seamusTX wrote:I was hoping that this incident would fade away quietly, but now it is worldwide news, once again illustrating that Americans are morons with guns.
At a shooting range in Lakeland, Florida (Tampa area) Saturday, someone discharged a handgun multiple times, injuring three people. An Irish tourist required surgery and is currently listed in stable condition (stable is not the same as good).
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,559904,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
There is no excuse for this kind of thing. The right to keep and bear arms stands side-by-side with the obligation to have two working brain cells. Forrest Gump could do it.
- Jim
This article has more information.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafe ... le/1041591" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
9mm malfunctions at Lakeland gun range, shoots three people
By Chandra Broadwater, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Monday, October 5, 2009
TAMPA — Michael Thourot had just pulled his hand away from the warm metal when it started spewing bullets.
Moments before, Sherri Thourot had watched her husband fire and reload the Jennings 9mm. Then he set it down for her to shoot next at the range.
That's when the handgun started firing on its own, she said, spinning around in circles, landing the Thourots and an Irish tourist in the hospital.
"Nothing like that has ever happened," said Sherri Thourot on Sunday evening from her room at Lakeland Regional Medical Center.
"We've been around guns all our lives."
It was about 10:30 a.m. Saturday when Sherri Thourot, 46, watched her husband, 47, set the gun down. The couple had decided to try out their new gun at the Saddle Creek Shooting Range in Lakeland.
They like the Polk County-owned range. It's strict and safe, the way the Thourots say they like to use their guns.
But as soon as Michael Thourot took his hand off the gun, it started firing like it was possessed, his wife said.
"I saw that he'd been hit, but I couldn't tell how bad," Sherri Thourot said. "Then I realized I had been hit. My hand was bent forward and I couldn't move my arm."
A bullet tore through the back of her right arm and exited from her biceps. Her husband had been shot in the left hand. Another man, a 29-year-old tourist visiting a friend, was hit in the shoulder and throat as he stood behind a shooting stall next to the Thourots.
All three were taken to the Lakeland hospital, where Michael Thourot and the tourist, Gary Flynn, underwent surgery.
Flynn was listed in stable condition at the hospital, while Michael Thourot was released Sunday. His wife said doctors put pins in his hand to help heal shattered bone.
She expected to leave the hospital today.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office said the gun may have been altered, leading to the malfunction. Detectives expect to know more when they take the gun apart and inspect it as they continue to investigate.
Sherri Thourot said her son, 29-year-old Jeremy, brought the 9mm back to the United States after one of his tours in Iraq with the Navy. He gave it to them this summer.
The couple cleaned the gun and made sure it was in good condition before taking it to the range, she said. They never expected to leave in an ambulance.
Before he left the hospital, her husband stopped in to see her.
"He's very shaken up over it," she said. "He's traumatized that anything like this happened to his wife."
But the freak accident won't keep her away from guns.
"I can't allow something like this to cause me to be afraid of something I've done all my life."
You should read the horror stories on that url I posted above. It's a wonder they are still being allowed to make such junk. 