Weer'd World

Because cops are too highly trained to be negligent with their issue guns!

State police are inspecting a lieutenant’s service weapon that fired accidentally during a training session in Augusta on Wednesday morning.

Col. Robert Williams, chief of the state police, said Lt. Shawn Currie was adjusting his holster when the gun went off during a computer training class. Nobody was injured.

“It doesn’t seem right now, from the people in the room … there was any misconduct. He wasn’t playing with the gun,” said Williams.

“He had an ache or a pain. … He put his hand on his weapon to push it away from his body,” Williams said. “It was in his holster. The trigger wasn’t exposed.”

The incident was reported and the gun was taken for analysis by the department’s armory, Williams said.

The department will run a series of tests trying to re-create the conditions of the discharge to determine whether there is a problem with the weapon….Williams said that, based on his understanding of the incident, it is unlikely Currie that will be disciplined.

Currie’s weapon is a newer-model .45-caliber H&K. It has an extra safety mechanism, not found on older models, that is designed to prevent accidental discharges, Williams said. The firing pin can make contact with the primer of a cartridge only if the trigger is pulled.

“We don’t know of any other instances where this has happened,” Williams said.

Sounds like an HK45, unknown if it is the unit with the decocking safety or the DAO model. Still even if he had this gun in his holster with the hammer back and the safety OFF the gun could discharge without him pulling the trigger, or jamming the gun into a clear holster. Either he pulled the trigger, or SOMETHING, like a shirt tail or a finger was INSIDE the holster when he pressed the gun down.

Then there’s this crap:

Gun malfunctions that lead to accidental firings are exceptionally rare. However, Portland police became involved in a dispute over the Remington 700, which allegedly had numerous unintentional discharges.

In a training exercise in 2010, a rifle fired without anyone touching the trigger and the incident was videotaped by an officer on a cellphone.

In response, Portland’s special reaction team stopped using the model.

For those not familiar with the hysteria, Jeff over at gunblast wrote a great article on the Remington 700 and the alleged cases where the gun accidentally discharged.

The take away paragraph from that article is this:

Now, let’s discuss trigger adjustment. I can take almost any bolt action rifle ever produced and adjust the trigger down to a very light let-off. That is wonderful on the target range, but is safe ONLY under such highly-controlled conditions. Such a trigger, improperly adjusted, will release if the bolt is slammed shut, or if the butt of the weapon is banged upon a hard surface. When young and careless, I once had a rimfire bolt action rifle for metallic silhouette shooting which had the proverbial “hair trigger”. It was dangerous, and the bolt was never eased shut on a cartridge until the rifle was on target. Had someone unfamiliar with that particular rifle handled it carelessly, the result could have been catastrophic. Remington adjusts the 700 trigger at the factory, and then seals the adjustment screws to prevent tampering. Still, many folks do tinker with the triggers, and in the wrong hands, subject the weapon to a likely negligent discharge. Note the word used was “negligent” and not “accidental”. There is a difference. Again, any trigger mechanism made can be mal-adjusted into an unsafe condition, but the responsibility of the shooter is still, as always, to keep that muzzle pointed in a safe direction.

Did the Portland PD modify their guns beyond factory specs for their marksmen? That’s the only legitimate reason why this would happen, otherwise a finger was on the trigger when the bolt was closed, which is a safety no-no.

Hey, but always blame the tool!