If Only He'd Had A Gun To Defend Himself. Oh, Wait…. (famed sniper at gun range)

Chief Chris Kyle, decorated sniper and SEAL veteran,
killed with guns in reach at shooting range

(UPDATED -- See below)

The gun crowd is always saying, “If only the victim had had a gun, they could have defended themselves.”  After all, according to the NRA's Wayne LaPierre in his unhinged call to arm all schools, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

But here we are again (just as with the recent case of firearms customizer and famed YouTube video star, Keith Ratliff) with yet another famed gun guy getting shot in cold blood while armed and ready.

Saturday, the U.S. military's most deadly sniper, Chief Chris Kyle, was fatally shot, along with another man, by another veteran who was suffering from PTSD, at a gun range in Texas (wait, aren't gun ranges supposed to be havens of safe and responsible gun handling?).

From an article:

Chris Kyle, a retired Navy SEAL and the U.S. military's most lethal sniper, was fatally shot Saturday along with another man on the gun range of Rough Creek Lodge, a posh resort just west of Glen Rose, Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant said. 

A suspect was arrested about five hours later in Lancaster, southeast of Dallas, more than 70 miles from the scene, Bryant said. 

The suspect, identified as Eddie Ray Routh, 25, was pursued to a house in Lancaster by officers, including a local SWAT team. Routh tried to flee in a vehicle but was stopped about 9 p.m. after spikes were laid across a road, Bryant said. 

"The suspect has been caught and is in custody in Lancaster," he said. Erath County sheriff's investigators and Texas Rangers were securing a capital murder warrant, he said. 

Witnesses told sheriff's investigators that the gunman opened fire on the two men around 3:30 p.m., then fled in a pickup belonging to one of the victims. The Sheriff's Department didn't get a call until around 6 p.m.
Rough Creek Lodge is 77 miles southwest of Fort Worth between Glen Rose and Hico. 

The motive for the shootings remains unclear, Bryant said. "Not a clue, absolutely no idea." 

WFAA/Channel 8 quoted unnamed sources as saying that Kyle, who lived in Midlothian, and a neighbor had taken Routh on an outing to help him deal with post-traumatic stress disorder. Routh turned on the men and shot them in the back, the report said.

Here is an interview with Chris Kyle.  

Here is another interview about his days as a sniper.  At timepoint 5:19 he is asked by the interviewer, "If you never got to kill another person again, would you be okay with it?" There is sad irony when Kyle answers, "I'm fine.  I don't have to kill to live."

The real irony here is that Chris Kyle was also very outspoken against any possible form of gun regulation.  See here as he recites the NRA propaganda that any regulation is a prelude to an all-out gun ban and confiscation, then goes on to give falsehoods about other nations which don't match statistics.  Oh, and for good measure, throws in support for arming school teachers (trained by his security company, of course).  I wonder how he felt about reporting dangerously mentally ill people to the background check system (which his shooter clearly wasn't reported, despite being committed to a mental hospital, twice, in the past six months and threatening to shoot his father to death).

Though I am a pacifist and feel the Iraq war was unjustified, I have great respect for Kyle as a decorated war hero and veteran, and for most other veterans.  He did his duty, and did it well.  Sadly, he leaves behind a wife and two kids.  

But let's not kid ourselves here.  There are some important lessons to be learned from this incident.  And unlike most veterans, particularly snipers, Kyle reveled in the fact that he was a killer, advertising it widely, including in his book, and sharing how much he loved his job killing Iraqis.  The old man who taught me gun safety at Boy Scout camp had been a sniper in WWII in the Pacific.  He was very humble, and it was only with great reluctance that he shared just a few bits of info about his experience.  Nothing at all like Kyle and his narcissism. 

Kyle is a gun nut's dream example of someone who can defend himself, and he had guns within reach.  Let's look at his qualifications, shall we?

• He was the military's most deadly sniper, with a record 150 confirmed kills, and perhaps as many as 255 including unconfirmed kills. 
• He was an ex-Navy SEAL, with  two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars with Valor, and two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals.
• He was a firearms trainer for military, law enforcement, and civilians.
• He grew up with guns and hunting, riding rodeo and living the life of a cowboy.
• He literally wrote the book on a sniper's life, called American Sniper, an autobiography released last year.
• He was  president of Craft International, a Dallas firm that provided military and law enforcement sniper training as well as private security.

