“CARTER LAKE, Iowa - A Carter Lake police officer is recovering after officials say the police chief accidentally shot him at police headquarters.
City Attorney Joe Thornton says Police Chief Shawn Kannedy was discussing firearms with two officers on Wednesday when Kannedy's weapon went off. Sgt. Dan Driver was hit in the torso.
Driver was taken to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., where he was reported in good condition.
Kannedy was placed on administrative leave.”
These sort of stories just make me crazy. I worked from 1972 to 2000 as a hospital security officer. I was armed. I was a small town police officer for ten years. Never did my firearm every go off accidentally.
You never point a firearm at any person unless you plan to shoot them. You always treat the firearm as if it is loaded even when you know it is not. You never put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
I never showed my gun to people. I never talked about it with people.
I did have to point my firearm at a few people over the years. I never had my finger on the trigger because I did not go into shoot mode.
When I worked at Trinity Lutheran Hospital during the Republican National Convention (1976) we went to 12 hour shifts at the hospital during the convention. We had one officer that accidentally fired his 38 cal handgun. He said he was coming in to work and was on the stairs and the handgun fell and went off accidentally.
The officer was a NRA member…he was always talking about guns..bringing in gun magazines…and showing his gun in the office.
I told the boss he did not drop the gun and if he did it would not have gone off. The boss said oh yes that is what happened…the boss put out a policy statement saying all officers would only have five rounds in their weapon and have the chamber under the hammer empty. I told the boss it was a stupid policy and I would not follow it and that I had six rounds in my weapon and if he wanted to fire me to go ahead and do it. He did not fire me of course.
A year or so later the office told me what the real story was about the accident. He was showing the gun to a fellow gun nut that worked as a respiratory therapist at the hospital when the gun went off.
During the time I was a police officer (Raymore, MO) one of the officers, that was a gun nut and always talking about guns, was showing his gun to someone on the midnight shift and it went off by accident and the round went through the wall into an office. Since it was midnights no one was in the office.
After the first year or two that I worked at TLH the boss had me do interviews when we were looking for new employees. The Director of Personnel told me in private that they liked it when I did the interviews because I did a better job. That made me feel pretty good.
When I did the interview and did my little talk and then asked the questions then when I asked do you have any questions…if the first question for me was something about the firearm that guy did not get hired.
OK I have vented on this subject…Like I said..I read these sorts of stories and it just drives me crazy.
