It’s reported that an AR-15 type rifle discharged when it was “bumped” or “jarred” while stored in a law enforcement vehicle rack.

https://www.kwqc.com/2025/10/0...rge-mcarthur-school/

So beware: If you own an AR and a SIG P320, you are doomed; DOOMED, I tell you.

The officer is a dumb ass


"Hammer added that the weapon was stored and locked within the vehicle. Investigation revealed the weapon was stored with a loaded magazine, a round in the chamber, and the safety lever in the “Fire” position.

“It is important to note the weapon rack holds the firearms receiver and has a cylinder that goes through the trigger guard, past the trigger. The manufacturer recommends the weapon be stored unloaded and on ‘safe,’” Hammer noted."

100% on the officer who stored it loaded, off safe, and with an object inserted in the trigger guard.

Of course it's going to fire when the rifle is moved/bumped and the lock presses the trigger.

There's a reason why their policy required then to be stored "cruiser ready".

That dumbass is going to get days off, at a bare minimum, and may get fired.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

...That dumbass is going to get days off, at a bare minimum, and may get fired.

Firing will open up some promotion opportunities!
The dumbass was "McDonough County Chief Deputy Adam Cremer."

I’ll give the reporter credit for accurately calling it and not blaming the evil black rifle, “McDonough County deputy negligently discharges gun at school”.

quote:

"cruiser ready"

?

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

"cruiser ready"

?

Full mag, EMPTY chamber, BOLT FORWARD, on safe. If you want to be all fancy, you can require the dust cover closed.

I’m in the middle of annual inspections right now, so I am a bit salty about getting handed patrol rifles in anything other that the correct condition (we pull them from the cars so we can see how they are being carried)

Bill R

I’ve been told that cruiser ready with an AR is bolt forward and hammer down, which means safety off and cannot be flipped to safe, which tells you by a quick press off the safety lever that it’s in such a condition. It’s how I keep my AR’s for that reason - there’s no questioning whether there’s a round in the chamber because there’s no need to look.

My agency's policy is the selector on SAFE in the cruiser ready condition so the lever doesn't have to be flipped when a round is chambered.

I guess maybe some agencies may store the rifle in hammer down. But most ARs won’t go to the safe position on the selector with the hammer down.

In my opinion, there’s not a circumstance that I want to see a police AR with the selector not on safe. All in all, most cops aren’t shooters nor gun people. Most will touch the firearm only when forced to. There is not a reason to have the rifle off safe unless they are intentionally discharging it.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
In my opinion, there’s not a circumstance that I want to see a police AR with the selector not on safe. All in all, most cops aren’t shooters nor gun people. Most will touch the firearm only when forced to. There is not a reason to have the rifle off safe unless they are intentionally discharging it.

Agreed.

Empty chamber, full magazine, and weapon on safe.

It's the safest option for the "lowest common denominator", while still being able to quickly deploy the rifle into a ready state by simply by racking the charging handle (with the safety still on), and then all the officer has to do if they need to fire is sight picture-safety-trigger squeeze.

Yeah, makes sense.

The article shows the vehicle mount in question. It seems like a poor design to have a portion of the mount pass through the trigger guard. You could say the mount puts a finger on the trigger.

Quote from the article -

“It is important to note the weapon rack holds the firearms receiver and has a cylinder that goes through the trigger guard, past the trigger. The manufacturer recommends the weapon be stored unloaded and on ‘safe,’”

Thanks for mention of the photo of the mount.
For some reason I don't recall seeing that when I first saw the article.

So—strange as it seems—getting on the trigger and pulling it even indirectly might just cause the gun to function as designed. Now I wonder if the same discovery can be applied to certain handguns.

Our long gun mounts are like a big handcuff. it goes around the foregrip area. nothing goes near the trigger. but our carry method for the car is chamber empty but charging handle cycled so it can be put on safe. then magazine inserted.