Man accidentally shot and killed in gun shop

It's the oversight aspect..... every shooting includes Police shootings.
If the GJ indites, he still has a trial.

We had a shooting in a Taqueria.
The first 3 rounds were good..... looked self defense
It was the shot the shooter put in the bad guy, who was laying on the floor incapacitated as the shooter walked out and left.

He turned himself in a few days later...really had no choice, it was all on video....even the truck he left in.

He was no billed about a year later.
It's my understanding that in TX every shooting, no matter how obviously justified, goes before a grand jury because it's still legally a homocide.
 
It's the oversight aspect..... every shooting includes Police shootings.
If the GJ indites, he still has a trial.

We had a shooting in a Taqueria.
The first 3 rounds were good..... looked self defense
It was the shot the shooter put in the bad guy, who was laying on the floor incapacitated as the shooter walked out and left.

He turned himself in a few days later...really had no choice, it was all on video....even the truck he left in.

He was no billed about a year later.
GJ is a farce. It indites 99% of the time. Then the prosecutor can say "he was indited" and it means something and the media plays it up. More leverage for a plea.

Its detrimental at this point. Its a rubber stamp that only benefits one side. its not oversight because only one side gets to submit anything. I sincerely doubt its current implementation is what our founders had in mind.

Would be better off to just put the motion before a judge, let the judge decide if it has merit.
 
It's my understanding that in TX every shooting, no matter how obviously justified, goes before a grand jury because it's still legally a homocide.
I don't think so... but I can't think of one that didn't just off the top of my head.
Could be wrong.
 
Would be better off to just put the motion before a judge, let the judge decide if it has merit.
Same issue, elected official.
I get what you are saying. Going to the GJ can end up breaking people financially.
Really bad in cases where it should be obvious there was no intent.

"Under Texas criminal law, defendants have the right to have all felony criminal cases presented to a grand jury to determine if a felony criminal case may be formally charged. A Texas grand jury does not determine a defendant’s guilt or innocence. It only determines if sufficient evidence exists to move forward with a formal criminal case and trial of a specific defendant for a specific crime. People who are the subject of grand jury proceedings have the right to have the attorney of their choice represent them throughout the grand jury process."
 
It's my understanding that in TX every shooting, no matter how obviously justified, goes before a grand jury because it's still legally a homocide.
Now that I've thought more about it.
If I remember right, the Taqueria shooting was one the DA wasn't going to the GJ with.
Public pressure pushed them into doing it.
That was the reason it took a year to get no billed.
 
I’ve never been present when someone has had an unintended discharge, but I know it has happened at gun shows I’ve attended. I’m not sure what you can do to prevent being a victim of this except perhaps to be ultra-vigilant about watching where other people point their muzzles.

It goes without saying this wouldn’t have ended in tragedy had the gun been pointed in a safe direction.
I believe the proper procedure is to never point a gun at anyone you don't intend to kill.
 
I believe the proper procedure is to never point a gun at anyone you don't intend to kill.
When I was active duty air force they regularly train hand to hand and disarming someone with live weapons that are unloaded. The excuse I got was they didn't have money to buy realistic fake solid plastic ones used by martial arts people.
One time in Afghanistan I got a tent all to my self, for weeks, it was great, then one day it filled up with security forces, which are air force cops. After their chief left they all immediately pull out their guns and started cleaning them, nothing too scary. Well after about 20 minutes of cleaning, the cleaning started turning into start playing with them.... Ever have a nightmare while you're awake, that's what it's like.
Another good one I got to go to a navy range to qualify once because of extreme lead contamination abthe air force range. So the answer was to go to the navy range. Got to the navy range and it was completely shot up. Dozens of holes in the ceiling, chunks blown out of the concrete floor, the shooting lane dividers were just plywood, they had bullet holes in them, the walls down range were all shot up, were taking people missing their targets by like 10 to 90 degrees.
There were even several holes in the front wall of the range, you know approximately 180 degrees away from the targets are. How did people that incompetent with a gun ever make it to any duty station?
You think that maybe someone went crazy and shot up the range, yeah maybe but not unless they had a rifle and pistol, were able to reload both several times and moved all over the range and firing at least a handful rounds up at the ceiling from every shooting lane. Made me very nervous around navy people with guns. The navy probably shouldn't be allowed to have anything smaller than crew serviced guns. If they need a guy with a rifle or pistol for some reason, get a marine.
 
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It's kind of a strange setup to me...the gunshop thing. To me, the gunshop sales person clears the firearm (mag out, checked, etc.). Hands it to a customer. The customer if they want to actually look at it has to almost unnaturally handle it without covering something/someone they don't intend to shoot (rule 3) at some point (including the sales person from my experience - got pointed at that way at the gun range last week unintentially by an older guy working there) in the sales area. I suppose ground always works/is easiest vs. ceiling (I mean, do you know what's on top of that ceiling? Someone could be working....you don't know unless you actually check....if you are the second floor with people in a business under you floor doesn't work either...). I was suprised the salespersons don't give that direction ("please clear it, don't aim anyplace but the XYZ, thank you. Oh you don't know how? No worries, let me show/help you") so it is clearly understood as they may be dealing with any Tom/Harry/Sally that walks in and may have no knowledge of gun safety or procedures in a gun store b/c that isn't a prereq to look at handle guns at the shop - should it be? Should a 5 min safety briefing be required to touch any of the firearms when entering the shop...much like it is for many types of businesses for visitors so they are aware of the hazards? There isn't anything that is required to touch or purchase guns here in VA except passing a background check.

