“Gun-loving” M.D. Harmon accidentally shot
We get the sad news that M.D. Harmon, a conservative writer for the Portland Press Herald was killed by a negligent discharge of one of his handguns by a 16-year-old. Raw Story seems pleased by the news, probably because they consider it some sort of karma because he supported “gun rights”;
The Press Herald reports the news as if the gun had a life of it’s own – the “Gun discharges”…”when it went off as the boy handled it”;
Someone pulled the trigger, that’s the only way the process for expelling a bullet from the barrel of a gun begins. Someone was negligent and careless. I’ve never been shot because I don’t hand loaded firearms to other people regardless of their age or experience, maybe that’s just me.
The police haven’t begun their investigation yet, but I’m pretty sure they’ll find that the gun didn’t take on a life of it’s own and turned on it’s owner.
Category: Guns
Sad and tragic. Best regards to his family. No idea how it happened but some young man will live with this act of stupidity for the rest of his life.
How about if he was accidentally run over while letting his kid practice driving?
Well,
At least Forrest knew how to handle a weapon…
Take a lesson:
Clear the weapon before transferring it to another person . Stand facing in the -same- direction. Point the cleared weapon at a reasonable boom catcher. Transfer to other’s control. At the first sign of “dumb”, grasp it and regain control.
This works.
^^^^ +1T^10 ^^^^
I’m sorry Mr. Harmon had a lapse in safety procedures that allowed the 16-year-old to make a mistake, a lapse that cost both of them.
Unless one is training a new shooter, there are few good reasons for handing someone a loaded firearm. Even then all other safety procedures must be followed.
Before my son’s first gun was loaded, he learned all of that and more. I had him turn every which way from Sunday to practice keeping the business end down range at all times. Stance, proper footing, and misfires were all taught before he touched a loaded weapon. Hell, when he was a little guy, I broke one of his TOY guns for pointing it at someone when they weren’t playing war. There are no accidents. There is only negligence.
Bingo
The other lesson is no matter what, treat a weapon as if loaded.
Amen. And that goes for all weapons, from edged weapons to artillery.
YES.
We always locked the slide back, safety on and magazine taken completely out.
“Safety, magazine, chamber, safety.” Point to each and ensure it is empty, then have the person taking the sidearm do the same before holstering the weapon.
First sign of stupid, you take her back.
Shame this kid will live with this for a long, long time.
Clear the weapon. Show the person the empty chamber and say the word “CLEAR”.
The person receiving the weapon then clears the weapon again, shows the other person the empty chamber and repeats the word “CLEAR”.
Basic training. Ft Dix.
Sorry to repeat what others are basically saying but it needs to be repeated over and over again in as many ways as needed.
Too true. And, sadly, some meathead still won’t get it.
Method B, works “hot” or “clear”.
Place the weapon on bench/table/etc, pointing at boom catcher.
Step back, and gesture for the other to step up.
Observe as other person handles weapon, pointing at boom catcher.
Intervene if “dumb” arises.
Kinda hard to get shot by someone if you are behind them. It can be done, however, so pay attention.
Muzzle and trigger awareness, because then it doesn’t matter if its loaded or not.
I was raised by my grandparents and taught gun saftey by my grandfather. If he handed you a weapon, it was “locked, cocked, and ready to rock”. Odds were good the saftey was off too, mainly because he felt an unloaded gun was less than useful than a baseball bat.
Granted his saftey course contained beatings, tackling, and a steady stream of profanity at the slightest infraction, but to this day I bloody well dont point any weapon at anything I’m not willing to destroy.
Pain is the best teacher. Those lessons you never forget. Ever.
And the newest comments on the article are reading like something I would see over at Dumbass Underground.
I really don’t know how you were able to find someone willing to go and actually sort through the drivel at DU for us on a weekly basis.
Did you mean the Democrat Underground Message Board? We really should use the full acronym “DUMB” for that site.
And let’s not forget that it’s chock full of Trump Acceptance Resistance Disorder Operatives (TARDOs).
