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Amy said she didn't think her friend's gun was loaded. While passing the gun, it fell from her friend's hands, landed on a bed, and fired. Emily was hit by the bullet in the back of her head.

austin wrote:

02transam wrote: have you been in the military? like ever? because i am and any and every time we goto the range bolts are locked and cleared, while on the range the bolts are locked to the rear and no actions are taken until the tower says so. when we leave the range we clear all weapons, and then get rodded off the range. unless youve been in the military in the last 10 years please keep comments like these to your selves. training and education of what we do as soldiers has come along way.

I was.

I doubt the mechanic spent much time with the SA type pistols described in the article or went through a formal class.

The manual of arms is to drop the mag, eject the round, lock the slide to the rear, visually inspect the chamber, inspect the chamber with a finger, release the slide, then decock the pistol in a safe direction using the decocker or by pulling the trigger. This is spelled out in the Army FM as well as is what is taught at schools in .mil and outside.

The peacetime military ( and this is most of the military outside of the sandbox ) has very poor gun handling procedures. The cold range and procedures you describe above is an excellent example of where process and authority supplant individual skill. In Tier 1 units and in some other units, soldiers are responsible for their weapons and any ND is an Article 15 offense or worse including up to dismissal from service. This creates an environment of extremely high self-discipline. In non-line units, due to the way ranges and drills are conducted, soldiers are extremely lax with their weapons and this creates the mental lack of discipline displayed in the tragic incident above.

The military should go to hot ranges and treat all weapons as hot regardless of the location.

I think the man should be charged with manslaughter.