The internet loves to fight over things. Many of these things don’t matter much, but sometimes they do. Firearm safety is one of those times when a little debate is worthy. And, how not to shoot your own groin is also worthy of some discussion.
In the video above, what we know for sure happened…
- A man was shot in his own leg through his groin muscle.
- This man was shot with his own gun, in its holster, while appendix carrying.
We can speculate how or why that all happened. What could have caused the gun to go off?
- Was the discharge of the firearm caused by some weird malfunction of the firearm or ammunition. Glock firearms don’t generally go off all by themselves without pressure on the trigger, and ammunition requires approximately 350 degrees Fahrenheit to spontaneously discharge.
- Clothing or some other foreign object could have gotten in the way of the trigger while holstering the gun, and when flexing that foreign object placed enough pressure on the trigger to discharge.
- A poorly made holster could have pressed against the trigger when leaning.
If you experience a discharge into your leg, the femoral artery is perfectly aligned while appendix carrying. This man is lucky to be alive. If shot in the femoral artery, you’ll most certainly bleed out while waiting for EMS, if someone in the immediate vicinity isn’t equipped and trained how to use a tourniquet.
That statement about the femoral artery is an important one. We talk about basic firearm safety and some of the safety rules we hear are “never point the firearm in an unsafe location”, or put another way, “always keep the firearm pointed in a generally safe direction”. I don’t think many people can make a valid argument that the femoral artery is a generally safe location. Do you?
Be armed. Be trained. Be Alpha.
And remember when you shoot yourself, it still hurts.