Now that’s FUNNY!!
:):):):)
It’s tragic Mr. Harmon lost his life over something that could have been easily prevented.
Aside from that, the folks at Raw Story are probably the same sort of people who believe the earth is lingering in the tail of a comet, and as a result of that exposure, guns and other inanimate objects have come to life and kill everyone around them.
A gun is always loaded…
That is the first thing my Dad taught me about firearms, and it is something that I will carry to my grave. I have never had a negligent discharge and I will never pass a weapon on to someone unless I check to see that it is unloaded, slide back or uncocked, the wheel out and the safety on. And never, put your finger on the trigger unless you are going to shoot and kill someone or something…
Sad story, but can’t put more of an emphasis on Clearing the Weapon before handing it off. How many out there have seen discharges in the clearing barrels – more than a few, I’ll bet. I had a young soldier fire his M9 between myself and another NCO while cleaning it. Was not a good day for him. There is a reason that DA went from Accidental to Negligent discharges.
I can argue that the -clearing- is more likely to generate the ND than the handoff.
In my experience (30+ years), almost all NDs occur while loading or clearing, or in immediate proximity to same. Every observed ND occurred while the whoops-er was manipulating the weapon with some energy, not passively holding it. (Load, clear, draw, holster, and the boom-bait “clearing malfunction”.)
Another point: an unwanted boom should be a no-call if it occurs within the parameters of the designated boom-catcher. (Clearing barrel, backstop witching appropriate impact zone of same).
Sooner or later, every single one of us -will- have an unexpected noise event. If the person with the event did so during a designated boom-catch then I say -they did their job properly-.
Otherwise, we encourage furtive weapon manipulations where Sarge wont see a mistake, but PVT Schmudlapp might catch the stray round. Also, we develop -fear- of weapons as potential careeer killers, which is exactly the -wrong- message for war fighters.
Handle a firearm long enough, and you -will- have an unwanted noise event. Guaranteed, certain.
I have a blown up 10mm case on my bookshelf. The primer was crushed by a misfeed round behind it, where the rim was resting on a soft primer, and the slide tap-rack-boomed over the jam.
Flush a careeer over that? I think not.
Personally, I’ve never had a negligent discharge. But then again, anytime I’m in the same room as a weapon, the possibility of a negligent discharge, active prevention of same, and minimizing the possibility of injury in the event of catastrophic fuckup in spite of preventative efforts all occupy a significant portion of my conscious and subconscious faculties.
The thing to always keep in mind is that mechanical problems do occur,and become very likely over long periods of time.
A high primer can get crushed by the breechface. BANG
Clearing the jam on the clock at a match and the one in one hundred thousand intersection of primer and ejector can.. BANG
The buddy’s highly custom master-blaster with the badly worn sear/hammer engagement can finally.. BANG
The relic Garand with cosmoline-frozen firing pinBLABLABLABLABLABLABLABLAM…..PINGgggnnnn!
(I witnessed this one from right beside the guy with badly browned boxers. Epic)
.
You get the picture. Handle enough of them, fire enough rounds, and the odds become pretty high that … well…
Old 30-30 that requires the hammer to be manually lowered to 1/2 cock to be “safe” after racking a round.
One thumb-slip and the deer knew I was out there. Although the negligent round did go into dirt 5′ in front of me.
The only negligent discharge I can remember – but a reminder that “safe” is a relative term.
Indeed. I never, ever consider myself immune to ND. If the gun has a safety, I use it. I never rely on it, though.
When my wife bought her first pistol I also bought a box of dummy rounds. She became smart on every aspect short of shooting before a live round ever saw that pistol….
“Snap Caps” is one maker of such a round. On their centerfire rounds, the primer is a tiny brass plunger backed by a spring, not only useful for training but also for practicing trigger squeeze as well as checking a firearm out after a good field stripping and cleaning. Instead of a clicking noise you hear the firing pin hit the center.
