Man shoots himself in both legs with Taurus Judge while driving
A Tennessee man dropped his revolver whilst driving and managed to negligently discharge it into his legs. This type of negligent discharge is more common with semi-auto pistols than with double action revolvers, which have a much heavier trigger pull. It sounds the Taurus Judge was loaded with a .410 slug ...
When Newberry reached down to pick it up, he grabbed it by the trigger and The Judge went off, Knoll said.
This handgun can fire either .45-caliber bullets or .410 shotgun shells.
According to the news release, the .410 round went into Newberry's right thigh, exited and hit him in the left leg just above the ankle. He was able to pull the car into the median at about mile marker 6 and call 911.
[ Many thanks to B for emailing me the link. ]
“A new found respect [for the four rules]“, this dude is lucky if he’s only walking with a limp; as others have implied, he could have spoken in a higher octave, too!
It does sound like it hadn’t hit the floor before he activated ol’ bullet.
But, it’s fortunate he wasn’t texting or using his cellphone not hands-free — someone could have gotten hurt!
If he had been a few inches higher, he would’ve removed himself from the gene pool, thereby eliminating the chances that there’d be one more idiot out there bleating about “how dangerous these things are”…probably with his ambulance-chasing lawyer at his side, as he sues Taurus, “Joe’s Gun World” and Shotgun News for “contributing to his catastrophic injurys”. And, yes, this comment is DRIPPING with sarcasm…
Don’t you just hate it when that happens?
I think that it is the casual handling of firearms that cause these kind of things. You get a new gun, you look at it, rub it with an oiled cloth, cycle the action, dry fire it, load it, unload it, carry it, draw from the holster, put it away then pick it up and do it some more. After a while it is just easy to treat a gun casually and blur the 4 Rules. Anybody who has experienced an AD develops a new found respect, this dude will also walk with a limp.
Drawback of the lovely second Amendment. Idiots get guns.
But he should’ve kept his Judge in a safe holster, uncocked and EVERYTHING away from the trigger. Gun safety is important, and some idiots need to learn it. Judges don’t cock themselves.
You should have to take an IQ test before you’re allowed to buy a gun…
Ok, lets be real about this. No falling from under the seat, no picking it up from the floor of the car. Think realistically, and look at projectile path of travel. Through right thigh and left ankle. Simple, the Judge was hiding in his right pocket and for some reason he reached into his pocket, cocked the revolver, and without thinking, decided to to draw the revolver rather quickly and doing so placed his finger on the trigger while still in his pocket. Here in lies the ballistic trajectory. Revolver discharges and travels in a slightly leftward direction, passing through somewhere left of center of the right thigh and passing through the left ankle. As and added note, I have never carried a hand gun of any kind in my pocket.
Why would any sane person handle a loaded gun AT ALL while driving?
Unless the bullet did a u-turn how did it fire from down on the floor through his right thigh and then into his left ankle? Sounds more like the wound you might get if someone in the passenger side shot you in the leg.
From what I’ve read, it says the gun “fell” ?? from under the seat? What happened? Did gravity suddenly stop, and the gun was floating around in his car? How does a gun fall from under the seat? It’s laying on the floor!
And trying to recreate it, he must have had his right arm at least by his waist or higher and pulled the trigger, because as we all know, guns do not fire by themselves!
Which bar was he coming from or going to?
Joshua,
We cannot presume all semis (be them SA or DA) are carried with the safety on. While this may be ideal it is not always true. There are many cases where I have seen SA semi-autos carried at the half cocked position and no safety on, or a DA decocked and no safety on. People feel those positions are safe enough and continue on.
More fodder for the gun grabbers.
The hammer might have cocked while the revolver was being thrown around the footwell.
Never the less, if people would stop being so lazy we wouldn’t have all of these NDs. If this brain surgeon would’ve just turned off the highway, stopped his car, got out and picked up the revolver this wouldn’t have happened.
