Do Your Part to Prevent Gun Accidents

We read a lot of gun news. There are always accidents. We don’t like to hear about them but when you’re dealing with something like a gun, if there is an accident chances are it is going to be serious. We just read about two accidents that we want to call attention to.

In one, a newspaper columnist in Maine named M.D. Harmon died after a shooting accident. Harmon was known for being a long-tome conservative who defended conservative views across the board, including gun rights, at every step of the way. Harmon was at his home showing a 16-year-old boy a handgun when the gun accidentally discharged. We don’t know who the boy is or why they were looking at the gun together, but it’s a total tragedy. He was 71 years old, married, with three children and two stepchildren. The type of gun and what connection the teen had to Harmon were not disclosed by police.

In December, a 24-year-old woman named Sarah Bonner, who lived in South Carolina, was shot in the eye at a gun range. She was on life support for a few days and she too has died. She was shot at Skip-J Range in Anderson, South Carolina, while other range members were target practicing at the time, police said. The bullet became lodged in her brain. The owner of the gun range said this was the first accident in their 24-year-existence and that the range takes their safety protocols seriously. The news report doesn’t detail what happened to prompt the shooting.

What happened in each case? Someone ignored some basic safety protocol. If you’re accidentally shot, you might not have a second chance. That teenage boy and whoever accidentally shot Sarah Bonner will have to live with that for the rest of their lives. No one wants to put anyone through that due to an accident.

What are we saying? Never take any safety consideration for granted. If you hand your gun to someone else to look at, unload it and check multiple times that it is unloaded. If it is loaded, make sure you’re handing it to someone who knows how to handle a gun. Tell them, “Keep the barrel pointed away from you at all times. The gun is loaded. Keep your finger off the trigger.” Say this even if you know the person has been handling guns before. Obviously, something went wrong in these two cases and it can happen to you too.