Remember that pilot who's pistol discharged...

[767Jockey]

Originally Posted by AMF

Let me first say, I'm a lifetime gun owner and enthusiast. I'm also a prior member of the military.

Having said those things....I don't need to know what happened. If someone else discharged his weapon, then he wasn't properly securing it. If he discharged his weapon, then he wasn't being careful enough. No further details needed.

UNLESS, UNLESS, UNLESS, you can take the weapon to a qualified armorer who can show that it had a mechanical defect or fault that made it malfunction and go off accidentally, then there's ZERO excuse for an accidental discharge. I'm sorry. This is a life and death matter. People (MANY) have died via accidental discharges. He should have been more careful.

If this program you speak of expected him to do something that put him in a position that was beyond his capability as a gun owner, then he should have had the brains to either stop and refuse or give up his rights to carry the thing until it got resolved. Again, this is a life and death matter. You wouldn't do something as a pilot that you knew to be overtly risky or beyond your capabilities just because a policy required it. You'd stop, ask for assistance, ask for retraining, ask for clarification, WHATEVER.

There are no excuses for YOUR weapon accidentally discharging....unless you have a mechanically defective gun/weapon (even in which case you still bare some of the culpability simply because you should be doing functions checks on the thing periodically.....after you clean it, which is often). And I could also see it happening if he was in some sort of conlict, strife or mortal danger....as in...he slipped on the jetway and he's hanging from the side of the aircraft and the gun falls or he's wrestling a rogue polar bear that's gotten loose in the airport and it goes off, or he's actually defending himself and the aircraft from a terrorist and it discharges.

You have no clue as to the weapon involved, more importantly the holster, the locking mechanism, and it's predication for accidental firing due to it's horrendous design. As I said previously, you know nothing of the situation. You're pretty darned judgmental for a guy that has zero knowledge of the situation. I'm done with this - go ahead, have your say. I'm done. I think the others on here know who knows what's going on in this very unique situation and who hasn't a clue.