A man was killed by a gun fired by a dog? Is this a joke?
Alas no. Joe Smith, a 30-year-old from Wichita, Kansas, got into the van last Saturday morning. will put of his friend. The tandem was traveling on a country road south of town. In the back seat was his friend’s dog, along with hunting gear including a gun.
The circumstances of the tragedy are not fully known, but according to the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office (south of Wichita), it appears that at some point, “the dog stepped on the weapon, causing an explosion.” Joe Smith was shot in the back and died almost instantly.
So was it a tragic hunting accident?
This has been confirmed by the police who have already closed the file. Friends and co-workers of plumbing firm Joe Smith held a fundraiser this week to pay for his family’s funeral. Over $20,000 has been raised so far.
And yet, a shot from a dog… what misfortune!
Unfortunately, this is not the first time this has happened. The The Washington Post He reviewed it in an article published Wednesday. In 2004, a puppy in Florida put its paw on the trigger of its owner’s gun, injuring his arm. In 2015, an Indiana woman injured her leg after her Labrador retriever stepped on her unlocked gun and left it on the ground. In 2018, an accident similar to the one in Kansas happened in New Mexico when a passenger was in the back seat of a pickup truck. will put Caught at the trigger of his master’s gun. The man suffered a lung injury in the shooting.
What do these three accidents have in common? Neglect. “If basic safety measures had been respected, this, like many other accidents, could have been prevented,” said Duke University professor Philip J. Cook, writes Cooke, has authored several studies on the effects of the proliferation of firearms in the United States. “At the very least, the weapon should be unloaded and locked. If the people involved are hunters [comme les informations publiées le suggèrent], they should be familiar with safety rules. »
What are these safety rules?
In Canada and Quebec, they are clear: during transport or storage, an unloaded firearm (such as a hunting weapon) must be unloaded at all times. When transporting, it is recommended that firearms be stowed in a locked case, out of sight. Ammunition must be carried separately from the weapon. It goes without saying that the owner of the weapon must have a license to own a firearm.
It’s different in Kansas. The law allows a loaded firearm to be carried in a vehicle without a license, regardless of whether the loaded firearm is stored in a case or displayed in plain view.
If the two hunters did not violate Kansas law, Philip J. They may have followed “common sense” as Cooke refers to it.
Can we conclude that because guns are in circulation, there are more accidental deaths?
Yes definitely. “But above all it makes a difference,” notes Francis Langlois, professor at the Cégep de Trois-Rivières and co-researcher at the Raoul-Tandurant Chair in America’s laboratory. “There are countries like Switzerland where there are a lot of weapons, but surveillance makes a difference in the death rate,” he explains. There are exceptions, Langlois says, such as Vermont and Maine, where gun control is consistent with federal minimum standards while having a lower gun death rate than other states.
But the common denominator of many accidental and fatal shootings, whether they are by a dog or a movie actor, is “negligence,” Mr. Langlois recalled. “When inexperienced people handle weapons carelessly, it causes more accidents. Laws to regulate firearms exist for a reason. »
Most fatal accidents in the United States
In 2020, nearly 500 people were killed in accidental shootings in the United States. This is more than Canada even accounting for population. According to Statistics Canada, the number of people killed by accidental gunshots has been increasing over the past 20 years. Between 2000 and 2004, there were 18 to 20 deaths per year, before starting to decline to only 2 deaths in 2014 (the infamous weapon registry was removed in 2012). Over the past eight years, the death toll has started to rise again, reaching 15 deaths in 2020 (the last year data is available).
Learn more
-
- 15
- Number of accidental firearm deaths in Canada in 2020 (about 0.04 per 100,000 population)
Sources: Statistics Canada, Pew Research Centre
- 500
- Number of accidental firearm deaths in the United States in 2020 (approximately 0.15 per 100,000 population)
Sources: Statistics Canada, Pew Research Centre
