A good friend of mine recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq and told me that he was surprised at the fact one of the biggest occupational hazards over there was training Iraqi troops. He said he was always on his guard because he didn’t want to get accidentally shot by one of them.

Fair enough. I wonder what my friend would say about the instructor who recently shot himself in Ohio, though:

A police academy instructor accidentally shot himself Friday night, April 9, during a gun demonstration in front of police recruits. Robert J. Stewart, 55, was demonstrating the use of a 9mm Smith & Wesson semiautomatic pistol at about 7:51 p.m. at the firing range when he shot himself in the upper right thigh in front of 24 recruits and several instructors at Butler Tech’s Public Safety Education Center …

I mean, come on. We’ve talked about people shooting themselves on this site before, but this is a guy whose job is to demonstrate how firearms are used by professionals.

How embarrassing is this, though? It’d be like if a lifeguard forgot how to swim or if a tightrope walker suddenly lost their balance.

“He seems to be in good spirits, but he’s just a little embarrassed. People ask how these things happen, but this goes to show you that if you get complacent or get in a hurry accidents can happen,” a colleague said.

Does this guy think I’m dumb? Of course I know accidents can happen when you’re not careful. “People” want to HOW it happened? Why was he pointing the gun at himself?

OK, I’m done.

[Source: The Oxford Press]

Related Posts

1. 
   
   Ohio Police Officer Hit by Passing Motorist
2. 
   
   Bus Driver Fired For Helping Police Officers
3. 
   
   Police Smash In Window To Save Baby Doll

---