Ohio gun safety instructor accidentally shoots student

Oh the irony. An Ohio man was shot in the arm. At a gun safety class.

Michael Piemonte was attending a concealed-carry class with his wife Alison in central Ohio's Fairfield County over the weekend. Such classes are required for anyone wanting carry a concealed weapon in the state.

There were 29 students in the lecture-type class, Piemonte said. He was sitting in the front row.

While the instructor was demonstrating a self-defense techniques, the gun went off.

The bullet struck Piemonte in the arm. Even he didn't realize what had happened.

"Everyone was in shock," he told CNN. "It took me a couple of seconds to realize that I had been shot."

Link

So much for him teaching safety. Reminds me of the article about the instructor who removed the magazine from his pistol them shoot himself in the foot. I guess he thought he had an unloaded weapon but didn't check. I assume he wouldn't be doing this with it purposely loaded. Really lucky he only winged the man.

I just noticed this was from August 2013 so it's pretty old. Guess they threw it in because of the BART officer shoots officer incident.

reply to post by roadgravel


I'm glad he didn't kill the individual.

As we used to say while I was in the Army while going for the EIB.

"You are a no-go at this station."

There is going to be a lawsuit over this one.

While the instructor was demonstrating a self-defense techniques, the gun went off.

Ohio required the NRA Basic Pistol course for your permit. Nowhere in that course are you getting anywhere near demonstrating self-defense techniques. Given that I'm fairly confident in saying this instructor is a jackass through and through.

As far as "going off" goes. Guns don't do that. Now if a jackass is doing jackass things said jackass may negligently discharge a firearm.

I don't get this media insistence on repeatedly claiming guns just go off. Imagine guns just randomly firing in cabinets, safes, holsters, etc...

A gun is ALWAYS loaded. Rather that's how your need to handle them.

Who teaches self defense with a real gun? Why cant they use a mock firearm.

They make 'fake' guns that you can use for training. They don't shoot people by accident because they are not a firearm.
You can order them from Cabelas.

Since Ohio mandates this class for anyone wanting a concealed carry permit, maybe they should be made aware of the existence of training guns.

thisguyrighthere

As far as "going off" goes. Guns don't do that. Now if a jackass is doing jackass things said jackass may negligently discharge a firearm.

I don't get this media insistence on repeatedly claiming guns just go off. Imagine guns just randomly firing in cabinets, safes, holsters, etc...

Actually they can, been around enough guns to know that. This is more a problem for older guns with worn internals.

shaneslaughta

Actually they can, been around enough guns to know that. This is more a problem for older guns with worn internals.

That's a catastrophic failure, not a feature.

Brakes can fail, gas stations can explode, roofs can collapse but it's not like a modern firearm with production ammunition is just going to pop off out of the blue.

Sure, if you spend your time around ancient busted arms and old corroded ammunition you increase the chance this will happen from .000000000001% to .000000000005% but statistically speaking guns don't just go off as a matter of course.

I can hear the being of the class, "I am going to show you how to safely handle a firearm."

thisguyrighthere


That's a catastrophic failure, not a feature.

I agree its a failure. Ive done a little gunsmithing, all it takes is removing a thousandth of an inch too much material for the hammer sear to not engage fully.

There are tons of ways that can happen during normal use.

I bet the instructor was using a gun that had seen thousands and thousands of rounds, leading to worn internals that dont engage fully.

It dont have to be ancient. As for corroded ammo, that leads to a failure to fire or cycle properly.

He should not have been using a real gun to demonstrate.
He should have checked the gun fully.

He is clearly not the right person to teach gun safety.

The big thing here is teaching a class on gun safety while muzzle sweeping the class with a loaded firearm. I mean hell I'm just a regular Joe and I still know better. Proper procedure would be to take out the mag and check the breach multiple times. If I ever end up in a class where I didn't see the instructor do this I would walk out and demand my money back. Then I'd be calling the NRA head offices to report the fool. While I feel bad for the guy who got shot...he should have (as well as everyone else in there) said something about pointing a loaded gun in any direction remotely close to the class.

reply to post by RickyD


Winner winner chicken dinner.

RickyD

If I ever end up in a class where I didn't see the instructor do this I would walk out and demand my money back.

The instructor should be showing clear to the class too so you don't have to take his word for it. Even inviting people up to look in and feel for an empty chamber.

thisguyrighthere


The instructor should be showing clear to the class too so you don't have to take his word for it. Even inviting people up to look in and feel for an empty chamber.

I agree with you there.

I guess this goes to show a perfect example of blind faith.

reply to post by roadgravel

Reminds me of the article about the instructor who removed the magazine from his pistol them shoot himself in the foot.

Was it this one...

This reminds me of something that happened in this area quite some time back. The instructor I've gotten tactical shooting training from told us all about it in reference to why we all had to get training on GPS/Med-evac procedures and landing zone layout (he has a very remote facility).

Apparently some cops were having a training session at a kill/shooting house and had been using "Blue" guns or ..colored guns made to feel, weigh and handle exactly like the real thing but be totally harmless. They'd adjourned for the day out in the parking lot and packed all the gear when a question or something had come up and so, a couple decided to go back inside and check out whatever the question had been. The Blue guns were packed ...so...you might guess where this is going ... They really believed they'd unloaded ...but hadn't.

As I recall, 1 fatality and one who may as well have, for having to live with what happened in pure DUMB accident.

reply to post by tsurfer2000h


That guy who should himself in front of a bunch of kids tried to sue over that video because it 'hurt his employment prospects.' I know it is on ATS but I was unable to find the thread.

This so called 'gun safety instructor' deserves to be sued. It never should have happened, regardless if he accidentally pulled the trigger or the gun had a failure, there is no way he should have been doing this with a loaded gun and many can argue that demonstrations like that should never be done with a real gun.

There are screw-ups in every walk of life. Do a Google search on driving instructor fatal and see how many incidents of driving instructors killing their students. Poop happens, sad but true.

reply to post by tsurfer2000h

Yes, that's it. As he said, "this is an unloaded gun" as he shoots himself.

I tend to be guilty of checking a weapon twice to see if it is unloaded rather than forgetting to check it once.