My opinion? The shop/salesperson will eat it on this for handing a loaded firearm to someone - I know the place I have been has a big sign that loaded firearms are not allowed in the store which should include the ones in the show cases etc. The guy that pulled the trigger clearly should have checked it but in court, it would likely be shown that it was reasonable for him to assume it was unloaded in this sales/shop environment dumb or not (and this is again...my opinion) and no safety training was given. The gun range has a safety briefing and a waiver form you fill out - maybe gun shops need the same. Sad situation for everyone invovled.
 
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There are people who have no business handling firearms. Just as there are people who shouldn't handle chainsaws, work with electricity, or climb ladders. Or even drive a car for that matter.

But they do anyway. The biggest problem with firearms and cars is they usually involve someone else getting hurt, or killed.
 
I’m not sure what you can do to prevent being a victim of this except perhaps to be ultra-vigilant about watching where other people point their muzzles.
One evening I was a guest at a 'show and tell' for the local military reserve. One of the other guests picked up a pistol and was waving it around but generally pointing in my direction wherever I moved. Made me very uncomfortable.

In my opinion the officer in charge should have stepped in and taken the pistol away from him, or given him a 30 second course on gun safety.
 
One evening I was a guest at a 'show and tell' for the local military reserve. One of the other guests picked up a pistol and was waving it around but generally pointing in my direction wherever I moved. Made me very uncomfortable.

In my opinion the officer in charge should have stepped in and taken the pistol away from him, or given him a 30 second course on gun safety.
It brings this to mind..... "And see, this is an unloaded gun".

 
I was a licensed dealer for many years. In all that time, I encountered two firearms that were shipped to me that were loaded when they were unboxed. One was a bolt action rifle and the other was a revolver. Luckily, LUCKILY, I always followed good handling procedures. The scary thing is, the revolver had one round in the cylinder and to the best of my knowledge, it was not under the hammer or next to it, so it was unlikely it would have gone off without some fool pulling the trigger aimlessly. The rifle, on the other hand, HAD to be cocked all the time during shipping. It makes me sick to my stomach to imagine there was a UPS driver, totally unaware of this time bomb, that could have gone off in a truck, warehouse or other place full of people. I know how those boxes get handled, and it ain't gently. When I pulled it out of the box, I instinctively pulled the bolt back and a round flew across the room. Color me shocked beyond belief. Needless to say, I NEVER opened another package without that on my mind and there were several serious conversations with people who worked for me. I also contacted the sender and we had a rather tense conversation, tense indeed!
 
The gun is always loaded, point the gun in a safe direction don't let the muzzle cover anything you do not want to destroy , keep your finger off the trigger until on target bla, bla ,bla, very simple but effective safety rules.
 
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I had a co worker point a Glock 17 at my head inside a car about 35 years ago, "just messing around" he said. I slapped it away and he said "aww, it's unloaded". He pointed out the window while driving, pulled the trigger and BOOM! The bullet shattered a huge plate glass window of an office building. I never shared a ride with that guy again!
 
I had an MRI done on my shoulder last week. I started asking a few questions about the strong magnet those things have. And the guy running it told me a story about some guy in Brazil that carried a gun in his waistband, and walked into the MRI room.

The magnet supposedly sucked the gun from his waistband, and it discharged, killing him. I looked up the story, and sure enough it was true.

 
if the gunshop employee gave a loaded gun to a customer, and that gun went off, he is responsible. when ever i taught family and freinds gun handling, i always told them that even if you see the person show you its unloaded, always check it again reguardless, lots of folks 6 feet under that last words they heard was " its unloaded" .
 
Its like that car that rolled in to the shop.. with gun hole in the floor.
"customer states he was checking to see if his pistol was loaded"

Stupid, avoidable, and terrible. :(
 
I had a co worker point a Glock 17 at my head inside a car about 35 years ago, "just messing around" he said. I slapped it away and he said "aww, it's unloaded". He pointed out the window while driving, pulled the trigger and BOOM! The bullet shattered a huge plate glass window of an office building. I never shared a ride with that guy again!
Something similar happened with our son and his "friend" many years ago.. the friend was playing around with a loaded .357, pointing it his buds with the hammer back and thumbing it down. He did it once and our son told him to stop (pointed it at his head), then he did it again and our son put his hands up and moved his head aside and just then the gun went off.. the bullet went through the webbing between his thumb and index finger. He ended up at the local hospital, then got transferred out of town. When we got word, all we were told is that he had been shot.. I'm sure that you can imagine how fun that was. I'll spare you the details, but suffice to say that even though it "only" hit the webbing, there was a significant mess.

Ultimately, he shielded his stupid loser friend from the law, so there was nothing we could do. Thankfully he moved on with his life and out of town a while later and away from that moron.
 
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