As God is our witness, there are some people whose only reason to be on this earth must be to serve as an example — a bad example — for the rest of us.
Take Michael Deel. We don’t care where you take him, but please take his sidearm away from him first. You see, according to reporter Duncan Adams of the Roanoke Times, on Saturday Mr Deel somehow touched off a .45 cartridge, and put the bullet through his hand. (Sorry about the wrong extremity in the picture, but it does illustrate the general idea). Hands being somewhat thin by nature, and .45 slugs tending to move at about 950 feet per second until they encounter resistance, the bullet kept on motoring through the hand and into the next object: Mrs Michelle Deel, the shooter’s wife.
The Roanoke couple got to share the experience of an ambulance ride and ER visit, and their injuries were fortunately not life-threatening.
A count of exactly how many gun-safety rules were violated in this little enterprise defies precise calculation, but that’s not what makes us say. “Lord love a duck.”
Nope. It’s where the accident happened: in a gun safety class. We are not making this up. You couldn’t make this up.
Instructor Thomas Starke was out of the room when he heard the shot, so he doesn’t really know what happened, either, except in the macro sense (“Dude had a negligent discharge”).
As many an Army instructor has said over the years. “Son, you are a no-go at this station.” That applies to Mr Starke as well as Mr Deel. Sign them both up for retrain and retest.
On the plus side, after an experience like this, Mr Deel will probably not make such a gross error ever again. But ideally, the reason you attend class is to try to learn from the other guy’s experience rather than suffer the stress and pain that comes from learning from your own.
Kevin was a former Special Forces weapons man (MOS 18B, before the 18 series, 11B with Skill Qualification Indicator of S). His focus was on weapons: their history, effects and employment. He started WeaponsMan.com in 2011 and operated it until he passed away in 2017. His work is being preserved here at the request of his family.
1 thought on “Lord Love a Duck… another gun safety “bad example””
When I was an M.P. in Germany in the 70’s; we had a death occur due to horseplay with the (then)issued .45 pistol. Orders came down from on high to have mandatory classes on the proper way to do “Inspection Arms” with the .45.
The first class in our area, a Staff Sergeant with long years of service was giving the class. He managed to do it very wrong. He chambered a round,and promptly sent it through the ceiling into the office above where fortunately it didn’t hit anyone.