Police say man accidentally shot himself in the head while watching movie

[onehandle]

Source: WPDE

Horry County police say a Conway man shot himself in the head with a revolver while watching a movie Friday morning, according to the report.

It happened about 2:50 a.m. at 3140 Wayside Road.

Witnesses told police James Gagum, 43, was sitting in the recliner when he put the gun to his head after watching a scene in the movie and said, "That's not how it's done." He began pulling the trigger and on the third pull, the gun went off, according to the report.

EMS was called and pronounced Gagum dead at the scene.


Read more: http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=795324#.UEEJet23PSs

[SheilaT]

1. Putting a gun to your head and then pulling the trigger.

What could possibly go wrong?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

53. If he didn't have life insurance, it truly was stupid. Otherwise, the "accidental" shooting means

that his widow or other survivors can collect on the life insurance.

[SheilaT]

55. In reality, some life insurance policies

simply have a two to five year waiting period, and then will pay off even for suicide.

[Callmecrazy]

2. Stupidity has a price, I guess.

[Major Nikon]

37. For him, yes. For the GOP it's a virtue

[Mz Pip]

3. One less idiot

in the gene pool.

Where do these morons come from?

[catnhatnh]

4. I've considered doing that

...during movies starring Adam Sandler.

[cyberswede]

7. *snerk*

But seriously...who watches a movie holding a handgun?

[Tom Ripley]

27. Well, it can't be a rifle or shotgun; one has to leave the other hand free for...other things.

[Mmm_Bacon]

48. Watching a movie now...

... and practicing trigger pulls at various characters.

edit: Still not pointing at my head... duh...

[Brigid]

30. Easy cure for that.

Don't watch Adam Sandler movies.

[petronius]

5. They don't even tell us what movie? Journalism really is a lost art

Sad story any way it happened, but incredibly stupid if it was an accident. Hope the family and witnesses are able to get through the trauma w/o too much difficulty...

[greiner3]

8. The Deer Hunter!

[lame54]

10. Bambi

[dixiegrrrrl]

60. Sacha Cohen movie?

[benld74]

6. 2012 Darwin Award contestant

[sakabatou]

16. +1

[RebelOne]

63. Nope. 2012 Darwin Award winner. n/t

[lame54]

9. Everybodies a critic

[greiner3]

11. A success story;

For the Stand Your Ground laws.

[Jackpine Radical]

12. Odds are he was a Republican.

I'm not sure we should be disparaging or discouraging this sort of behavior.

[Historic NY]

13. I think we've found the 2012 Darwin Award winner.....

must have been the Deer Hunter. Its funny they call it an accident, no its not an accident its a conscious decision to load a gun with a bullet and spin the cylinder. Now its would really be moranic if the victim loaded one bullet in a semi-auto pistol and pulled the trigger after racking the slide.

The gene pool lifeguard was absent.

[jdadd]

14. On the third pull?

Accident Hmmmmm...Sounds intentional to me.

[Incitatus]

17. The third time's a charm. nt

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

24. That reminds me of a story from years ago where a guy convinced his buddy

to play Russian Roulette with him. He put the clip in his gun, pulled the slide back, put it to his head and pulled the trigger. The buddy told the authorities that he didn't know the game was supposed to be played with a revolver.

[kag]

25. Oh. My. God.

Raised the average IQ in the room, I guess. How sad.

[Myrina]

49. That begs a bigger question

How did the cop know dude took 3 pulls before he hit the 'jackpot'? Does a gun record something like that? Was there a witness mentioned that I missed?

[Drunken Irishman]

59. Considering they have him commenting 'That's not how it's done...'

I'm gonna guess there was someone with him.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. "Gagum"......heh.....

[bitchkitty]

20. LOL - you're bad. n/t

[Spitfire of ATJ]

36. That's part of my charm.

[jsr]

18. His previous exploit:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2196650/James-Gagum-Man-accidentally-shoots-head-demonstrating-proper-way-it.html

In 2010 he thwarted a home invasion, shooting one of three suspects fatally after they broke into his home and he claimed pointed a gun at him and his wife.

