[Meckmeister]

Posted: Friday, Nov. 30, 2012
COLUMBIA A Columbia man died in a what appears to be a tragic shooting range accident.

Jerry Marsh III, 62, was shot in the chest when his 40-caliber Glock semi-automatic handgun accidentally discharged at a West Columbia gun range Thursday evening, Lexington County Coroner Harry Harman said.

Marsh was dismantling the weapon at Shooter's Choice around 7 p.m. when it fired. He was taken to Palmetto Health Richland but died from the injury.

The incident remains under investigation by the West Columbia Police Department.

It has been more than a decade since someone died at the range, the police department said. One shooting was an accident similar to Thursday's. The only other death was a suicide.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/11/30/3697597/sc-man-dies-in-shooting-range.html#storylink=cpy

Connected to Microsoft Exchange

 

[cranbiz]

Those damn Glocks are sooo sensitive. You even look at another gun and they go off.

Way to go, lets dismantle a firearm (loaded or not) with the barrel pointed at you.

 

[Chdamn]

shot in the chest when his 40-caliber Glock semi-automatic handgun accidentally discharged/QUOTE]

This wording always pisses me off. Sorry he's dead but he did something stupid and it was "negligently" discharged.

Marsh was dismantling the weapon /QUOTE]
Dumbass

The incident remains under investigation by the West Columbia Police Department.

Well good luck with that crack team of investigators.

 

[joeface]

That's why I always lock my Glocks in the safe, found one sneaking up on me once and I know it was getting ready to shoot me.

 

[Chdamn]

That's why I always lock my Glocks in the safe, found one sneaking up on me once and I know it was getting ready to shoot me.

Hahahaha. That really made me laugh.

 

[Sp00ks]

All the jokes are pretty funny. Still sad though. Proves that one ID-10-T moment is all it takes. I would love to see how he managed to do this.

 

[Gtownwrench]

All the jokes are pretty funny. Still sad though. Proves that one ID-10-T moment is all it takes. I would love to see how he managed to do this.

I would say a failed attempt at offing himself at first. then the goal was reached before they could "save" him.

 

[Matt.Cross]

Good ol' reliable Glocks, too bad he wasn't up against an iffy 1911. [/sarcasm]

 

[Meckmeister]

Another reason I avoid the local indoor ranges on late Fridays, Sat's, Sun's. I stopped going then when more and more uninformed folks were watching orientation videos and increasingly longer lines. And watching those new shooters handle the rental guns is scary in itself.

I usually go on Friday mornings, my day off when there are at most 5-6 competent - I THINK - shooters on the firing line.

 

[jb2sea]

Condolences to the family.

 

[SlayerNut]

I'm surprised they didn't say he was cleaning it.

 

[stickman61]

Condolences to the family.

+1, I'm sure they'll appreciate all the laughter and name calling though.

 

[OsageCombatives]

I would love to see how he managed to do this.

I'll venture a guess based upon a little deduction. If indeed he was shot in the chest as indicated in the article it has to do with the poor method in which many, many people unload their semi-auto handguns.

We know that you SHOULD point your weapon in a safe direction. However, I've seen lots of folks hold their pistol in a shooting grip with their weapon hand. Based upon ease, they actually turn the barrel inwards towards their body a bit and reach over the top of the slide to get a firm grip on the slide. Instead of pulling the slide to the rear, they are pushing it to the rear with their overhand grip. Unwittingly, when they do so the force/counterforce torques the barrel even more towards themselves. If the trigger is pulled at this moment, a new hole will be routed through the chest.

If you combine this method with the fact that you must pull the trigger before disassembling a Glock it makes it even more plausible. They simply ready themselves to push the slide off (rather than pull it off with the weapon pointed in a safe direction) with the same overhand method with the weapon canted towards them, but they must first pull the trigger.

Hard to explain in a thread but it's actually a very common, yet obviousy wrong, method of unloading/disassembling any pistol.

 

[11B CIB]

Shooter's Choice is the indoor range I used to use before Palmetto State's indoor range and another small one nearby were built. Haven't shot there in over a year...this range seems to attract a crowd I don't mesh with. Which is sad, because I bought my gun safe there and quite a lot of guns. I was there when some Secret Service agents were doing some training in Shooter's Choice's classroom (normally used for CCW classes) and an agent snapped off a .357 SIG round. It bounced off the cinder block walls with about 5 people in the room until it buried itself into the wooden podium.

When I first heard about this over dinner, I said "I bet he shot himself with a Glock." Sure enough...
/Wouldn't trade my Glock 19 for anything. I just don't point it at myself and pull the trigger.

 

[snal]

+1, I'm sure they'll appreciate all the laughter and name calling though.

Agreed. We all make mistakes, including stupid ones. This one is was firearms related, so all of "US" gun guys that are perfect, and have never made a mistake of any kind that could have ended our lives or someone else's are immune and free to judge.
I don't think so.

 

[tanstaafl72555]

While I have real sympathy for the family and have real empathy for the person who shot himself, this does not erase the fact that the guy was an IDIOT. Guns are just not something you screw around with and he did, and now he is dead. Is it a tragedy? Yes. Is it a STUPID tragedy? Yes.

How about "DON'T POINT THE ***** GUN AT YOURSELF AND YOU WON'T SHOOT YOURSELF"

Doh.

 

[SCshooter57]

I'll venture a guess based upon a little deduction. If indeed he was shot in the chest as indicated in the article it has to do with the poor method in which many, many people unload their semi-auto handguns.

We know that you SHOULD point your weapon in a safe direction. However, I've seen lots of folks hold their pistol in a shooting grip with their weapon hand. Based upon ease, they actually turn the barrel inwards towards their body a bit and reach over the top of the slide to get a firm grip on the slide. Instead of pulling the slide to the rear, they are pushing it to the rear with their overhand grip. Unwittingly, when they do so the force/counterforce torques the barrel even more towards themselves. If the trigger is pulled at this moment, a new hole will be routed through the chest.

If you combine this method with the fact that you must pull the trigger before disassembling a Glock it makes it even more plausible. They simply ready themselves to push the slide off (rather than pull it off with the weapon pointed in a safe direction) with the same overhand method with the weapon canted towards them, but they must first pull the trigger.

Hard to explain in a thread but it's actually a very common, yet obviousy wrong, method of unloading/disassembling any pistol.

Wow. Having never owned a glock, I didn't know that about them. Add one more reason to why I don't own one.

 

[soreshoulder]

Its a tragic situation where someone lost their life. As this is a public forum I'm going to clean up some of the commentary. No offense to anyone intended.

 

[Joe]

I'd like to give the guy the benefit of the doubt.

Insurance polices don't pay off on suicides.

 

[georgel]

A 62 yr. old man is dead. He may have been someone's son, maybe a father, brother, husband. Likely someone weeps. He was a fellow shooter. Maybe he was someone in need of instruction that many of us would have been glad to help. And yet we throw out ridicule and accusation based on an article in the media without knowing the man or having been there. Cast ye the first stones those of you that have never done anything fatally stupid and were just fortunate enough to live through it. Negligent or accidental, he's now dead and you're not.

To borrow from Unforgiven...

Funny thing about killing a man. You take away everything he's ever had and everything he's ever going to have.