Lessons to learn:

• No matter how well-trained you are with guns, having one increases the chances you'll be killed.
• Severe PTSD and guns are a deadly mix (remember the Mason case?).
• Gun ranges are not havens of gun safety and responsibility.

If this "good guy with a gun", with his firearms within reach, and all of that experience killing "bad guys with guns" can't protect himself against a shooter right next to him, then how can the gun nuts claim they would be any better?

[this post is part of an ongoing series of people being shot to death or attacked despite being armed (and sometimes because they are armed)]
UPDATE (2/3/13): Some additional detail in another article:

Bryant said Kyle, Littlefield and Routh went to the shooting range around 3:15 p.m. Saturday. A hunting guide at Rough Creek Lodge came across the bodies of Kyle and Littlefield around 5 p.m. and called 911. .... 

Travis Cox, the director of a nonprofit Kyle helped found, told The Associated Press on Sunday that Kyle and Littlefield had taken Routh to the range. Littlefield was Kyle’s neighbor and “workout buddy,” Cox said. 

“What I know is Chris and a gentleman — great guy, I knew him well, Chad Littlefield — took a veteran out shooting who was struggling with PTSD to try to assist him, try to help him, try to, you know, give him a helping hand and he turned the gun on both of them, killing them,” Cox said. ... 

Cox described Littlefield as a gentle, kind-hearted man who often called or emailed him with ideas for events or fundraisers to help veterans. He said he was married and had children. 

“It was just two great guys with Chad and Chris trying to help out a veteran in need and making time out of their day to help him. And to give him a hand. And unfortunately this thing happened,” Cox said.

UPDATE (2/4/13):  The shooter, had been to a mental hospital twice in the past half year and suffered from PTSD.  Just the sort you should arm and take to the shooting range with you.  From an article:

Routh, a member of the Marines Corps Reserve, was first taken to a mental hospital on Sept. 2 after he threatened to kill his family and himself, according to police records in Lancaster, where Routh lives. Authorities found Routh walking nearby with no shirt and no shoes, and smelling of alcohol. Routh told authorities he was a Marine veteran who was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. 

"Eddie stated he was hurting and that his family does not understand what he has been through," the report said. 

Routh's mother told police that her son had been drinking and became upset when his father said he was going to sell his gun. She said Routh began arguing with them and said he was going to "blow his brains out." 

Police took Routh to Green Oaks Hospital for psychiatric care. 

Dallas police records show Routh was taken back to the same mental hospital in mid-January after a woman called police and said she feared for Routh's safety. 

In May, Routh's mother reported a burglary that included nine pill bottles and her son was involved, according to a Lancaster police report. No other details were available.

UPDATE (2/5/13):  A CNN.com article with additional details on the killer (Routh, that is).

UPDATE (1/8/15):  A new movie is being released about Kyle, named after Kyle's book, American Sniper.  I haven't yet seen the movie, but the trailer looks to be a spin on the man's story glorifying him as a reluctant hero.  I wonder how it will handle his ironic death, or if it will display his glee at killing.  HERE is a good write-up on this.  From the article:

Chris Kyle, a US navy Seal from Texas, was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and claimed to have killed more than 255 people during his six-year military career. In his memoir , Kyle reportedly described killing as “fun”, something he “loved”; he was unwavering in his belief that everyone he shot was a “bad guy”. “I hate the damn savages,” he wrote. “I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the Iraqis.” He bragged about murdering looters during Hurricane Katrina, though that was never substantiated.

UPDATE (1/20/15):  The movie, "American Sniper," is clearly fictionalized, with added arch-nemesis bits, over-simplified demonization of Iraqis, and glorification of Kyle to paint him as a victim instead of a killer.  From a good review of the movie:

One investigating journalist wrote in the New Yorker that these tales “portray Kyle as if he really were the Punisher, dispensing justice by his own rules. It was possible to see these stories as evidence of vainglory; it was also possible to see them as attempts by a struggling man to maintain an invincible persona.” Maybe some of these brags were true, and maybe they weren’t. A lot of this film certainly isn’t – and all the complicated questions it leaves out would have made it a much more interesting story than the Bush-era propaganda it shovels in.

UPDATES (2/24/15):
-- Kyle's shooter, Eddie Ray Routh, has been found guilty.
-- Another sniper from the Iraq war questions Kyle's depiction of Iraqis as "savages" and the way they are portrayed in the movie. 

