Traveling can be hectic. Doing it around the holidays…even more so. Add in flying with a firearm and, well, that can be more than some people are prepared to adequately deal with. Take, for instance, Florida Woman™ Briana Hannah. As she approached the United Airlines counter at the Cincinnati airport before Christmas, she decided that would be a good time to move her NAA mini revolver from her purse to the suitcase she wanted to check.
That’s when things went sideways.
See, there are a lot of rules around flying with a gun. First and foremost, it needs to be unloaded. It also needs to be locked in a hard-sided case. The ammo needs to be locked, too, although it can be in the same case as the gun. There’s more to it, but you get the idea.
Anyway, when Ms. Hanna went to move the gun to the bag she was going to check — something she really should have done before she got to the airport — she touched off a negligent discharge. The gun didn’t “go off,” she didn’t “have an accident,” she caused a negligent discharge. Right there at the ticket counter.
From News Channel 8 . . .
Hannah told police “she was unfamiliar with the firearm and was unsure how to make it safe,” according to the citation. She had said her husband bought her the gun and loaded it for her, and she had only fired it once since owning it around Christmas last year.
Thankfully, no one was injured by the 22 WMR round. But as those of us who own an NAA revolver can tell you, it’s not easy to touch off a round accidentally. They’re single action guns. You have to cock them before firing.
That negligent discharge is going to be very expensive for Hannah and could cost her her gun rights.
Hannah was charged with first-degree wanton endangerment. Kentucky online court records show an arraignment scheduled for Jan. 23.
Guns aren’t magic talismans. You can’t just throw one in your purse and expect it to save you from bad actors. It helps considerably to actually know how it works and how to use it most effectively.
The reality is that, with more than 100 million firearm owners in the U.S., accidents like this are statistically very rare. The great majority of gun owners are incredibly responsible and safe with their firearms. As a cohort, they’re not only among the most law-abiding citizens in the country, they also take the responsibility of owning and carrying one seriously. That’s why incidents like this make news. Be careful out there, mkay?
“But as those of us who own an NAA revolver can tell you, it’s not easy to touch off a round accidentally. They’re single action guns. You have to cock them before firing.
Well…
I’ve owned two over the years, and am EDCing one right now in my neck holster.
They absolutely can discharge without cocking the gun if they are dropped with the hammer resting on the rim of a live round, or if the hammer gets briskly ‘whacked’. NAA has a set of ‘notches’ in between each cylinder to rest the hammer to make the gun drop-safe, but it takes a bit of practice to do properly, and she admits she has little to no practice time with the gun.
The NAA is an amazing ‘piece of kit’, as the Brits are wont to say, without that training, you get a result as she found out.
Sucks to be her, at least no one was wounded or killed, hopefully others may learn from her ‘Cock-Up’, as other Brits are ‘wont to say’… 😉
True. The hammer has to be “parked” between rounds while carrying it, something I’m sure she doesn’t know and was probably never told.
I have made a point when I sold a used one at a pawn and gun I worked at to educate the buyer of the potential danger.
I know at least two people down here who own them, and didn’t know about the ‘notch’, until I educated them.
I fear the majority of owners out there are like those folks… 🙁
Her husband must be ‘special’ too for fostering this situation.
It’s not deliberate malice, it’s simple ignorance that can kill someone.
Did the gun store that sold that gun make a point to educate the owner on the danger?
salesman didn’t know either.