The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office says a firearm safety demonstration turned deadly Friday when a 40-year-old Imperial man accidentally shot and killed himself.
Police say James Looney of the 4300 block of Rock Valley court was teaching his girlfriend about firearm safety when he put a gun to his head and asked her if it would go off. Police say he did this with two other weapons and varied safety mechanisms before the last one went off, said Lt. Dave Marshak.
Police also believe alcohol was involved.
“It was an unfortunate accident,” Marshak said. “Hopefully two lessons come of this: Always treat a weapon as if it’s loaded and never handle a firearm under the influence of alcohol.”
Marshak said the pair planned to go to a shooting range the next day, but Looney insisted on a firearm safety lesson the day prior. He was pronounced dead at an area hospital Saturday morning.
LINKHe violated the three most basic firearms safety rules:
ALWAYS keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction!
ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot!
ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until you are ready to use it!
Violating any one of them can be deadly, violate all three and you are more or less asking for somebody to get killed. Thankfully, nobody else was hurt. Idiot.
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