Soldier accidentally kills GF while cleaning gun
 

This sad story was on the local news last night. Here are two links (one says the gun was hers, the other says it was his):

Soldier faces possible charges in accidental shooting of girlfriend | KOMO News - Seattle, Washington | Local & Regional

Boyfriend Accused Of Accidentally Shooting Girlfriend In Chehalis - Seattle News Story - KIRO Seattle


What do you think the guy's punishment should be? He is/was in the military yet still broke multiple gun safety rules.

Also if you watch the video clip under the title, it appears the gun is a Walther P22.

Additionally in the first link, the prosecutor says:

"And as he racked it back his hand slipped, the slide fell forward, he caught a bullet through his finger and unfortunately as he was doing this the gun was pointed at Miss Whitson," said Lewis County Prosecutor Mike Golden."

So does this mean when he racked the slide, he had his finger on the trigger? I don't see how the gun could discharge merely by racking the slide.

It couldn't. I'm sitting here with a P22 in my lap right now. They appear to be describing a "slam fire," in which the slide closed and somehow fired the round without the shooter pulling the trigger: unless the disconnector was broken or malfunctioning, a hammer-follow would not have been possible (and in such a case the weapon would have dumped the whole magazine.) If the firing-pin was "gunked" into place or otherwise fixed in the forward position I could see this happening (similar to an open-bolt machinegun), but not otherwise. Additionally, who leaves a magazine in their weapon while cleaning it (the only way for it to have gotten loaded as the article describes)? Furthermore, what kind of moron points a loaded firearm at their girlfriend!? (This kind, I guess.) The only reasonable explanation I can see is the same one that always comes out with these stories eventually: numbnuts either didn't know how to handle his weapon safely to begin with or was fuckin' around (or just plain shot her) and somebody else caught the bullet that shoulda gone into his right foot.

This dipshit shot his girlfriend, either by accident or design. He couldn't keep his booger-hook offa the BANG-switch, she paid for it, and now he's lying to cover it up. Simple. If it was a colossaly idiotic accident, I'm in favour of a Dishonorable Discharge with appropriate humiliation and piss-taking to follow for the next 40yrs. If it was intentional (as such "accidents," esp. with 22s, frequently are), he oughta spend the rest of his life in Leavenworth breaking rocks.

I concur with Heavy D.

I've always been much more interested in guns as mechanical marvels than as extensions of power/tools/self-protection/empty pants compensator/whatever other one owns a gun. To me the engineering of them has always been the most interesting thing. With that in mind, these are two of the most illuminating posts I've read here in a long time, and they made it very easy for me to understand the inner workings of this model despite never even having held one. Thanks!

And the quote above seems pretty obviously true to me now.

Stories like this always amaze me. I was brought up in a household with many, many guns, and had it ingrained at a very early age to always treat a gun as if it was loaded.

Stories like this piss me off. I hate the emphasis on the fact the he was a soldier and veteran. It has nothing to do with the case. Except make him even more criminally negligent because he was trained about weapon safety.

In response to the above comment about punishments, I agree that he should be charged and maxxed for negligent homicide, but dishonorable discharge is unlikely for the charge, because he was most likely an off-duty National Guardsman not on federal orders at the time. I sure as shit hope his unit finds a way around that though, find some way to discharge him for bringing discredit to military service.

Let's see here.. the three most important gun safety rules, the ones you never bend:

ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction
ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot
ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until ready to use

He simultaneously broke ALL THREE. If he'd obeyed even one of them, she might still be alive. Spooked, in the case that he only obeyed #1, but still alive. :(

His NCOs have failed him!

*drops and starts knockin' 'em out*

Col. Cooper used to joke that you could survive breaking one of his four gun-safety rules, but that one's odds of survival regressed logarithmically (or worse) with each additional rule broken. I'd amend the good Col. by adding that one's own odds, along with the odds for all those in the area, so decrease.

There are actually four fundamental firearms safety rules:

He broke all four, which makes me doubt it was an accident.

.....Stupidity does not imply malice.

The guy was an idiot, but I have seen lots of people inadvertently break the rules. I don't doubt he accidentally killed his girlfriend, and he should be charged accordingly. Manslaughter is probably appropriate, though whether he should be given a dishonerable discharge is another issue entirely and needs to be addressed by a military court.

Cleaning weapons seems to be the #1 time people become completely complacent with regards to safety. They get so caught up in what they are going to do, the smell of Hoppes, etc. that they forget to clear their weapon before they begin, or they have an AD. That this guy was so incompetent as to shoot his girlfriend is very dissappointing, but it doesn't look to me like it was intentional.

BTW, most people disagree with your third rule, instead it should read "treat every weapon as though it were loaded"

I'm with dunedan. What kind of dumbass cleans a weapon while it's loaded? It seems like he would have been cleaning the mag anyway. Keep those springs tight boy!

THE GUN IS ALWAYS LOADED
THE GUN IS ALWAYS LOADED
THE GUN IS ALWAYS LOADED
THE GUN IS ALWAYS LOADED
THE GUN IS ALWAYS LOADED

First rule I ever learned with regard to firearms.... first one I drill into my newbs...

Apparently he missed the memo and now someones dead.....:shakehead:

Damn shame it wasn't him, but instead a bystander.......