[Mayor Al]

Today I was at a gun auction held at a major auction house here in Indiana. i bought several firearms using the usual process... I got there early, and picked up and examined the guns I had labeled as "of interest" to me. So did a couple of hundred other folks. Then we sat thru the bidding process, where each gun was displayed and carried around the room while folks bid (or not) on it. Then at the end of the auction when the payment and legal-check was done, I stuck the gun in its box and, with the others I bought, brought it home.

At home I was showing the days purchases to my wife and a neighbor, when I took the 40 caliber handgun out of the box and pulled the slide back, a live round was ejected...I was so suprised I let the slide go, chambering another round. This time I dropped the magazine and pulled the slide to eject the last round. Total round count 9. But the gun had been loaded with one in the chamber thru the whole days operation...no telling how many people handled it. We are just lucky there was no accidental discharge.

I have notified the auction company and hope they will take steps to prevent another occurence of this possible shooting accident in the future.

 

[jaxrider14]

Wow! That auction house really needs to establish some ironclad safety procedures.
That is ridiculous.

 

[WvDave]

Good thing nobody wanted to see what the trigger felt like.

 

[James6591]

Wow! That auction house really needs to establish some ironclad safety procedures.
That is ridiculous.

Precisely.

 

[hightechredneck123]

That's a little scary.

 

[Larry the Liberal]

Mayor Al ... when you contact the auction house remind them of their liability exposure. Also, you might want to suggest that they hire a NRA certified Range Safety Officer or Range Master to safety check their inventory before the public has a chance to handle them.

 

[bwinters]

I have seen loaded firearms on gun store shelves let alone an auction house.

 

[Mayor Al]

One of the odd 'quirks' about this incident is that as part of the safety announcements at the start of the auction, they reminded everyone NOT to bring ammo into the place to check for proper-chambering etc. So they wanted the buyers to be safe...but apparently if the gun is/was NIB rated, they did not check all of them. We'll see next time if they impliment any additional safety checks.

Meantime, I have 7 'new to me' long guns and 3 handguns to get familiar with today. Descriptions and photos will be posted on my thread about the auction content.

 

[mk34techrep]

Recently at a gun show in Richmond VA, a young man picked up a 15-22, started looking it over, pointed it up towards the ceiling and pulled the trigger and low & behold it fired, started a mass confusion, cops rushed over surrounded the young man thinking it was a robbery or shooting. Imagine the dealers surprise and everyone ducking for cover. just one of things you think would never happen...SAFETY FIRST...

 

[harryball]

Through a similar situation I learned that lesson. I always safety check any weapon I pick up when I pick it up no matter where it is. If I had discovered it at the auction house, I would have found a witness, cleared the weapon and brought it to their attention. The witness is important, you don't want anyone thinking you loaded it.

 

[78CJ5]

Tie straps are cheap insurance.

 

[Larry the Liberal]

... I always safety check any weapon I pick up when I pick it up no matter where it is. ...

Amen to that. Say it again harryball, say it again.

 

[RAC55]

I don't care where I am, weather it be an auction, my local gun shop, etc. I always clear any gun I pick up. or is handed to me first off. Trust, but verify!

 

[Argo]

that's flippin' scary!!! i was just a gun show yesterday, as i said on another thread, and that makes me wonder now what the odds are that some weapon there might have had a round in the chamber. yikes!!

 

[jake888]

did any of ye see iraqveteran8888888 on youtube mosspawn is the stores name where he works?in the store they have a jar where they put all the bullets from guns people bring in and tell them that they have made safe,but when the guy behind the counter asks them to show its clear a round pops out,
they had a 1litre jar full of ammo!

 

[Hornet]

Thankfully nobody was hurt. I do recall last year I was at a gun show and some idiot picked up a gun and started dry firing it. No checking to see if a round was chambered or anything. Just started pulling the trigger. I thought several bystanders were going to jump on him and beat the crap out of him. It is indeed frightening to see what kind of morons are running around out there.

 

[harryball]

"You never know when a gun is loaded" should be the motto.

I watched a guy at a gun show pick up a gun, look it over, look DOWN the barrel and pull the trigger while still looking down the barrel! Then dry fire it holding it sideways with his arm arched like the gang movies.

did I just see that?

 

[Dawgface]

At the few gun shows I have attended here in the SouthWest all guns plastic tied so they can not be cycled. That includes all guns on display and guns being brought in my attendees.

Also at the CCW class I took it was instilled in us to always safety check all guns that we pickup or are handed to us by owners whether they just cleared the weapon or not.

 

[GunLover]

I argee that you should always double check a gun to make sure it's unloaded when at gun shows or wherever. As far as my own guns, I don't have to check them, I know their LOADED!

 

[Dsteele]

I would love to have heard what the auction house had to say when you brought that to their attention.