Firearm safety

[sheddi]

I suspect most UK ZSers wouldn't be this stupid ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfo ... 272110.stm

Police fined £40,000 for shooting

Thames Valley Police has been fined £40,000 for breaching health and safety laws when a civilian worker was accidentally shot.

Pc David Micklethwaite, 52, shot control room employee Keith Tilbury, 57, during a firearms awareness course in Oxfordshire on 30 May 2007.

The police force and Pc Micklethwaite pleaded guilty to offences under the 1974 Health and Safety Act.

Pc Micklethwaite was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £8,000 in costs. Thames Valley Police was ordered to pay £25,000 in costs.

It was revealed at Southwark Crown Court that Pc Micklethewaite had failed a gun training course, but was allowed to continue working. He mistakenly loaded a Magnum revolver with live ammunition which was kept in an old Quality Street tin.

The judge said this practice was a "disaster waiting to happen".

Pc Micklethwaite was accused of "engaging in the pointing of weapons and the pulling of a trigger during role-play in the classroom", "failing to examine or check the round of ammunition" and discharging the gun "while inadvertently pointing the weapon at Keith Tilbury".

Mr Tilbury, a control room employee for Thames Valley Police Authority, was shot in the stomach at point-blank range while he was listening to a lecture alongside 10 colleagues at the force's Police Headquarters North in Kidlington. He suffered serious damage to his lungs, kidneys and bowel and spent two weeks in intensive care. Mr Tilbury has told the BBC he is unlikely to return to work.

Deputy Chief Constable Francis Habgood, Thames Valley Police, said: "We accept the sentence passed down by the court today. A decision will now be taken as to whether PC Micklethwaite will face internal disciplinary proceedings into his conduct on the day of the shooting. I can reassure everybody that we have changed our procedures and were recently described as a model force on firearms training issues by an independent review."

Now, even yours truly has heard of Jeff Cooper's rules, but it seems TVP have not

[K9medic]

Definatly an oooooops moment

[Aeon]

BANG and the dirt is gone!





Sometime I just can't help myself.

On a serious note its a bit worrying that the PC who'd failed his training was still allowed to carry and or demonstrate firearms safety himself.

[Ad'lan]

Not really. People who like firearms and are knowledgeable about them, might approve more lisences, and allow more into the hands of the public! and more guns for the Public is always bad!

yeah, it's pretty bad, my little brother knows more firearms saftey than that.

[TC]

My favourite part about this story is how if I, or any other gun owner in the UK, had accidentally blown someone away, we'd lose our license and probably do some nice long time in clink as well as have a tasty fine and compensation claim from the blastee.

As it is, nothing will change, the tax payer will end up footing the bill for whatever money needs to be handed out (and rightly so in the case of the victim, although it should come from the idiot who pulled the trigger's pocket). Nevertheless, Joe Public will continue to have to bend over backwards to get a license for one of the guns that we still have available to us, while quick draw McGraw and Co. will continue to keep a smorgasbord of ammunition in a Quality Street tin and shoot people up through their own stupidity with a .44.

Of course, we have to leave this sort of thing to the professionals though.

[ais4122]

People who like firearms and are knowledgeable about them, might approve more lisences, and allow more into the hands of the public! and more guns for the Public is always bad!


I suggest you read Prof. John Lotts book. "More Guns Less Crime". It may be an eye opening read.

[Ad'lan]

Someone really dosn't know me, and should know better before making dumb arse assumptions shouldn't they? I mean, simply reading the next line would of shown the sarcasm in my statement.

[sheddi]

Someone really dosn't know me, and should know better before making dumb arse assumptions shouldn't they? I mean, simply reading the next line would of shown the sarcasm in my statement.

Somebody evidently didn't get the memo.

[the_alias]

Sarcasm; Not everyone gets it.

OT: Yeah I don't think our police can be trusted with guns. We better ban them from touching them; I'll happily accept any gun from an officer concerned for his own safety