A tragedy on both counts. One needs to simply remember where “down range” is. That– or the goddamned cleaning rod that would strike the steel pot of the first idiot who swung his loaded or uncleared weapon around toward the tower.
Yep, I’m old.
Rule NUMBER ONE with firearms, NEVER ASSUME it’s unloaded, ALWAYS CHECK.
All of this sage advice probably explains why none of us has negligently shot ourselves. Figured that one out on my own, in case you’re wondering.
See. I knew you CAV guys were kinda smart.
Allons!
Sadly, Mr. Harmon died. If he’d survived the mishap as a WOUND, M.D. could have helped others see the follies of free-flowing guns with no safety lessons required. As the 2nd A. goes…”A WELL REGULATED…! A retired federal judge affirmed my strong knowledge that “A well regulated militia…” takes precedence over what we all come AFTER the beginning phrase. NOONE IS COMING TO TAKE MY GUNS. The gun lobby needs to be accurate, know what it would take to alter an Amendment, and realize it’s almost impossible !
Learn, people !! Too late for Mr. Harmon and the involved families, but…not too late for you and YOUR family. LEARN and cut the emotional outbursts related to ANY rational passage of responsible gun regulations. Oh, yes: Won’t the Hearing Protection Act being proposed be interesting when SUPPRESSORS can be purchased and freely sold by…”law-abiding citizens!” Thanks, again, NRA ! Your FREEDOM, but not everyone elses.
hmm supressors purchased and freely sold… you mean like they were until the firearms act of 1938? yeah, a little more education on your partwould go along way. while you’re at it, you might want to read other writings of our founders related to the 2nd Amendment, and gun ownership in general. I’m sure it’d be much more instructional than the retired federal judge you cite (most likely appointed by a liberal…)
the above sounds exactly the same as the drivel coming from a friend who claims to be a conservative, yet supports “commin sense” provisions like universal registration, semi-auto bans, no-fly/no- buy lists, and confiscation from mentally unfit folks eho, among other things, may have voted for Trump. With what little respect due, E.B, get stuffed.
Cripes. Talk about a tiny bit of knowledge being a dangerous thing. It’s not worth my time and effort to attempt to make sense of that mess for EBola Smith. She wouldn’t pay attention anyway. Clearly, she didn’t pay attention in writing classes over the years. What a mess.
“A retired federal judge affirmed my strong knowledge….” Thanks for the laughs, EBola.
Wow. Coming to a military blog and preaching gun control. Play in the street much E.B.?
In my opinion Mr. Harmon was partially responsible for his own death. As you appear to be much more knowledgeable than us as far as weapon safety goes, I’ll let you figure out his mistakes. I will not however, let selfish, self-centered zealots like you take the weapons of law abiding citizens because of the actions of a few idiots. That would be akin to shutting down the First Amendment because of people like you….
35-caliber karma.
.35 caliber pistol? Where did you dig that up from?
A few years back, I was in the break room at work, and the television had a live feed of the George Zimmerman trial. The prosecutor was discussing the trigger pull of the weapon used in the event, as he held it in his hands. He then handed the weapon to the witness testifying, may have been the coroner. Neither one cleared the weapon while handling it, nor when passing it back to each other. And both of them were pretty reckless they way they handled the firearm. I cringed when he just casually passed it to her.
“Well regulated militia”: Leave this part out and you are rewriting the constitution to say what you want it to say, not what it actually says. I knew Mike Harmon and he was a decent and good man. His views on 2d-Amendment libertarianism were, in my view, foolish, and he knew this, but we still liked each other and I am sorry to see his life end so ignominiously. He deserved to live longer and to die in bed. Alas, firearms do not respect cosmic justice; they are inanimate and soulless. (I’ve been shot at myself so have at least some personal acquaintance with this epistemological problem.) It’s what we do with them that counts, which includes knowing how to use them in such a way as to avoid accidental discharge. That Mike should have such a lapse utterly amazes me, but the alternative is to suppose it was a deliberate assault by the boy handling the gun, and that seems so unlikely as to be dismissed out of hand.