Ashley Cole Shoots Student

[Jimbuna]

Ashley Cole is at it again it would appear.....what a waste of space.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/fe...elsea-air-rifle

"The Chelsea left-back was reported to have been "larking about" with a .22 calibre air rifle when he fired at student Tom Cowan from just five feet away."

I'm suprised he didn't miss.

[Feuer Frei!]

but Cole claimed he was unaware that the rifle was loaded.

Yea right.

The incident was witnessed by a dozen members of staff,

And didn't do a thing about it, pah!

is reported to have been given a severe dressing down

Yea sure, i bet.

A right royal prat if you ask me.

[Gerald]

A novice with regard to dealing with weapons, and that what he did should be away the rest of his career

[krashkart]

but Cole claimed he was unaware that the rifle was loaded.

I'm not familiar with the air rifle in question, but the pellet rifles I used to play with required that the pellet or BB be manually loaded.

[Weiss Pinguin]

Originally Posted by krashkart

I'm not familiar with the air rifle in question, but the pellet rifles I used to play with required that the pellet or BB be manually loaded.

I'm no expert either, but I think this holds true for all firearms

But seriously, was he going to clear the grounds of squirrels and birds?

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by Weiss Pinguin

... but I think this holds true for all firearms

Quite true. Thankfully he wasn't 'larking about' with a 30-30.

[SgtPotato]

"At least that I'm not the only one who "misfire."

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by SgtPotato

"At least that I'm not the only one who "misfire."

He has stolen my flag on his jacket

[Jimbuna]

but Cole claimed he was unaware that the rifle was loaded.

Rule no1...never point a weapon at anyone whether you believe it to be unloaded or otherwise.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Rule no1...never point a weapon at anyone whether you believe it to be unloaded or otherwise.

Yes,VERY true!

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Rule no1...never point a weapon at anyone whether you believe it to be unloaded or otherwise.

Rule #0: Don't allow dumbasses to handle firearms.

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Rule no1...never point a weapon at anyone whether you believe it to be unloaded or otherwise.

Rule No2...if you have to aim at someone, hit him!

But yes, all this "I didn't know it was loaded" BS is really killing me. First thing to do when taking a gun is to check it's loading status and whether it is in "safe" mode (don't know what you call it in English). It's really not that difficult and you definitely don't fool around with it aiming at people regardless of it's loading status. The other guy probably doesn't know whether that thing is loaded or not and might get a shock when he sees someone aiming a gun at him.

Little anecdote from my army time. During our recruit inspection (the final test to pass recruit training that goes on for a week) our platoon was split up into two groups. One went to the live shooting range and the other had to do some other training with blank rounds. At the end of the day both groups came back together and cleaned their weapons. Since the "blank" group had already removed their blank adapters from their G36s no one could really tell who had been in which group. A not so smart soldier (and that is an understatement ) pointed his gun at another soldiers head while cleaning it and then: Bang!
Thank god it was just a blank but the guy who looked into the muzzle turned pale within one second. It took him some time before he realized that the other guy had not been with him at the live shooting range and he did get more than a little loud towards that idiot.
Well, the entire platoon did some extra push ups after that....

Before someone starts to complain about weapon safety in the Bundeswehr:
After shooting live ammo each weapon gets checked by an non commissioned officer for remaining ammo inside. So it's next to impossible to leave live ammo accidentally in the weapon.
This does not apply for blanks and that's how that guy could "forget" to remove all ammo from his rifle. Again this was of course a violation of the most basic rules of handling firearms as one always has to check and "dummy unload" weapons, whether they are loaded or not, before cleaning them or giving them to someone else.

[STEED]

Originally Posted by Feuer Frei!

A right royal prat if you ask me.

Well put.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Rule no1...never point a weapon at anyone whether you believe it to be unloaded or otherwise.

That's the rule, is it? What if you're trying to shoot them? Well,at least that explains why the British continually find themselves in need of American infantry support.

In all seriousness though, firearms safety is paramount. I understand how easily such seemingly common-sense things can be overlooked. I spent most of my youth in rural North Texas, where there is a culture of firearms and marksmanship. Amongst those who own firearms there is an implicit understanding that anyone with one has been adequately trained in its proper employment. This is a place where even drunk casual hunters are expected to know everything about their weapon, including its current status and whereabouts. Guns are a part of the lifestyle here. Irresponsible handling of firearms is akin to walking into a Baptist Church whose members are your neighbours and publicly declaring yourself to be a satanist; you can do it, but you'll never live it down.

Having been raised in such a culture, I thought I knew more than enough to handle firearms safely. My time in the service showed me otherwise. The first revelation came during my basic training when, after the nightime infiltration course, a particularly observant officer found a round lodged in the firing chamber of a recruit's weapon. We hadn't fired live round in almost two weeks, so it stands to reason that the thing had been in there all that time. Given the extremely strict standards for weapons-clearing and weapons-cleaning that we were expected to adhere to, it should have been impossible for such a thing to occur. That weapon must have been checked two dozen times since the last time it chambered a live round, and yet the round was still there.

At the time, I attributed such misfortune to the sheer incompetence of the recruit and the drill instructors. Such a thing would never happen to me, and it never did, and it never has, but I had another lesson to learn.

My second revelation came during OIF-II when I was performing standard weapons-clearing procedures on my own M-249 SAW. It was a good weapon, if a little old and a lot heavy. Standard-issue CLP (Cleaner Lubricant Preservative) would keep it running if applied and cleaned-out often and not subjected to too much heat from infrequent barrel swaps. I found Remington dry lubricant (which I used on my firearms at home) to be a lot more effective than CLP, which apparently tends to attract fine particles and turn them into a gummy, carbonaceous paste that redifines the term "pain in the ass" when cleaning weapons. With all the time and effort I put into keeping that weapon functional and training with it, I thought I knew everything about it. I was to learn otherwise.

One day, after a standard post-patrol weapons-clearing, I firmly pulled the charging handle to the rear in order to lock the bolt and allow removal of the rounds from the ammo tray. The weapon was safely pointed at the sand bunker intended to absorb any accidentally discharged rounds. I evenheard the "click" sound that supposedly confirms that the bolt is locked. However, the sear pin (the thing that keeps the bolt from slamming into the next round) had been worn down and the bolt shot forward as I was moving my hand towards the release catch for the tray. Luckily, I caught the bolt in mid-traverse through sheer goddamn luck and a little adrenalin. It took me a second to realize that the weapon's barrel, carried downward by the momentum of the spring uncoiling, was pointed directly at my foot.

I was lucky enough that the damn thing didn't go off while I was bouncing around in the truck I was driving. Having automatic weapons go off uncontrollably in a semi-armored boxed-in cab is very bad, but shooting oneself in the foot is sheer idiocy no matter what the circumstances.

The moral of the story is that no matter how well you may think you know your weapon, there will always be circumstances that you could not anticipate, so it pays to be extra-cautious when deciding where you intend to point a firearm.

edit- It seems Schroeder has beaten me to the very point I was trying to make, and also included other anecdotal evidence to boot.