KY Rep. Accidentally Fired Gun In State Capitol: 'I Am A Gun Owner. It Happens'

[highplainsdem]

Source: Talking Points Memo

Kentucky State Rep. Leslie Combs (D) accidentally fired her semi-automatic handgun in the state capitol building Tuesday night just before Gov. Steve Beshear (D) gave his state of the state address, WHAS11 reported.

Combs was unloading her gun in the Capitol annex office when it went off. The bullet hit the floor and ricocheted toward a bookshelf, according to WHAS11.

Rep. Jeff Greer (D) was in the room at the time, but Combs said she was following safety procedure and that nobody was in harm's way, WHAS11 reported. Nobody was injured.

"I thought it was totally clear," Combs told WHAS11 Wednesday. "I am a gun owner. It happens."

-snip-

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kentucky-representative-accidentally-fired-gun-state-capitol

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Although it helps, I guess you don't have to be a GOPer

to be a dumbass about guns.

[crim son]

62. No indeed, and D gun nuts

are just as tiresome as their R counterparts.

[MH1]

2. Yeah, stuff happens, ya know?

[Common Sense Party]

3. I, on the other hand, am a CAUTIOUS gun owner. It never happens...

...as long as you're, you know, cautious.

[DeadLetterOffice]

9. +1

[Major Nikon]

12. It never happens until it does

If you think it will never happen to you, then you're probably not as safe as you think.

[Common Sense Party]

18. It never happens as long as you are cautious.

It helps to read the whole statement.

Kind of like, "I never rear-end other vehicles on the road as long as I am cautious."

[Major Nikon]

53. Even then it still happens

Guns and cars don't work as planned 100% of the time. Nobody is cautious 100% of the time either. The idea that it will never happen to you actually helps to increase the odds it will because it reinforces the false belief in your own infallibility. The reason why smart people clear weapons in a safe direction is because it happens. I've seen it happen, even when I thought someone was being safe.

[MrModerate]

54. Remind me never to drive in front of you . . .

Since caution — although absolutely essential — is not a magical way to avoid all accidents. Road conditions (this is a major factor), the condition of your vehicle, the behavior of other vehicles in your vicinity, momentary inattention that all human beings (including the cautious) are subject to, distance estimation errors, etc., etc., etc. can get you in an accident in a literal split second.

The same is true of firearms. One main difference between autos and guns, of course, is that autos are designed to transport and guns are designed to kill, so when there is an accident, the range of outcomes for guns is much narrower.

You might even say, ironically, 'targeted.'

[Common Sense Party]

55. Don't ever drive in fromt of me.

There. I reminded you.

[passiveporcupine]

59. You can't even type

without having an accident.

You are not omnipotent. You can (I hope you never do) have an accident while handling or carrying a gun. Anyone can. You can drop a gun...you can trip while carrying a gun...you can forget something while cleaning a gun...even though you think you can't. You are only human. Caution reduces the possibility of accidents, but it does not protect you from ever having an accident.

Lots of people have accidents with guns...which is why they should not be allowed in certain places, like hospitals and schools. Many of them probably thought they were "cautious" too.

[Common Sense Party]

60. Of course I can have an accident.

I just choose not to.

[passiveporcupine]

67. OK

Then the "in fromt of me" was intentional. Got it.

[Jerry442]

75. True.

It's best if you never let yourself forget that you are just one random f***-up away from an accident.

[Fumesucker]

82. Here's a site you might enjoy

http://negligentdischarge.com/

Each year many people in the United States are injured by
accidental and negligent discharge of firearms.
When the records for 2008 come out, I will be
one of those people in the report.
Each year people are also killed by accidental and negligent discharge of firearms.

At about 5:16 PM on January 19, 2008 I had a negligent discharge
of my Rock Island .45 ACP pistol.
It was NOT an accidental discharge.
It was caused by negligence.
I knew all of the safety rules.
I thought that I followed all of the safety rules.
But I became complacent.
I let my guard down just one time.
That was all it took.

[Arkansas Granny]

4. Following safety procedure, my ass.

Anyone knows that the quickest way to unload a gun is through the barrel.

[cvoogt]

5. Actually

It doesn't happen, unless you decide to own a gun and subsequently decide to be irresponsible. But sure, stuff happens, whatever. It's only a deadly weapon after all.

[CTyankee]

6. Hmm, what does that tell you about gun owners?

And what have we who are in favor of sensible gun laws been saying all along?

PUBLIC SAFETY! And that, dear friends, is a huge issue with respect to guns...and now a gun owner herself has admitted it.

Well, well...

[Common Sense Party]

10. It doesn't tell me a thing about "gun owners."

It says a lot about HER. She's a careless fool.

