"The man who fired the gun told police he “did not intent to shoot his friend,”
“Officers secured the weapon and arrested the man who fired the gun for investigation of reckless endangerment and unlawful discharge of a firearm.”
Assuming it was really an accident, should the guy be arrested? Reckless Endangerment and Unlawful Discharge of a Firearm"
This is the attitude the police take when a gun is involved in an injury. If I stupidly run over your foot with a fork lift, run a red light and Tee Bone you Jaguar (Sorry Don), Ride my bike on the side walk and run into you, that’s an accident? If I do something dangerous with a gun it’s a serious crime?
Yes, it is a crime, although it may be debatable how serious a crime depending on the nature and severity of the injury. When you injure another person through reckless behavior, even without intent, that is a crime. Cops and prosecutors may well treat any mishandling of a firearm as reckless endangerment and charge the crime.
Even if the injury is caused by negligence instead of recklessness, you are open to a civil lawsuit for damages for the resulting injury.
Since forever people have used the phrase “accidental” or “unintentional” discharge to refer to weapons fire that was “non-intended.” In truth, there is no such thing as either accidental discharge or unintentional discharge. The correct - and only accurate term - is “negligent discharge.” Once you reach this understanding everything else falls into its correct place.
You’ll have to follow the court case and see how it turns out.
Just because a cop brings charges doesn’t mean they will stick.
Good chance in a situation like this the charges will be dropped or reduced once the situation is argued in court.
Remember, when the cops show up – shut your trap. These guys probably got themselves into a load of trouble by speaking to the cops in trying to explain themselves. Don’t speak to the cops. Let them figure it out – or not! Invoke the Fifth Amendment and Sixth Amendement and zip it. Keep your mouth shut. Tell the lawyer what happened and let him handle it.
There are levels of negligence and they can rise to the criminal level.
"Black’s Law Dictionary defines negligence as the omission to do something a reasonable person would do, or doing something a reasonable person would not do.
Criminal negligence is a type of negligence that involves an act or practice that disregards the safety and protection of others. It’s an action that’s so dangerous and out of the ordinary that it’s difficult to separate it from actual intent. For example, leaving a loaded gun within reach of a child is considered criminally negligent. "
I’d say fooling around with a loaded gun and injuring someone in the process, including the possibily of killing someone, rises to the level of criminality. Wether he’s charged or not and depending on wether he’s charged with a misdemeanor of felony rests on the DA.
Then YES, I think you answered your ow question here.
Maybe there is a Double Standard when it comes to 'AD’s/ND’s
compared to your ‘other examples’ Hmmmm?
Craig explained the ‘Crime’ in the eyes of the Law/Courts perfectly,
If you do ‘damage’ w/ forklift, Destroying a great car Grrrrrrrr, or knocking
somebodies teeth out hitting them w/ a bike today you’d still get sued in most cases.
There’s no sorry man, oh, it’s ok you didn’t mean it anymore.
Hole punching a ‘friend’ is an entirely different matter.
THIS sum’s it up nicely
…AND THERE IT IS!
There are far too many people who ‘possess’ firearms (w/zero training) Who have no idea what they are doing, and this is a result.
It’s a Crime in Albuquerque to have a Gun in a Public Park while watching your kids play on the Swings, or walking your Dog, It’s a CRIME to not pick-up your dog’s poop, It’s a Crime to be sitting on a Park bench ‘whittling’ a stick with a knife! It’s a…oh nevamind!
It’s not illegal to be stupid or over half the population would be in jail. I don’t mean to come across as too judgemental but in this case the level of intelligence exhibited on the part of the guy who pulled the trigger is not likely to increase, no matter what the consequences of his actions. More than a few people I went to high school with fit in this category and some of’em are prolly in Congress.
Full disclosure: I guess I can relate, having pulled my share of dumb tricks. They made me more careful but didn’t make me any smarter.
Couldn’t agree more. Look at this situation. Obviously one of these bozos was pointing the firearm at the other, otherwise even with a negligent discharge if safe handling had been practiced no firearm would have been pointed at something that shouldn’t be shot. Secondly, the booger hook must have depressed the bang stick. Unless defective in and of themselves (which is negligence, not getting a malfunctioning firearm repaired) firearms do NOT self discharge. They always take some outside force, even if the force is so simple as to touch the trigger with some object, say a twig against a Glock trigger. I would say the charges as listed are appropriate and they will be found guilty. Not being a deliberate comes into play at sentence time. Instead of getting free room and board at the crossbars hotel, they may get a fine, a short stay courtesy of the taxpayers of their county of crime and some community service or just a fine or any of the above or may be required to take a firearms safety course and complete it with a satisfactory grade as a term of probation which is what I would sentence them to plus a fine for using government employees’ time and probably unpaid medical care at the county hospital ER.
Two potential crimes in this case. Certainly seems reckless to play around with a loaded firearm to me. But would they charge reckless endangerment if a gun wasn’t involved? For instance if they were goofing around with a nail gun or some other tool instead? Probably not in most cases even if the danger level was similar.
The second charge is related directly to firearms. Most areas have specific laws against discharging firearms within “city” limits and/or against discharging firearms within a certain distance from an occupied dwelling. With the exception in most cases for those needing to use a firearm for self/other people defense.
When I was very young my Dad taught me that if you have ANY control over a situation and someone goes wrong, it transforms from accident to stupidity. When learning about firearms he always said, “there’s no such thing as a firearms accident.” Is the gun loaded, which direction is it pointed, did you or someone handle it in an unsafe manner? All the above and more was and is under your control. Just like work, do something contrary to policy, take a risky approach to an issue, if it goes wrong it no accident, and if you lose your job, can’t blame it on an accident.
sum’s it up nicely
Happy First Anniversary. 
