We welcome the Lincoln, Nebraska Scheels outdoor superstore to the club of locations where low-skill gun owners accidentally shoot themselves. A 21-year-old Nebraska man decided to close out July by purchasing a handgun. Well, good for him. He’s an American adult. However, the story only begins there.
After purchasing a 9mm pistol from the store, a 21-year-old man returned to the parking lot with his girlfriend, got into a vehicle and proceeded to load the gun, asking the woman to film him. Because nothing in life has really happened unless you’ve posted it on social media.
He was reportedly “demonstrating how to rack the pistol when it was accidentally discharged, according to (the) police.”
As folks tend to do when they are fiddling with guns inside vehicles, the shooter muzzled his own leg and, in this case, sent a 9mm bullet through his femoral artery. According to news stories, there was “a lot of blood” in and around the vehicle (duh). Fortunately for the man, first-responders had a tourniquet and the training to use it. The victim was transported to a local hospital where he underwent surgery and is listed as critical but stable at press time.
Addressing public concerns . . .
Law enforcement officials reminded the public to treat every firearm as if it is loaded, avoid unholstering weapons in public parking areas, and strictly follow firearm safety procedures when handling newly acquired equipment.”
You don’t say.
Where to Begin?
Naturally, as the only victim of this negligent discharge was the man himself, the act wasn’t malicious, and he didn’t die, news media coverage will very likely be a one-and-done. We aren’t likely to get much more information than what’s been reported to this point.
All the old-timey gun guys in the audience have already spouted Cooper’s Four Universal Safety Rules aloud, leaving those around us wondering what we’re talking about. Commenters on socialist media have already chimed in about how this incident proves that there should be mandatory testing required to buy a gun or that no one should be allowed to buy one without a government permit issued only after a state-approved training class.
One guy used the “we make people get driver’s licenses, why not gun licenses?” Of course, the genius who made that statement apparently believes that all of the vehicle crashes that occur in the United States every day involve non-licensed drivers. Driver’s licenses prevent wrecks, right?
The Rules Alone Can’t Save Us
Some readers might be thinking that the man who shot himself had obviously never been introduced to the four rules, to which I would argue that we don’t know that. Also, the rules alone can’t save us.
It wasn’t that long ago that our friend, Rich Grassi, in our sister publication, the Tactical Wire, had to address a negligent shooting of one cop by another in Pasadena, California. Rich addressed numerous incidents where trained law enforcement officers had negligently fired their weapons into other people and objects.
Are we to believe that those cops weren’t trained and had never heard of the four universal firearms safety rules? That was rhetorical. Every cop carrying a gun on duty has passed a state-mandated training program and has been briefed on the rules. And yet, despite that, the rules alone didn’t prevent stupidity, recklessness and negligence.
The Rules vs Social Media
None of the news stories have identified the self-shooter, so we’ll just call him “Jim.” Was Jim having “Suzie” record him on her phone so the two of them could sit around at home reliving the moment? There’s about a 99.5% chance that the plan was to post Jim’s “expert gun-handling” video on the Gram for all the random strangers who follow him (for some reason) to see. After all, that’s what the gun influencers do every day, right?
You won’t have to look very long or hard to find videos of wanna-be gunfluencers sitting in their cars and trucks whipping out their #EDC and showing the gun off for their followers. We’ve lost track of the times that they’ve shown the muzzle of the gun passing over both of their thighs. We and other responsible trainers have railed against that for years, only to be dismissed as dumb Fudds.
While “Jim” is absolutely to blame for his own negligence, he was almost surely aided and abetted by the numerous influencers in the social media gun space who video themselves needlessly fiddling with guns in their car and trucks. After all, what else is a 21-year-old in 2026 to believe? The gun influencers with thousands of followers pull out guns in cars and fiddle with them, so why wouldn’t Jim do the same?
Folks, the near-psychotic level of narcissism spawned and fed by social media has reached pandemic proportions. Let’s not forget that it isn’t just random influencers who act recklessly and negligently. There are those in the gun and accessory business who have posted these same kinds of negligent videos on their companies’ official social accounts, thereby endorsing the behavior.
In their effort to reach an audience, the social media managers of these companies rarely pause to consider if the gun-handling behavior they’re displaying is negligent and potentially dangerous. The goal is more clicks, likes, and follows, safe gun handling be damned.
How can the dry old universal firearms safety rules that the Fudds are always going on about compete with the instant dopamine hits from watching the latest #EDC video from your favorite gunfluencer? The sad reality is that the rules can’t keep up with the negligent and reckless influence of the internet.
Keep your tourniquets and trauma kits handy.
Paul G. Markel is a combat decorated United States Marine veteran. He is also the founder of Student of the Gun University and has been teaching Small Arms & Tactics to military personnel, police officers, and citizens for over three decades.