After we got rid of one employee for threatening to "go home and get my gun and teach all of you MF'ers a lesson" (yes, it got better than having everyones name on a bullet... oh, the police never bothered to show up), this happened:
An employee, on Sunday, loaded a 12 gauge shotgun with a 20 gauge round.
While attempting to clear the firearm, he shot himself in the head.
After the shot, he was able to talk and walked into his brothers room to ask for help.
I don't know how long he will be visiting intensive care but he is alive, the round was birdshot and he shot himself under his chin. The lower jawbone is stout.
I really do feel bad for him and hope he gets better, it's a life altering incident.
Seriously.
I don't know any specifics other than that, and that nobody thinks he was trying to kill himself. According to his family he was in good spirits and enjoying the day with everyone. There wasn't any indication it was intentional.
In order to load a firearm, you generally have to have the knowledge of both loading AND unloading. There is usually a general knowledge of firearms safety (little things like don't look down the barrel).
With my pea brain, I'm thinking maybe he was saved by not having enough compression in the chamber, causing some of the force to dissipate before it went down the barrel. A firing pin doesn't know the difference in shell size but running it around my head causes me to get dizzy.
I'm thinking he was very, VERY lucky.
ReplyDeleteAgreed
DeleteI'm trying to visualize how he managed to do this, but that being said, RP is correct. He was very lucky
ReplyDeleteI thought about trying to reenact the moment, but thought better of it and just let my brain do laps around the idea.
DeleteI got out several of my shotguns. With the single shot, break in the middle gun this is not possible. With a pump, I can see how , if a person were very unlucky, they could cause the 20 gauge round to fire in a 12 guage, but it would be tough. This still begs the question of how the guy could have pointed the gun under his chin during all these machinations. I would say he is either a very stupid individual, or he was trying to kill himself despite assurances to the contrary. People never cease to amaze me .
ReplyDeleteWhen I started here in 1997 we had about 45 employees, and now we have 165.
DeleteIt's like cheating with never ending blog post ideas.
Maybe it was stuck in the chamber, and he was shaking it the shotgun. The shaking caused the shell to slip out and land on the firing pin while he was holding it by the barrel.....
I know, I know.
Kismet. A man's fate is written on his forehead at birth.
ReplyDelete