'It was him instead of me or me instead of him,' Mr Gagum told WTOC at the time.

Mr Gagum was not charged in that shooting.

[onehandle]

23. You're far more likely to kill yourself or a family member with a gun in the home than an intruder.

Last edited Sat Sep 1, 2012, 08:55 AM - Edit history (2)

What are the odds of doing both?

I wonder if the intruder was armed. Odds are if the occupant had never had a gun, nobody would be dead.

[upaloopa]

40. Sitting in his lazy boy in front of his TV watching violence with a loaded gun. Stupid is as stupid

does I guess.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

19. Suicide = no life insurance coverage. Accident = collectible life insurance.

[unblock]

56. not necessarily; depends on the policy and the state

my state farm policy in connecticut has a 2-year exclusion, but after that, it doesn't care how i die.

[arely staircase]

21. that'll leave a mark

eom

[Canuckistanian]

33. Yeah... in the ground n/t

[grantcart]

22. So that's how its done.

Romney just lost another supporter

[geckosfeet]

26. Must have been forced to watch bill'o.

[Aristus]

28. Now if the guy's head had had a gun of its own,

that wouldn't have happened...

[Brigid]

29. He must have been watching "Lethal Weapon."

What a moran.

[slackmaster]

31. Basic gun safety should be taught in public schools

[upaloopa]

38. Just what this country needs guns for kids! What the hell is wrong with gunners?

Look, you love your guns, fine. Don't push the that shit on the rest of us!

[NickB79]

42. Have you ever been to a basic gun-safety class?

It's basically this:

-Treat all guns like they're loaded
-NEVER point a gun at something you don't want to shoot (pet, family, etc)
-Treat all guns as if they don't have a safety
-If you find an unattended gun, DO NOT TOUCH IT. Find an adult (this applies to children)
-Safely store your firearms (this applies to adults)

Which ones of those sound like bad things to you?

[upaloopa]

45. I a year in Vietnam. I had some kind of weapon with me every day

[NickB79]

62. You were given weapons training in the military to maximize lethality

I'm asking about basic gun safety steps that they teach largely to children.

Again, which of the basic safety steps I listed don't you think are good to teach to children?

[slackmaster]

43. Teaching kids gun safety = guns for kids

[Why Syzygy]

44. Teaching kids rattlesnake safety = rattlesnakes for kids

Teaching kids fire safety = fires for kids

Teaching kids safe sex = sex for kids

Teaching kids safe stranger conduct = strangers for kids

Let's just not teach those little ones anything at all. They can't be trusted.

[primavera]

46. But where do you draw the line?

Should we also teach kids how to safely handle explosives? You never know, it could save their lives one day. Maybe we should teach them how to wear hazmat gear. After all, at the rate that we're toxifying the planet, they're likely to need that information the next time they want to go to a beach. And we'd certainly better teach them all of the tenets of religious zealotry because, hey, those wackos are taking over the country; you're going to need to know about how god hates everyone, especially those homosexuals and people who use birth control.

I dunno, I've had this conversation before and I do sort of understand the argument in favor of universal gun safety education. At the same time, it just seems like we're putting the cart before the horse. We fill our world with all sorts of pointless, unnecessary hazards and then when one of those hazards harms someone, our first thought is how we really ought to make everyone learn about those hazards. Hello? You think maybe there's something to be said for making the world less dangerous rather than more dangerous so that our kids, who already have a hell of a lot to learn already, don't have to be burdened with the additional knowledge of how to protect themselves from artificial hazards that we're responsible for having created in the first place? Have we absolutely no sense of personal responsibility in this country whatsoever?

[Why Syzygy]

47. wow

That's a hell of a dissonance in your last two sentences.

First you advocate not burdening young citizens with lessons, because they don't need to know there are hazards and how they might successfully handle them. Should we burden them with the fact that the family has an emergency plan in the case of a fire or other danger? Don't burden the little ones with bicycle safety, for example. Too much BURDEN on a little folk. It's too much burden to teach them survival skills?