UPDATE (5/25/16):  One example of where Kyle has lied about his credentials has been in his exaggeration of the number of medals he has won.

UPDATE (7/9/16):  Exemplifying Kyle's overestimation of himself, he overstated his medal count on an official Navy form, stating that he had an extra silver star and an extra two bronze stars.  Recognizing the mistake, the Navy corrected the form.  From an article:

The Navy personnel form that Kyle signed and initialed when he left the Navy in 2009 credited him with two Silver Star and six Bronze Star medals with “V” device for valor, according to the document. Kyle, whose best-selling book American Sniper was later made into a Hollywood blockbuster, wrote that he had been awarded two Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars.  ... 

However, the Navy’s investigation of Kyle’s record, which began in 2012, determined that Kyle had commendations for one Silver Star and four Bronze Star medals with “V” devices. .... 

“After thoroughly reviewing all available records, the Navy determined an error was made in the issuance of Chief Petty Officer Chris Kyle’s form DD214,” Ensign Marc Rockwellpate, a Navy spokesman, said in a statement. “Specifically, the DD 214 did not accurately reflect the decorations and awards to which Kyle was officially entitled. After notifying his family of the error, the Navy issued a corrected copy of the DD 214, which accurately reflects Kyle’s years of honorable and extraordinary Navy service.” 

.

Where Is The Safest Place To Avoid Gun Accidents? Shooting Ranges?

Those of us who fight gun violence are always pointing out the one, irrefutable truth about firearms:  guns are designed to fire with deadly force, quickly and easily.  Because of this, where guns go, gun violence follows.  The same is true of unintentional shootings  (note that I'm distinguishing between "accidents" and unintentional shootings, since the term "accident" suggests that an incident is somehow unavoidable).  Literally every day I read about unintentional shootings, often with children, but there's no shortage of these shootings involving adults, too.  Here is a sampling of them.  Most of these are by previously law-abiding citizens, some with conceal carry permits, like this guy (who just two days ago was a newly trained security guard showing off his gun to a friend.  He wound up shooting her in the head and killing her.)

To the gun guys, these daily accidents are just another cost of their "freedom."  To me, it's a disgraceful and avoidable shame.

When these unintentional shootings occur, the most common statement from pro-gun extremists is that the person who fired the gun just hadn't had sufficient training in the four rules of gun safety.  I say that's bullshit.  It's true that in most states, including here in Oregon, you don't need a moment of gun safety training to purchase a gun for your home, not a single shot fired.  But this is a lethal weapon.  Anyone with any common sense should realize it is deadly -- the reason it is purchased -- and should be treated as such at all times.  Here in Oregon you have to take a class for an hour or two, no live fire required by the state (although many programs do so anyway).  It's the same in many other states, such as Arizona (where THIS young lady wasn't even asked if she had fired a gun, much less had to do so for her conceal carry certification class).  I don't feel that a couple hours sitting at a desk or firing off a few dozen rounds at the shooting range is sufficient to render someone "safe" with their weapon, but at least they should have had someone drill the idea into their head for an hour.  Better than nothing, I guess.

Okay, so if there is any one place a person could go to avoid an accident, it would be with close supervision by an experienced firearms instructor, well-versed in teaching safety for a wide range of firearms and diverse clients of all ages, right?  Like a shooting range.  The four rules of gun safety should be prominent in everything that happens there, posted on the walls, and evident with every step in the process of picking up, loading, firing, and setting down the gun.  I've been to a few shooting ranges and shot handguns and rifles at them, from my old Boy Scout camp in the woods of Arkansas to an indoor police range here in Oregon.  They all featured the four rules in one form or another and apparently competent instructors.

So I would say that shooting ranges and firearms safety classes should be pretty foolproof for safety.  Wouldn't you agree?

Except they aren't.

(Note: Additional updated incidents will be added as they occur.  See below.) 

1/24/12 -- Eastlake, Ohio:  A man attempts to clear his weapon and unintentionally sends a .357 round through the stall wall, hitting his friend on the other side.  The friend dies from the wound.

1/28/12 -- Rowlett, Texas:  After numerous stray bullets hit homes over a couple years, most recently flying through a wall and nearly hitting a 5-year old boy, the town moves to shut down the shooting range.

"It's just a parent's worst nightmare," she said. "The idea of a child getting hurt or killed, especially in a house -- it shouldn't happen in a house."

