The Toll of Gun Negligence [View all]

[mikeb302000]

Local news reports

Donnie Mills, 28, told police he was attempting to unload a semi-automatic pistol when he inadvertently fired it and shot himself in the hand. The bullet passed through Mills’ hand and struck his friend, 25-year-old Andrew Morgan, in the leg.

Daniel Wagnon, an investigator with the Grimes County Sheriff Office, said he has no reason to doubt Mills’ and Morgan’s explanations for the incident, and that it’s not uncommon for a weapon handler to unintentionally fire a semi-automatic weapon.

“You’ve got your magazine for ammunition as well as the cartridge in the barrel,” Wagnon said. “There still can be a round in the chamber that can fire — you have to check.”

Wagnon said that to his knowledge Mills did not have a license to carry a concealed weapon, but did not need one because he was on private property.

No charges have been filed and authorities aren’t pursuing any, Wagnon said.

Just your typical story about gun stupidity. Every single day there are several of these in the national news. Whenever I try to say it's a problem, the gun-rights folks point out that there are 100 million gun owners and only 600 of them die each year from accidents. They say this as if it makes it OK.

Well here's an interesting statistic from that same article.

According to the University of Utah, 600 people in the United States were killed in accidental deaths from firearms in 2010. Each year, approximately 200,000 people sustain non-fatal injuries from firearms, the university reported.

Did you catch that number of wounded people each year? Most of them went to the emergency room, in many cases by ambulance, cops were called out. Afterwards they missed work, in some cases permanently.

From an old New York Times article, the costs have probably gone up, the average cost of a gunshot-wound visit to the emergency room was about $50,000. That makes $10 billion a year just for the "accidents."

What's your opinion? Is it about time to take this more seriously.

Please leave a comment.
Cross posted at Mikeb302000