In an effort to remind folks of things that should have been drilled into them long ago, it’s time to once again dust off the Four Rules sign and point at it.
Many years ago, a pair of police officers engaged in a quick-draw contest against each other with “empty” guns. Reminder: Rule Number 1 is All Guns are Always Loaded. It’s never a good idea to quick-draw against people who don’t present an imminent threat of deadly force. And “horseplay” (according to the department in the latest reported shooting) is never okay with firearms.
It appears that people labor under the delusion that this kind of thing hasn’t happened before. That it’s a striker-fired or short/light trigger problem. The first cases like this that I heard of occurred back when a cop’s sidearm was nearly always a revolver with a long, heavy double-action trigger stroke.
The reason for this bit of commentary is the recent release of a video by the Pasadena Police Department. The video depicts an officer standing near a police vehicle in what appears to be in a parking garage. When another officer drives up, he draws a pistol and point it at him in what the local chief later described as non-approved “horseplay.”
He then re-holstered his pistol as a shot was fired from the approaching car, all of which was captured on the cruiser’s dashcam. The story is that the officer in the car drew his pistol — probably engaging in some “horseplay of his own” and it “went off,” hitting the standing officer in the shoulder.
In the olden days, this near-disaster would just have been reported as a gun “going off” and a cop being wounded. The dashcam video is a relatively recent and helpful innovation. The rest is just another day on the job. Characterizing what happened as a joke and horseplay, well, it was neither.
Again, there’s nothing new under the sun and. This recent case was dramatically caught on video, but it’s just one of many. Don’t believe me?
According to a five-second search by an AI search provider, we have these obvious cases –
- Frankel v. Moody: A Philadelphia police officer engaged in mock “quick draw” contests with a store owner; on one visit the officer turned, drew his gun, and it discharged (sic), killing the store owner; the court found the shooting could be within the scope of employment.
- Thompson v. United States: A CETA police trainee practicing his“fast draw” in a Bureau of Indian Affairs police station shot and killed a person. The court held the United States could be liable under FTCA because the trainee was practicing police firearms techniques as part of training.
- A Des Moines officer fired his service weapon inside the Des Moines International Airport “when he drew his gun from his holster to practice ‘his quick draw skills,’ according to a police report.” He “‘unknowingly’ had his finger on the trigger and fired a round from the gun, the report states.”
That’s just some low-hanging fruit. Diving further into the Wayback Machine, we find cases of broken full-length mirrors, a one-sided snowball fight when the “victim” got a firing grip on his sidearm and channeled Rooster Cogburn, cops with swivel holsters and DA revolvers squaring off to see who could register the first click of their “empty” revolver in a locker room…and more.
Does this only happen to cops? Nope. Careless and reckless behavior isn’t restricted to a single occupational group, sex, complexion or political preference. It’s seen everywhere, in all social groups. In March, a Utah man charged with manslaughter after shooting another man in the head “while the two were performing ‘quick draw drills’ with firearms.”
Standby for a surprise…the offender “believed the firearm was unloaded.” I never saw that coming. Darwin Award, anyone?
I included that last one for the anti-cop bleaters out there who are sarcastically yelling that “cops are the only ones who should carry guns because they’re so highly trained.”
Until very recently in our history, cops were the group that handled guns more often than any other social group of any size in the population. The more handling, the more familiarity…that’s good. The more familiarity, the more complacency and contempt…that’s not good.
The Four Rules apply, always and to everyone. Cops included.