Police said the bullets were from a high powered rifle that could have traveled a distance.

"It's just scary," Bowman said. "Had they been playing in here, they would have been in the path of the bullet, and who knows what would have happened."

2/7/12 -- Sitka, Alaska:  A man at a shooting range was re-holstering his weapon when it fired, killing him.

3/20/12 -- Custer, South Dakota:  Residents call for the shutting down of a shooting range after reports of bullets flying through residential neighborhoods.

"You go outside and you don't really feel safe when they're shooting. I've had two bullets, heard them ricochet up and come towards over in that area across the highway," neighbor Quinten Arp said.

"It's right next to the highway, right next to the houses and it's not a place for a gun range," Arp said.

3/10/12 -- San Antonio, Texas:  A court halts rifle fire at a shooting range after a nearby golfer was struck by a stray bullet.

3/23/12 -- Boise, Idaho:  25-year-old Kevin Kuhn died of a self-inflicted wound to the forehead at an indoor range run by Impact Guns in Boise.  Despite being a forehead wound, police believe it likely wasn't a suicide due to the fact that the gun was at an intermediate range and not directly against the skin when it fired.

3/26/12 -- Charleston, North Carolina:  60-year-old Benny Patterson was shooting at the range in the Trader World Gun Shot when he stopped to inspect his weapon, but he discharged it unintentionally, hitting himself in the chest and dying from the wound.

4/14/12 -- Fayetteville, North Carolina:  a man at an indoor shooting range tries to clear his gun, but it discharges, sending a round through his leg.

4/16/12 -- Texas City, Texas:  The rangemaster at a city municipal shooting range tried to unjam a handgun when it fires, sending a  round through his hand.

4/18/12 -- Paulden, Arizona:  A man who was attending a basic pistol class at the Gunsite Academy went to holster his weapon and sent a round through his leg.

4/24/12 -- Roanoke, Virginia:  A man and woman were taking a firearms safety class when he unintentionally fired his .45-caliber handgun through his hand in into his wife's leg.  The man who shot himself said the shooting was a "stupid accident."

4/26/12 -- Galveston, Indiana:  A gun store and shooting range was having a "shooting event" which featured a .308-caliber Russian-made machine gun.  Unfortunately, they also rained bullets downon the surrounding residential neighborhood, nearly hitting a mother and her 5-yearold daughter as they sat for lunch.

At first she thought someone was throwing rocks, but when she heard a popping noise she realized it was gunfire and called 911.

“I just didn’t know where to go,” Stout said. “I had to go get my phone and I thought, ‘What if they start shooting again?’ ”

Police found a bullet lodged in a wooden door frame inside the home and another bullet in the drywall upstairs. The first bullet nearly hit the mother and daughter, a police report said.

“If the round would have traveled three inches to the right, there is a high probability chance that Lori and/or her daughter could have been struck,” the report said.

(see below for additional shooting incidents added since the initial posting)

And that's just the instances I've heard of this year.  I didn't search back through last year or prior.

No wonder cities all over the country are trying to shut down shooting ranges or prevent them from being built.  Some say the issue is noise from the guns.  But let's face it: no one is comfortable with the idea of bullets whizzing around their neighborhoods.  In the words of the owner of that shooting range in Custer, South Dakota, that's being attacked for its poor safety:

" I will not and cannot guarantee that a round will never escape this premises. You just can't do it."

And that's the problem.  All it takes is one bullet with an unfortunate trajectory to kill someone.

Citizens in Chickamauga, Georgia, for instance, are objecting to the building of a shooting range there, only 400 feet from a daycare and school.

Here's a Chicago neighborhood who objected to the building of a police shooting range near them.  Using an environmental argument, they succeeded in blocking the plan.

Increasingly ostracized, it's harder all the time to find a location far enough away from civilized areas to build a shooting range.  Here's one in West Virginia that is getting opposition to build near a cemetery (in an ironic way, maybe the only suitable landmark to be near a shooting range).  And here's one in Maine which was evicted from their old location and has to settle on an old sludge pit!

So if shooting ranges with instructors aren't safe enough, then where can you possibly go without fear of being shot by some idiot who isn't mindful of his weapon?

Anywhere there isn't a gun, obviously.

