it is something of a mystery, unless there was a round stuck in the chamber and the audience member didn't know to say anything. A lot of people approach machines the way I approach art and music: I don't know what I'm talking about so I don't say anything.
Anyway, you're right, I can't think of anyone better suited to make the sacrifice to show us all that the gun safety rules are not overly cautious.
As for thw wound from a .40, I'd expect a nice wide channel, probably a couple inches wide, which would be a huge pain to walk on. He's probably got desk duty for a couple months (he's probably a fucking bureaucrat anyway).
Even with an emphasis on penetration, .40 is supposed to be very effective, some loads are rated higher than .45 loads for self defense. Unless he grazed himself, he's lucky he missed his femoral artery.

[zaibatsu]

I shouldn't think that semi-automatic pistols would fire a round if you held the trigger down while letting the slide snap back, then you'd have a fully automatic pistol...

[nbk2000]

Full auto....only until the disconnector disengaged the firing pin upon the slide retracting after the first shot, thus resulting in a fully automatic single shot pistol. :D

[Child-of-Bodom]

hmmm even in Holland something like this never happened (as far as I know)
The cops here have a Walther P5, bad choice anyway - first there were problems that the gun fired when it was dropped. So they made one or another spring a little bit weaker. Now sometimes they have to pull the trigger twice...
They also can't shoot here, they have to do 4 (!) shooting courses a year...while a sportshooter (like me) have to have 12 courses for 1 gun, + 6 courses for each gun more. 5 guns is the max here.
With a course I mean a visit at the shootingclub, where you have to let sign a 'book' to proof that you've shoot that evening.

I would like to do a shooting contest with a cop...