Apart from the lousy carry method he was using this is like those astrophysicists who for some reson drop their rifle and try to grab it (usually by the pistol grip) mid-flight. LET THE DAMNED THING HIT THE DIRT and THEN pick it up. Better yet, learn not to drop your gat/use a goddamn sling.
Seriously, it’s like morons who act all tactical n’ shit but can’t keep their damn fingers outside the triggerguard.
“I got this, it’s on safe anyways…”
“No it’s not, moron.”
“Yes it is….oh…it’s all good though, I didn’t shoot anyone.”
“Please suck on your rifle and die. Twice”
I don’t want to start a gun ownership arguement, but this kind of story does tend to back up the idea that there are some people who are just too stupid or careless to be allowed to handle a gun.
I suspect he could claim that when it fell from under his seat, the hammer was somehow snagged and cocked on the seat supports or carpet or something. That doesn’t explain why he would willingly lift a gun by the trigger without ensuring that the hammer was down. A Judge can’t cock itself.
So he was leaning down to get it and the gun discharged hitting him in the right thigh and then in the left ankle.
Anyone else see something in this that doesn’t make sense?
I’m going to guess that as he grabbed the Judge off the floor and was raising it up with his right arm. He had a finger on the trigger and the gun got hung up on something but he kept pulling. That’s the most likely scenario considering that the shot came from the OUTside of his right thigh.
I am throwing the flag on that story. BEE ESS. There has got to be A LOT more to it than that.
and he was handling it while driving, WHY??
having done a drive by(at in-animate objects!) I’d say the judge a poor choice for that activity, even with slugs…
Serriously, how dumb can you, be?
Here’s a link to the article -
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44183219/ns/us_news-weird_news/
It would appear that Newberry’s Judge fell out from under his seat and he shot himself leaning down to pick it up.
That’s talented. I own a Taurus Judge, the trigger pull is pretty heavy. Maybe he had the hammer pulled back for some reason?
Epic fail… Both legs? wow… this is why people should have holsters…
On one side, he’s a moron. On the other side, you gotta give him credit for managing to pull over without crashing after just getting shot in both legs.
Ahh…the dumb ass had weed in his car.
Originally I just wanted to post, “What?”
But I have too many questions. Did he have the hammer back? Did he have work done on the trigger?
If I were to drop a gun while driving I’d think I’d pull over before I tried to pick it up. If I didn’t pull over, I don’t think I’d grab it by the trigger…no matter what.
Greetings from Texas,
The only way I can think of to do that would be to carry the weapon on full cock. Truely bad plan.
The Darwin is very strong on this one. Then again, if he was carrying the Judge… hmmm…
Something isn’t right. I can see it got snagged on the seat lever when he tried to pick it up. Unless he is a full retard how can he not know that the trigger is being depressed?
*sigh*
following rules and using holsters can alleviate those things.
Who would grab a gun and decide to reach for the trigger??? He should just pull over and pick up the gun properly. It’s kind of strange that we are hearing a lot about weird gun-related accidents lately.
So, I guess the 410 shells DO penetrate.
The obvious question is, what the fuck was he doing with the revolver out of a holster and in his hand while he was driving?
Not sure what you mean about this type of discharge being more common with semiauto pistols. Maybe you mean striker-fired pistols, since they commonly don’t have an external safety. Most semiauto pistols are either DA/SA, in which case they are typically carried hammer-down, safety-on, and this type of discharge is doubly unlikely, or they’re SA, in which case they’re carried hammer-cocked, safety-on, and the safety is standing between you and an unintentional trigger-pull.
Seems to me like a DA revolver, with no safety at all, is more likely to discharge this way, and a striker-fired pistol, with a light pull and no external safety, would be the most likely to discharge this way.
If you’ve got statistics to contradict me, I’m all ears.
“The obvious question is, what the fuck was he doing with the revolver out of a holster and in his hand while he was driving?”
My guess is he had it out during a road rage incident.