UPDATES:

More gun range shootings since posting this entry:

4/27/12 -- Gas City, Indiana:  A Muncie man unintentionally fires his SKS military-style semi-auto assault rifle at a shooting range, hitting himself twice in the abdomen.  He is expected to survive.

5/7/12 -- Onalaska, Washington:  A woman being trained in drawing and re-holstering her 9mm handgun unintentionally shot herself while re-holstering it into her concealed hoster.  The wound was non-life-threatening.

5/8/12 -- Scottsdale, Arizona:  A 52-year old man accidentally shot himself in the chest at the Scottsdale Gun Club.

5/11/12 -- Lincoln County, Idaho:  A police officer, training during an NRA officer training course, accidentally shoots himself at a gun range.

5/28/12 -- Laguna Hills, California:  32-year old Kenneth Matthew Wells wrote a suicide note, went to a shooting range, rented a gun, stepped into the shooting range, and shot himself dead with one round to the head. 

6/12 -- Brighton, Michigan:  Charles Kimball and his friend Jessce Stearn were at the Livingston Conservation and Sports Association gun range when Stearn shot Kimball in the head with a replica AK-47, killing him.  The shooting was later determined to be intentional murder.

6/15/12 -- West Palm Beach, Florida:  A patron at the Shoot Straight shooting range was unintentionally hit and wounded by a ricochet bullet.

6/21/12 -- Galeton, Colorado:  A 71-year old man, Wayne Harrison of Greeley, unintentionally fired his .357-caliber revolver while trying to holster it, while at a gun club, shooting himself in the stomach.  He was taken to a hospital and was in stable condition (related article).

6/21/12 -- Wichita, Kansas:  A law-enforcement recruit was struck by a ricochet bullet while practicing, and had minor injuries, at a firing range near Lake Afton.

6/23/12 -- Utah Lake, Utah:  A wildfire was started after a person at a shooting range shot at and hit an exploding target.  (So far there have been at least 20 wildfires started by exploding targets in Utah alone, so far this year).

7/2/12 -- Brighton Township, Michigan:  Four friends, three males aged 19 and a 16-year old female, went to a gun range to fire an AK-47.  The gun jammed, as it had in the past.  In trying to clear the jam, it discharged, hitting and killing one of the 19 year olds.

7/4/12 -- West Palm Beach, Florida:  A woman accidentally shoots her boyfriend in the ankle at Gator Guns and Archery Center. 

7/7/12 -- Green Garden Township, Illinois:  Bullets pepper a nearby home, including a round that nearly hit two teen boys inside, shot from a private home shooting range, where a party with 25-30 shooters were firing weapons under the supervision of an ex-Marine tactical firearms trainer.

7/17/12 -- Houston, Texas:  A police officer was at the Houston Police Department Academy firing range, cleaning his weapon, thinking it was unloaded.  He accidentally fired the weapon, hitting the floor. A bullet fragment wounded him above his eyebrow.  

7/19/12 -- Petaluma, California:  A man who was an award-winning marksman and lifetime shooter was shooting alone at a shooting range when he went to get his shotgun from the car.  The gun was loaded, and when he pulled it out, barrel pointed toward him, it discharged, striking him in the chest and killing him.  "He was a very, very safe person," said his wife and mother of their two children.

8/26/12 -- Scottsdale, Arizona:  A man commits suicide at the Scottsdale Gun Club.  (In May, a man had accidentally shot himself at the same gun club).

9/28/12 -- Muskogee, Oklahoma:  James Woolard, 44, was doing target practice at a gun range at Camp Gruber shot himself to death in what appears to be an accident. 

10/15/12 -- Fort Myers, Florida:  Richard Arlen Kelley, 75, walked into Fowler Firearms and Gun Range for the second time, rented a gun, and spent 20 minutes shooting before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide.

10/19/12 -- Gardiner, Maine:  Kennebec County Sheriff, and Iraq War veteran, Randall Liberty was kneeling at a shooting range when he was struck in the back by a .45-caliber round.  Luckily, he was wearing a tactical vest which dissipated the round, and was uninjured other than a large bruise and swelling.

10/29/12 -- Cedar Falls, Iowa:  A man was allowing his 5-year old daughter to shoot a .22 rifle at Black Hawk Park's recreational  range when the girl's 8-year old brother walked across the firing line.  She unintentionally shot him once in the head.  No charges are being filed against the gun owner.

10/30/12 -- Fullerton, California:  A police officer was undergoing monthly qualifications in the police shooting range when he unintentionally shot himself in the leg, with minor injuries.

