Help me figure out how this happened

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lcpiper

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If things happened the way they are reporting it this has got to be the freakiest gun accident of the year.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/man-accidentally-shoots-bowling-article-1.1345578

I would love to figure out how this could happen. The report says the gun was a revolver and all I can think of is that the cloth of the guy's shorts must have snagged on the hammer and pulled it back far enough that when the hammer came loose it had enough force to fire the shot.

I'd love to have confirmation of the gun model and if he had it in a pocket holster and if so what make and model of holster.

Anyone else see another possibility?
 
Possible. However, we only have the news story to tell us it was really a revolver. You know how reliable they are. It could have easily been an autoloader for all we really know.
 
Maybe I'm just cynical, but I'm betting that there's more to the story. As in "every bowling alley I've ever been in served beer . . . "
 
The only thing I can think of is an old, poorly made revolver with no firing pin or drop bar safety that was loaded with the hammer cocked. I can't imagine it pulling the trigger
 
Spats it did occur to me that maybe there is more to it then what anyone is letting on. I almost forgot about the beer though.

The only other revolver that comes to mind that might do this is maybe one of those derringer types without a trigger guard, if it was cocked. Which if it was one of those and he had it cocked loose in his pocket, he was begging for a hole in his body somewhere.
 
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Beer + bowling ball + pocket = Plaxico-Burress-like scenario?

No, I guess that one doesn't work for someone whose fingers are attached to a bowling ball... but I'd bet that beer played a role in this. And the bowling ball might not have...

:cool:
 
About the only way I can think of for this to happen without some, shall we say, stupefieing circumstances would be if he were carrying an older revolver of dubious quality that didn't have a well-designed transfer-bar or hammer-block safety. In that case, I could see him possibly striking the hammer with enough force to discharge the gun. Really though, I'm inclined to agree with others that there's probably more to the story that we haven't heard.
 
Depending on how old the revolver is there is a possibility that there was no hammer block or transfer bar style system. I remember hearing my dad and grandpa talk about revolvers that went off when they were dropped. The hammer would hit a solid object and the firing pin would be pushed forward with enough force to set off a round. I was about 10 when a kid down the street from me was killed because a loaded revolver was dropped on a front porch.
 
I much prefer this story. He had said revolver in his pocket without a holster. Threw his keys in the same pocket. He was cocking and unlocking his revolver feeling all cool and secret, cocked it, got called to bowl, keys got tangled in trigger, ball hit pocket, gun went bang....maybe?

You see, any other story requires star alignments which are unheard of, but being a dipwad with a loaded gun is quite common.

He could have also decided since he carries his Glock cocked & unlocked that he should do the same with his revolver.

I'm sure the truth will never be known because the truth would make him financially and criminally liable. Better to blame the gun.

Hey dipwad! That is what holsters are for!
 
"mark it zero!"

It's the main stream media, in New York no less. "The evil gun went off on its own, with magic" is all that will ever be reported. Don't blame the person, blame the tool has sadly become the norm.
 
What caught my attention is that he had a concealed carry permit. In NYC this is virtually impossible to get unless you are a celebrity, very well connected politically, or a mobster with connections. Just owning a handgun legally in NYC is pretty unusual, let alone legally carrying. I'll bet there is a lot more to this story.
 
True, Spats. . .very true.

Back when I was growing up, there was a motorcycle shop in town where all the would be bad guys hung out. There was this one guy who would come past the shop and stand up on the seat of his motorcycle. Just past the shop was a railroad bridge and the road curved to the right. He would guide the bike under the bridge and around the curve. Then one day, just around the curve, a car broke down and he hit it and got killed.

The thing that separates a lot of us from those who did not make it to adulthood, is the bad things that could have come together to kill us, for whatever reason, didn't. For others, the luck of the draw was against them.
 
Do NAA mini-revolvers have a transfer bar or something like that? Seems like a candidate to fit the claimed scenario/details.
 
Do NAA mini-revolvers have a transfer bar or something like that? Seems like a candidate to fit the claimed scenario/details.
Click to expand...

No, actually they don't. Instead they have safety slots milled into the cylinder between the chambers for the firing pin to rest in not dissimilar to those found on cap and ball revolvers such as the Remington Model 1858 New Army. I suppose it would be plausible that, had this individual been foolish enough to carry a NAA mini with the firing pin resting on a live round rather than in the safety notch that a blow from a bowling ball might be enough to discharge the revolver. As I said, however, he'd have to be pretty foolish to carry a NAA mini this way because use of the safety slots is clearly explained on page 3 of NAA's manual.

http://northamericanarms.com/pdfs/ownersm.pdf
 
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