[CTyankee]

15. But she herself re-inforces an idea you probably don't like very much...

sorry, I know this is something you don't want to hear...

[Common Sense Party]

17. She doesn't reinforce anything for me.

I'm sure she confirms all sorts of your pre-existing (and misguided) biases.

[CTyankee]

22. here we go..."misguided" and "pre-existing"...heard that, been there

boring...

[Common Sense Party]

27. You're saying you DON'T have any "pre-existing" biases about gun owners?

What do you think of gun owners?

[CTyankee]

32. I do about some...and this lady is all about that pesky "some" gun owners...right?

[Common Sense Party]

33. I must have missed that modifier.

Can you point out the word "some" in your earlier sentence?

Hmm, what does that tell you about gun owners?

[CTyankee]

34. So? It does a pretty good job on the old image...

[AtheistCrusader]

23. Hi. I'm a gun owner.

I wouldn't be in the same room with her. If I was, and she was armed, I'd leave. I'd encourage everyone else to leave too.

That was a level of negligence that cannot be excused. I threw a guy out of my house once, for handling a pistol that I *knew* for 100% certain was completely unloaded, in a negligent manner, and pointing it in directions that swept across people's body parts (Legs through/below the table).

Threw his ass out.

So hopefully that tells you something about gun owners too.

[CTyankee]

28. I'm sure you are sincere, but really if you look at what you have just typed, it does reinforce an

idea of gun owners that can't be characterized as attractive or helpful...that's what I am saying...

[Common Sense Party]

35. Have you ever seen any awful drivers on the road?

You know, people who have no business being behind the wheel of a 2,000 pound machine? They're just careless, inattentive, reckless, stupid...?

Of course you have. They're all over the place.

Do the existence of those idiot drivers "reinforce the idea" that ALL car drivers are awful?

[AtheistCrusader]

36. Well, we can be one of two things.

We can be coddling and nice and allow entirely preventable bad shit to happen, or, we can follow the rules, and prevent horrible, tragic, entirely preventable accidents from happening.

I can't be both.

Yes, throwing someone out of my house seems extreme, but he protested that what he was doing was harmless, even though the other people at the table were visibly uncomfortable about it, and even though as the host, I asked him politely to stop it multiple times. (He was not a gun owner.)

Safety first. If you can't put safety first over politeness or gentle understanding, you probably have no business possessing a weapon that can punch holes in people with a twitch of the finger.

[Common Sense Party]

39. I think that poster was referring to the OTHER person--the one you had to throw out

It seems this person believes that ALL gun owners are reckless idiots. Because, you know, we only read news stories about reckless, idiotic gun owners, so that must mean that ALL of us gun owners are incompetent.

[AtheistCrusader]

41. Ah, but he wasn't a gun owner.

He was handling someone else's firearm. (A birthday present for my wife.)

I guess I didn't make that clear though.

[Common Sense Party]

42. I could be wrong.

But that's what I'm guessing that poster means.

[AtheistCrusader]

45. We'll see. I interpreted it as meaning my response was callous.

Hopefully there is clarity in intent in the poster's next response. I can see how you interpreted it that way.

[LanternWaste]

85. Just the ones who pretend they can choose not have an accident.

"idiotic gun owners..."

Probably just the idiotic ones who pretend they can choose not have an accident.

[Common Sense Party]

86. I have not had an accident. The vast majority of gun owners have not had accidents.

That's because the vast majority of us are extremely cautious and are hyper-sensitive of safety rules, and we have a healthy paranoia of how dangerous the weapon can be if handled incorrectly.

[upaloopa]

64. The problem is that she had to let the gun go off before

you knew she was irresponsible. Someone in the room could have been killed. In that case someone would have died before you knew she was irresponsible.
My feeling is that there are hundreds of thousands of people like her walking around in public with loaded guns.
The people's right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness is trumped by gun laws.

[AtheistCrusader]

65. I don't get the equation you are using there.

I agree that there are a lot of negligent gun owners. Too many. No qualms there. I think the license to carry in public should have competence/qualifications, and not all states do. (Some do training requirements)

But your last bit there could be applied to automobiles easily enough. Simple word substitution and it is perfectly valid. So there is some fundamental problem with it. Could apply to a lot of elective activities that incur risk to non-participants.

[upaloopa]

69. You can say what you want but we never had so many people

carrying loaded guns around. In my 67 year I never worried about being accidentally shot like I am now.
The more guns around the more the risk of someone being shot.
Because cars can be dangerous is no reason to allow more dangerous items to the mix.

[AtheistCrusader]

78. You are correct on one point.

More people are carrying than ever before. But the accidental gunshot rate is half what it was in the 50's, when most states didn't even ALLOW concealed carry.

