Don't Play With Guns -Part 2

Rule #1 when dealing with firearms is: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED. No matter how sure you are a gun is not loaded -never, ever point it at someone (or yourself) unless you intend the gun to fire. You have to live by this rule at all times to prevent accidental shootings.

Yesterday, I was the first person to arrive at an attempted suicide scene. When I arrived at the apartment complex a young woman was in front of her door screaming at me to hurry. She was frantic and kept yelling, "Oh my God!!", and "He's dead!!" I raced into the bedroom of the apartment and saw a 21 year old man lying on the floor with a terrible gunshot wound to the side and front of his head. A small semi-automatic pistol was on the ground by his feet. He was convulsing slightly and I could tell he was still breathing but there was a large amount of brain matter and blood beneath his head. More officers and the paramedics arrived so I escorted the woman away from the scene to find out what happened.

She was crying hysterically but was able to tell me what happened: She and her boyfriend lived in the apartment together and their next door neighbor was broken into the night before. The boyfriend went to a pawn shop and bought a pistol for protection. She was afraid of guns and didn't want him to have it. While both were in the bedroom together, he took it out and starting playing with it. He didn't know anything about guns and had never owned one before. He was joking around with the gun which made her nervous so she told him to put it away. He then said, "watch this", racked the slide, put the gun to his right temple and pulled the trigger. She was only a few feet away when the bullet ripped through his temple, exited through his forehead, and ended up in the ceiling. He fell on his back and began convulsing and choking on his own blood. She had to roll him onto his side to help clear a breathing passage.

He was rushed to the hospital and, last I heard, was in stable condition. He was breathing on his own but lost a lot of blood and tissue. The surgeon gave a 50-50 chance of survival with severe brain damage if he lives.

The girlfriend stayed with me in my patrol car for a few hours while the detectives investigated at the scene. She was traumatized by the shooting and had a hard time settling down. I felt helpless trying to calm her down and console her.