I'll have to disagree about that.

Now, after you've explained how it's too much trouble, or dangerous, to prepare children to face modern hazards, of whatever type; your post admonishes us to honor "personal responsibility". If I'm not mistaken, "personal responsibility" will include being informed on situations that they may never encounter! But be prepared just in case.

Think of an individual who has been shielded from some form of gun safety knowledge. Now they are 19 and go join OWS. There are going to be a lot of GUNS there. Do you want that former child to freak out and be terrified of the weapons of the 'peace keepers'? Some adults actually react to the sight of a gun as if it were a massive cobra.

That's not healthy. And I can only read your post as advocating poor planning skills. And then, I guess, take personal responsibility when something goes wrong and people REALLY get hurt.

[primavera]

50. Ah, but you are mistaken.

In the context at hand, "personal responsibility" means cleaning up your messes so that you don't have to burden your children with the hazardous situation you created. But I appreciate that that is a level of personal responsibility that gun nuts do not consider viable. Far better to go on making the world ever more dangerous and then patting yourselves on the back because you were "responsible" enough to teach your children about the hazards you created for them.

[slackmaster]

64. It's possible for a parent to be completely responsible with guns and not create any hazards

The problem is other peoples' guns, over which you have no control. Children deserve to know what to do and what not to do when they encounter an unsecured weapon, or find themselves in a situation where someone is handling one in a negligent manner.

[4th law of robotics]

67. Just what this country needs sex for kids! What the hell is wrong with sex-eders?

Look, you love your sex-ed, fine. Don't push the that shit on the rest of us!

/all I'm saying is that if you teach kids how to have sex safely they will run out and have sex. Education is never the answer. Abstinence only. That way they learn valuable lessons like shame and ignorance and sex-related incidents plummet. This is especially effective for kids since they A) only care about long term consequences of their actions, B) love listening to parents telling them not to do something and C) are repulsed by things that are seen as taboo and off limits.

[ThoughtCriminal]

32. Another 2nd Amendment Solution

to Michael Bay movies!

[iemitsu]

34. one less vote for romney.

[awoke_in_2003]

35. Must have been...

a Bill Paxton movie.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

39. He showed them.

Wow. That's...well, wow.

[MrSlayer]

41. Some movies really are that bad.

What an idiot.

[asjr]

51. Was he handcuffed?

[2on2u]

52. But hey, at least he hit his target, that says something now doesn't it? n/t

[dimbear]

54. Wow. Dinesh D'Souza has a lot of influence over his viewers. n/t

[Kalidurga]

57. This doesn't sound right...

But, I guess it's better for his family that it is ruled an accident.

[unblock]

58. hard to say. obviously some other explanation is possible and certainly the witnesses might want to

keep the truth a secret.

on the other hand, the reported scenario is almost too bizarre to be made-up.

it would be more plausible if the victim had been in some sort of "diminished capacity".

[Skittles]

61. I think it was a suicide

[slackmaster]

65. Yes, that is very likely so and it's disappointing to see widespread lack of empathy on DU...

...for someone who may have had serious mental health issues.

[4th law of robotics]

66. If you start a wood chipper then jump in did you "accidentally" grind yourself in to a paste?

At some point the level of stupidity necessary should reach such a critical mass that we no longer consider it an "accident" but rather overdue selection.

[bad sofa king]

68. that was no accident. nt

[Auntie Bush]

69. One less gun toting DUMB Republican.

[slackmaster]

71. Yeah, definitely a typical Republican. He even has a criminal record. Here's a mugshot...

He was convicted once for driving on the wrong side of the road. That's not hard to do in Conway. Some of the streets are so narrow it's impossible to drive completely on the right side.



http://kdvr.com/2012/09/04/man-demonstrating-proper-way-to-handle-gun-shoots-self-in-head/

[ileus]

70. That's why I only own Semi-autos