The Gun Counter

Around the Water Cooler
By Rich Grassi

Notable Rule 2 (and likely Rule 3) Violation: According to a report in ananova.com, a 27 year old "would-be gangster" put a gun in his pocket and went to impress his pals in Saarbruecken Germany. The story said that our hero "had forgotten to put the safety catch on" the pistol (which goes unidentified, but they have a photo of a M92 Beretta) when he holstered it in his trouser pocket.

It goes unrecorded if his finger was faster than his draw, but the gun went off as guns will, putting an additional hole in his male identity. He told the police that a mugger shot him in a bungled robbery. Or in his "crutch," the story says. Anyway, examination of the trousers showed no bullet hole except for the hole from his pocket.

Medical professionals stitched his, uh, personality back together so he could face a three-year stretch on a German gun control violation.

It seems the trigger control violation was not punishment enough . . .

It Happens to Us Too: When we went to holsters that covered the trigger guard, we had to learn that Rule 3 (Keep your finger off the trigger until the sights are on the target) was there for a reason. Observe the following photo:

That is the upper leg of a shooter. The story was that the shooter attempted to holster while his finger was on the trigger. The gun operated as it was designed. The injury is from a .40 Auto round. You can see it appears to have dug in at the top (left) and tracked down and forward. When one gets in a hurry to reholster, this can happen. We deliberately and reluctantly reholster. More on what to do when the shooting seems to be over follows in this installment of Skill Set.