TRAGEDY HAS TRAGIC ENDING

by Bob Walsh

The four year old boy who was allegedly accidentally shot while play-wrestling with his father on a bed a few days ago has died.

Assuming the story being reported is accurate the father had the weapon in the back of his waistband (holster ?) and it fell out, hit the floor and discharged one round, striking both the father and the son in the head.

As I pointed out in an earlier comment this is not quite impossible. Modern firearms are specifically designed to NOT fire when dropped. It would be an odd accident where a gun could fall onto a hard enough surface (presumably the floor) in just such a way as to fire and that one bullet could manage to hit two people who were on the bed both in the head, killing one.

The local constabulary is debating whether or not to file charges in the death.

Nationwide about 1% of firearms deaths are considered to be accidental or otherwise preventable. In 2017 there were 486 such deaths nationwide.

None of the few articles I have seen on this have offered any reason why this should have been something other than an accident other than the seeming improbability of the chain of occurrences that would have have to happened to make it come about.

FURTHER INFO ON FIREARMS DEATH

The weapon involved in the death of Tripp Shaw, 4, in Monroe County, Indiana was a Glock semi-automatic pistol which was being carried without a holster in the waistband of the father's pants. The Glock pistol is a modern design that is specifically intended to be drop safe. Assuming the weapon was properly assembled at the factory, was properly maintained and was not diddled with afterwards, it will NOT fire when dropped. The firing pin (striker) can not contact the primer on the cartridge unless the trigger is pulled and held back. It is difficult to see how this could happen if the gun were dropped.

The Monroe County S. O. is sending the weapon out for an extensive forensic examination to determine if there was in fact some flaw in the weapon.