In the 28 years Washington State has had it, our accidental injury rate with firearms is down about 30%.

More people carrying isn't the correlation you were looking for. (Which might be a surprise, even to me, because WA has no training requirement, which I think is not a great idea.)

[upaloopa]

87. I am sorry but that defies logic

[AtheistCrusader]

88. I don't disagree.

Well, maybe not logic, but certainly assumptions. I would tend to assume more guns carried by more people, who have unknown levels of training, would increase the injury rate, but that hasn't happened. Precisely why could use more study.

There are between 9 and 10 million people now, with permits to carry concealed. There would have been less than 1 million in 1950.

The only thing that I can see that might suggest why, is that the accidental firearm injury/death rate is not broken out by cause. So, hunting accidents, children finding dad's gun under the bed, cleaning/goofing around, all of those injuries roll up to a single number. We can't compare JUST the accidental injury rate for people who carried, concealed or open, in 1950 versus today, because that data was not captured in a way we can slice it up.

It is POSSIBLE but unproven, that the injury/death rate associated with people who carry is up, but the total for all injury/death is WAY down from the 1950's.

[upaloopa]

90. If you say the number of shootings per 1000 carriers has

gone down that could be true since more people carry but that is not the same as saying the number shootings has gone down.
The general public is not more safe if the percapita number has gone down.

[AtheistCrusader]

95. Number per capita AND total has gone down.

The total used to be in excess of 1,000 per year. Total. 1950's population. Now it's around 500/year. Total.

(A small fraction of the total ~30k/year murder/accident/suicide total combined)

[hack89]

89. No - it defies your bias. nt

[upaloopa]

91. And supports your bias

I'm not a gun grabber or anti gun. I am anti gun violence and anti accidental shootings.

[hack89]

92. Facts are facts

if in fact the accidental gun accident is half of what is was in the 50's then what basis do you have to reject it like you did ("defies logic&quot if you do not have any facts to counter that statement?

My only point.

On edit: one very good reason why gun accidents have been slashed drastically is that modern guns have many more safety features built in. Now days one should be very skeptical on any account of an incident where someone says "the gun just went off" or "it went off when I dropped it". With modern guns, you have to willfully pull the trigger to make it shoot - which means it is not an accident but rather pure negligence.

[upaloopa]

93. Come on you know as well as I that "facts"

can and are spun.

[hack89]

94. But you presented no facts yourself

so what was your basis for questioning those facts? Not saying they were right or wrong - just talking about your reaction to them.

[1000words]

7. Her non chalant attitude is dangerous in itself

[frylock]

40. yep. shit happens la-dee-da.

[heaven05]

8. Famous last words

"I thought it was totally clear"........ Doesn't take much to make sure.

[Vashta Nerada]

11. Responsible gun owners have guns accidentally fire in public places?

[tazkcmo]

13. Those some shitty

safety procedures.

[herding cats]

14. It sounds like she scared the pee out of herself.

When asked by reporters Wednesday to see where the gun was discharged, Combs declined and said she was putting the gun away because, "I don't want to use it anymore."

It's a relief to know she won't be armed anymore.

[Tx4obama]

48. Wrong. See Comment #46

[herding cats]

61. Thanks for the update

I guess she's over her shock and got her message straight again. Armed and ignorant are never a good combination.

[RufusTFirefly]

16. Combs is basically a stooge for the coal industry

She's a proud supporter of FACES, the Federation of American Coal, Energy, and Security. FACES is allied with Friends of Coal, Coal Mining Our Future, and the Coalition for Mountaintop Mining. (What could possibly be more patriotic than mountaintop mining?)

And now we know she's an irresponsible pistol-packer as well.
What's not to like?

[Iggo]

19. Another gun-f***er too stupid to own a gun.

[AtheistCrusader]

20. I'm a gun owner. No it doesn't fucking 'happen'.

It's called a negligent discharge for a reason.

[NickB79]

21. +1000. nt

[nolabear]

24. You can carry a gun into the state capitol building? And..."It happens?" WTF!

That's madness. Just plain madness.

[another_liberal]

25. I don't care if she is a Democrat.

"It happens," is no excuse. She should have been arrested for discharging a firearm in a public place, and she should be prosecuted.

[AtheistCrusader]

26. WOW I pegged my confirmation bias.

Holy shit, I read that article and just assumed she was a Republican anyway.
Wow, I gotta check those assumptions at the door.

I totally agree with you, by the way.

[Common Sense Party]

31. I did, too, at first. Because all those "gun humpers" are all Republicans, after all.

Nope. There are idiots everywhere.

