NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST
One day while watching ESPN, I saw a story about an NFL wide receiver who accidentally shot himself in the leg. I wondered how anyone in their right mind could put a bullet in their own leg. I never would have imagined that one day I’d find myself in a similar situation. But there I was, riding in the back of an ambulance en route to the hospital with a severe, self-inflicted gunshot wound to my left thigh.
A few years ago, I took my two daughters to my aunt’s house in Florida so she could watch them while I attended the Aviation Safety Officer and Warrant Officer Advanced courses at Fort Novosel, Alabama. The drive from Baltimore, Maryland, to Florida wasn’t bad, and I arrived in Tampa about 4 p.m. Once there, I began to prepare for the six-hour drive to Alabama later that night. I would eat a good dinner and take a nap so I had sufficient rest before I got behind the wheel. Little did I know that I had already set myself up for failure before even leaving Baltimore.
When I’m home in Maryland, I keep a .45-caliber 1911 automatic Colt pistol in my vehicle. I’ve owned the pistol for many years, and I’m licensed to carry it in several states. I’ve also trained on a variety of other weapons, from the 30 mm cannon used on the AH-64D Apache Longbow to a .22-caliber rifle, so no big deal, right? The pistol was still in the car when I rolled into Florida.
I awoke, as planned, at 11:30 p.m., loaded the car and prepared to leave for Fort Novosel. I decided to put my pistol away since I was no longer in Baltimore. While sitting in my car, I removed the weapon from between the driver’s seat and center console. I placed my thumb on the hammer and proceeded to ride it forward when, suddenly, I sent a .45-caliber hollow-point into my thigh!
I’d put my weapon in a non-firing configuration like that many times before and it never discharged. What was different this time? It could have been many factors, but at that particular moment, I wasn’t thinking about woulda-coulda-shoulda. The bullet went into my leg, shattered my femur and stopped. In shock, I convinced myself I hadn’t just shot myself. I placed the pistol on the passenger seat, put my car in drive and proceeded to head to Alabama.
After about two minutes, I finally snapped back to reality and comprehended what just happened. My leg was burning. It felt like someone had dumped gasoline on it and set it on fire. Amazingly, though, my car wasn’t damaged and there wasn’t a drop of blood anywhere. I turned the car around and headed back to my aunt’s house. Once there, I walked to the door and told her about my accident. She called the authorities and medical personnel, and I was taken to the hospital.
I’ve had time to reflect on this incident and consider what I should’ve done differently. For starters, I shouldn’t have chambered a round, or if I did, I should’ve done so properly and not ridden the hammer forward in an attempt to clear the weapon. I also should have stored my pistol out of reach from my daughters. Although I've taught them about weapons safety, sometimes curiosity can get the best of kids.
There’s nothing I can do about my mishap now. However, I hope my mistake will make others think twice about their decisions when it comes to handling privately owned weapons.
Did You Know?
In an effort to reduce weapons-handling mishaps, the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center developed the Range & Weapons Safety Toolbox. The toolbox provides a centralized collection of resources to establish and maintain safe and effective training programs for ranges and both military and privately owned weapons. Check it out at https://safety.army.mil/ON-DUTY/Range-and-Weapons-Safety-Toolbox.