This happened locally to me on Saturday. I don't know the family, but I know people who do.

Father accidentally shoots son

"PORT CHARLOTTE -- A father who was cleaning a firearm accidentally shot and killed his son on Sept. 30, the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office reports.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, John Edwin Jordan, 54, was cleaning a Glock 21 .45-caliber handgun in a home in the 400 block of Dorchester Street at about 3:50 p.m. after returning from a local gun range.

The firearm discharged and struck Joshua Alan Jordan, 22, who was in the entry area of the home. Family members performed CPR on him until emergency responders arrived.

Jordan was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Detectives have determined the shooting to be an accident."


Weird coincidence, but at almost the exact time this happened I was talking with a Sheriff's Deputy about firearms safety, disassembly, and how my new Walther PPQ 45 requires you to pull the trigger to disassemble it. He said Glocks are the same way and I commented you really have to make sure it's unloaded before you take them apart.

It seems people have stopped talking about firearms on a social level and kids aren't learning about firearms safety. Based on a limited sample at the local range, there seems to be quite a few new gun owners that haven't grown up with the rules and even some older ones that have become complacent. My dad is a classic example, he drilled into my head and my brother's to treat every firearm as if it were loaded, yet now he waves them around amd sweeps everyone in sight. He says it's ok because it isn't loaded.

I don't know what happened in the case above. I can speculate fairly easily that the father pulled the trigger as a part of the dissasembly process without clearing the chamber.

Treat every gun as if it were loaded.
Don't point the muzzle at anything you are not willing to destroy.

How do we start that conversation with every gun owner new or experienced and keep talking about it to reinforce it in their and our minds?

What a terrible story. Can you imagine what that family is going through now? And what that Dad is feeling?

You can just never forget the basic rules of gun safety. They are so simple, yet so often ignored.

Tragic.

You can't fix stupid. And, although I am NOT referring to this case in particular, not all accidents are.

Oh it's out. We have the rules.

He broke at least two.

Complacency is the real killer.

quote:

He said Glocks are the same way and I commented you really have to make sure it's unloaded before you take them apart.

That's true of every firearm. Really, really, really.

The man was 54 years old.

Lot of fellow pilots here, many have probably seen this hanging in a flight school or FBO. Same applies to guns I would say.

quote:

Oh it's out. We have the rules

What good does that do when they don't bother seeking them out.

Many of the new members I see coming into my club have little to no experience in the handling and use of a firearm. Some mistakes are glaring. Last week one twit let a round go from a 40 S&W into the forearm of his friend's AR15.

quote:

According to the Sheriff’s Office, John Edwin Jordan, 54, was cleaning a Glock 21 .45-caliber handgun in a home in the 400 block of Dorchester Street at about 3:50 p.m. after returning from a local gun range.

Who doesn't remove the mag and clear the chamber before leaving the booth or station at the local gun range?

This is why I stopped cleaning my guns. It's way too dangerous

'cleaning their guns'

Tragic but could've been avoided had some basic discipline and processes but adhered to.

There's been a couple of times that I thought that I had unloaded a pistol but I hadn't and it scared the crap out of me. Things happen no matter how careful we are but the number one rule is don't ever, under any circumstance, point a gun at any living thing that you don't intend to shoot. I just don't understand how or why this guy pointed his gun anywhere near another person and pulled the trigger.

I don't believe there are many accidents. Especially the ones where people are injured, I think are caused by people playing stupid games with guns.
.

quote:

Originally posted by sigspecops:
I just don't understand how or why this guy pointed his gun anywhere near another person and pulled the trigger.

Because he was looking down at his gun as he was disassembling it and didn't realize that his son was staring down the muzzle. Most likely his son was standing directly to his right or left, and he may have not even known that he was in the room or walked in the line of fire.

This is beyond tragic though. I can't imagine the kind of pain going through that family right now.

quote:

Originally posted by Puckpilot78:


Lot of fellow pilots here, many have probably seen this hanging in a flight school or FBO. Same applies to guns I would say.

In our local flying club there is a motto hanging over the door as you walk out of the FBO - it reads 'Remember, blue up and brown down'.

tac

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

quote:

According to the Sheriff’s Office, John Edwin Jordan, 54, was cleaning a Glock 21 .45-caliber handgun in a home in the 400 block of Dorchester Street at about 3:50 p.m. after returning from a local gun range.

Who doesn't remove the mag and clear the chamber before leaving the booth or station at the local gun range?

Here in yUK the RCO clears the empty gun off the firing point before you can move anywhere.

On a range, NOBODY is allowed to shoot by themselves.

tac

The message is out. Short of applying driver's license rules to gun ownership - which nobody wants - that's the best you're going to get. And if traffic fatalities are any indication, it's not like that would solve the problem anyway.

All you can do is try and be a good steward of the sport and go from there.

quote:

Originally posted by Rob Decker:
The message is out. Short of applying driver's license rules to gun ownership - which nobody wants - that's the best you're going to get. And if traffic fatalities are any indication, it's not like that would solve the problem anyway.

All you can do is try and be a good steward of the sport and go from there.

In California, you have to take a Safe Handling Test before you can walk out the door of the dealer with a firearm. It tests you on loading, unloading, and checking if a firearm is loaded (snap caps of course).

Say what you will about Kali gun laws, but after watching some people struggle though it, I have no problem with it.

The rules of handling fire arms should be mandatory to graduate from middle school.

quote:

Originally posted by Stlhead:
The rules of handling fire arms should be mandatory to graduate from middle school.

The leftist argument for teaching sex ed in schools is how ineffective "abstinence" education is. Yet they have no problem abstaining from proper gun safety education.

Not trying to open a can of worms on sex education in schools. How that subject is managed is between a parent and a child (if they want to opt out, for example). There is no morality factor in learning safe gun handling anymore than one would find in Drivers Ed.