[enough]

29. +1 (nt)

[rdharma]

37. But I care that she's a Democrat!

What an irresponsible gun-hugging embarrassment to the party!

She dismissed it with, "It happens"? WTF?!!!!

[AtheistCrusader]

43. Pretty scary, despite political affiliation.

I'm as aghast as you are.

[hollowdweller]

30. Do you really need a gun in the Capitol?

I mean I don't know about KY but there's guards everywhere in ours.

Where I work you have to be checked to get in and there is guards. I never felt the need with so much security.

[CherokeeDem]

56. NO..you don't need a gun in the Kentucky Capitol....

There is security and besides... who takes a gun into a public building but someone who is nuts to begin with... as a poster said earlier... party does not preclude ignorance.

BTW... the Kentucky Capitol is a beautiful building....

http://capitol.ky.gov/Pages/default.aspx

[blackspade]

73. Nope.

There is no need for non security folks to have weapons in public anyway.

[frylock]

38. "It happens" yeah, it happens... to stupid fucking idiots..

"I thought it was totally clear." fucking idiot.

[tabasco]

44. I was a gun owner for 13 years in the infantry

Never had an accidental discharge.

A lot of gun owners barely know which end the fucking bullet comes out.

[Tx4obama]

46. "... Combs said she will continue to carry her handgun. ..."

-snip-

As the Lexington Herald-Leader reports, Combs has a concealed carry license, which she says she obtained several years ago "as I travel widely and sometimes at night."

Combs said she will continue to carry her handgun.

"I strongly support our Second Amendment rights and our state's concealed-carry law, and believe just as strongly that gun safety and education must be part of that equation," she said.

-snip-

Full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/08/leslie-combs-gun_n_4563584.html

[Helen Borg]

47. Terrorist!

...

[Nanjing to Seoul]

49. Ugh. . .is that the newest excuse. It happens???

Mine accidents just happen too. Some Kentucky Pol said that too.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

50. Yup, shit happens

20 kids in a school and a bunch of people in movie theater.....meh.....right?

Fucking self-centered dipshits.

[TheCowsCameHome]

51. Another idiot that shoud be barred from gun ownership

Rochester, NH had another case of gun owner incompetency today as well.

[riqster]

52. I am a gun owner, and it hasn't happened to me.

Best advice I ever got: "there is no such thing as an unloaded gun".

Technically not true, of course. But as a safety mantra, it is hard to beat.

[Incitatus]

57. I've accidentally fired a few shots.

playing paintball

[Thor_MN]

58. I guess failure >IS< an option in some people's books.

[NastyRiffraff]

63. Oh well, that's okay then

"It happens." Move along, nothing to see here.

[olddad56]

66. Yeah, but if it happened to me, I'd be in jail.

just for having gotten the gun inside the building, let alone discharging it.

[Brigid]

68. A gun incident never just "happens."

Some failure, or series of failures, occurs. Aren't gun nuts always saying that "Guns don't kill people, people do?" By that logic, somebody's responsible when a gun discharges. always. You can't have it both ways.

[QuestForSense]

70. Was it Bring Your Gun To Work Today?

If the bullet ricocheted, it was out of her control. The story would have been entirely different if she were a teacher, or employed at McDonald's, and this had occurred.

[Sunlei]

71. This should result in a carry ban. Require extensive gun safety training classes to carry again.

[blackspade]

72. Yep, it happens....

This is why you don't go tootling around at work or in public with fucking guns.
Because accidents do happen. They were lucky this time.

[Brigid]

74. Suppose somebody had been hurt or even killed.

What then?

[TeamPooka]

76. so many levels of stupid going on here. nt

[bowens43]

77. you have to be a real moron to carry a gun in the first place, of course it happens

[fujiyama]

79. This is the main problem in this country

Many people don't take gun safety seriously. I think a lot of gun owners do, but all too many obviously don't. That's why we have so many "accidents" where kids get a hold of their parents guns or it "accidentally" goes off.

I like the idea of requiring firearm insurance and in cases like this where "accidents" take place, the owner should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. If someone wishes to own a gun, they should be required to show they can handle it responsibly. I don't know why that's a big deal.

Hell, that sounds like something the NRA might have backed decades ago, before they became a complete shill for the firearms lobby and RW talk radio and conspiracy theorists convinced millions that the government wanted to confiscate their weapons.

[DFW]

80. IF you are a gun owner, it should NEVER happen

If it happens, you should NOT be a gun owner.

[truthisfreedom]

81. In unload mode, a gun should be impossible to fire!

What are gun designers thinking?

[rock]

83. Shitheads happen

[Dash87]

84. This stuff does not "just happen."

Another careless idiot with a gun...