I've been a member at the Genesee Conservation League here for years. Saturday morning there was an accidental discharge at the indoor range resulting in the death of a range officer.

It was a monthly USPSA match. From what I have heard the RO told the shooter to make ready, shooter went to holster the firearm, missed the holster, handgun dropped to the floor. Gun discharged, round hit the RO in heart and lung, he died instantly. Participant was an experienced shooter and is understandably devastated. Sheriff's office is investigating, all ranges closed until Thursday.

Gun was a CZ 75B. Unknown if it was modified in any way.

Please pray for all involved.

These are always inter sting to follow as an RSO. Please post real details as you have them.

Very sad.

May God be with him, his family and everyone involved.

Crap. Prayers for all involved...

Prayers sent. Horrible

Rough day for all involved. My condolences.

Damn, a painful reminder that handling firearms requires all your attention.
Sorry to hear of this.

So sorry to hear. Prayers for all.

My guess is the gun was modified to have a hair trigger. Most I shot USPSA with did.

^^^^^^^^^^^
Yep. My guess as well. Sad to see.

I'm really sorry to hear this. I am praying for his family, the man whose gun killed him and for those who witnessed this horrific event.



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Sad, freak accident. One of the very few cases where you can call a discharge an actually accident...and probably not negligence. Like the 0.01% time.

Sad. That sort of thing changes everything for everybody involved.

So sad but preventable.

I teach people to look at their holster prior to holstering and that there is no race to the holster. There is a lot of resistance to the idea of looking at the holster while holstering. The Tactical Teds scoff at it because you “take your eyes off the threat”. Guess what? If it’s still a threat, I’m not holstering. The hoser crowd scoff because they are too “trained” and should be able to holster without looking.

Virtually all range incidents occur while holstering. And most all are preventable.

quote:

Gun was a CZ 75B. Unknown if it was modified in any way.

Sad day for all involved. There must be some modification or mistake involved. The standard 75b has both a firing pin block and a disconnector to prevent any discharge without the trigger being pulled. Either the FPB was removed (common in competition guns) or perhaps someone grabbed for a falling gun.

Sorry to hear this too.
I have a CZ75B set up for IDPA with the firing pin block removed.....might reconsider.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
So sad but preventable.

I teach people to look at their holster prior to holstering and that there is no race to the holster. There is a lot of resistance to the idea of looking at the holster while holstering. The Tactical Teds scoff at it because you “take your eyes off the threat”. Guess what? If it’s still a threat, I’m not holstering. The hoser crowd scoff because they are too “trained” and should be able to holster without looking.

Virtually all range incidents occur while holstering. And most all are preventable.

I would not argue. I thought about it as reading your post, and what little formal training I've had was mostly as you describe. I believe my initial shoot house training from Pete Peterson (RIP) was probably the only instructor I can remember who taught to not take your eyes off the threat. I think that was 2000 time frame.

Since we have had number of threads about holster related unintentional discharges, I have been much more cautious about holstering up.

My condolences to the RO's friends and family

quote:

Originally posted by heavyd:
My guess is the gun was modified to have a hair trigger. Most I shot USPSA with did.

Depending upon what you mean by "hair trigger," ISTM that should be disallowed as unsafe.

quote:

Originally posted by ace73:
Sorry to hear this too.
I have a CZ75B set up for IDPA with the firing pin block removed.....might reconsider.

Why in God's name would you do that? Would you carry a firearm as a SD pistol that way?

Isn't the point of USPSA, IDPA, and IPSC to be competition that roughly mimics real life defensive pistol use?

So sad.
Coming out and going in the holster is the most dangerous time in shooting pistols.
I was scolded for "muzzeling my finger" when I used my hand to tip my holster out from my leg side just in case ...

It’s always interesting to see how different reports of incidents like this are received. “Gun was dropped and it went off.” How many times have we heard that excuse and had it met with skepticism? Does it matter in this case that the gun belonged to an experienced competitor?
This is a first report. What will the witnesses say?