10/30/12 -- Wyoming, Michigan:  41-year old Mark Sobie (a convicted felon who had in 2009 tried to rob a bank with a toy gun) rented a gun at the Silver Bullet Firearms shooting range and committed suicide with it, due to depression over the death of his son. Though a convicted felon, Sobie did not have to undergo a background check to rent the gun.

11/4/12 -- Ferris, Texas:  Veteran firearms trainer Sonny Puzikas decided to have one last run through a "close combat" shooting range at the Texas Defensive Shooting Academy, where, according to the founder, "allows shooters the ability to shoot the way they want, without the stringent rules imposed like most other ranges."  Unfortunately, the area wasn't clear, and Puzikas unintentionally shot an assistant shooting instructor three times, in the abdomen, hand, and bicep. Luckily he will survive.

11/7/12 -- San Antonio, Texas:  A man rented a gun at the A Place To Shoot gun range and, after firing off a number of rounds, killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot using the weapon. It was ruled a suicide after two suicide notes were found in his car.

11/13/12 -- Alamance County, North Carolina:  An Alamance County Sheriff's Deputy was in the midst of firearm certification at the Sheriff's Department shooting range when he stumbled while holstering his weapon, unintentionally shooting himself with his .40-caliber handgun.  His wound was non-life-threatening.

11/24/12 -- Cheatham County, Tennessee:  A 13-year old boy was with his family and was retrieving targets.  That's when a woman moved a number of firearms on a nearby bench, discharging a .22-caliber revolver and striking the boy in the abdomen.  Luckily the wound was not life-threatening.

11/29/12 -- Nevada, Texas:  A 5-year old boy was injured by flying glass, and narrowly missed, when a stray bullet went through his car window, shot from the neighboring Armadillo Gun Range, despite the use of dirt berms around the range.

11/30/12 -- West Columbia, South Carolina:  A 62-year old man was taking apart his gun at Shooter's Choice gun range when he unintentionally discharged it, shooting himself in the chest.  He died shortly after.

1/19/13 -- El Paso, Texas:  A woman at the Dragonman's pistol range unintentionally fired her gun while reloading.  The round hit a trash can and the ricochet wounded her on the leg.  Another woman was also slightly hurt.

1/20/13 -- Marshfield, Wisconsin:  53-year-old Stephen Sammartino at the Wood County Rifle Range was attempting to clear his gun when he unintentionally discharged it, hitting his 25-year old son in the back.  His son was flown to the hospital in critical condition.  No charges.

2/2/13 -- Glen Rose, Texas:  Famed, record-holding SEAL team sniper, gun trainer, and pro-gun spokesman Chris Kyle, was shot to death, along with another man, by a suspect who suffered from PTSD and other serious mental illness, at a shooting range at the Rough Creek Lodge.

2/5/13 -- Hatfield Township, Pennsylvania:   Sgt. Stephen Gillen, a 23-year police veteran, of the Upper Gwynedd Township Police Department was conducting annual firearms training at a police shooting range when he unintentionally fired a round into his left foot while he was removing the weapon from his holster.

2/24/13 -- Dallas, Texas:  A shooter at the DFW Gun Range stupidly decided to use tracer bullets while target shooting. Being a type of small flare, they caught the building on fire. Around 50 people had to be evacuated as the building was engulfed in flames, with multiple small explosions, in this four-alarm fire.  No charges were filed.

2/27/13 -- Dalton, Georgia:  A young girl was allowed to shoot a double-barreled shotgun at the Chestnut Mountain Shooting Range.  The kickback was too strong for the girl after she fired the gun, causing her to drop the weapon, whereupon it discharged again.  The shot hit and injured two people in their legs.  No charges were filed against the girl or whomever allowed her to shoot.

3/3/13 -- Waldorf, Maryland:  61-year-old Patrick Allen Richards of Hughesville, who was target shooting at The St. Charles Sportsman's Club, unintentionally discharged his gun while it was pointed at his upper body, possibly as part of a recoil accident.  The shot killed him.

3/22/13 -- Gaston County, North Carolina: A student at the Gastonia Police Firearms and Tactical Training Center shooting range had problems with his handgun, and while investigating it with a trainer, they discharged it, hitting a deputy from the Gaston County Sheriff's Office in the hip.

TOTAL: 46