"I just didn't have my hand on the trigger."

That's what Arizona State Senator Laurie Klein said when she pointed a gun at a reporter

I don't quite know what I think of the stress in various articles about her carrying a firearm all the time make of it being a "raspberry pink" .380 Ruger. I do know that painting someone with a laser sight... not on.

Reckless, in fact.

Klein made headlines in January after bringing her loaded gun into the House and Senate chambers just two days after the mass shooting in Tucson.

Klein says she carries the gun in her purse. In the past she's said that her Ruger goes wherever she does. And according to Sunday's article, the Republican lawmaker said her gun was "so cute" right before pulling out.

She then pointed it at Ruelas, who reported the red dot from the gun's laser sighting was visible on his chest. Klein later told the Republic reporter that she has taken informal gun training and was "taught gun safety by her father." Ruelas was unavailable for comment.

Here's a story, about gun safety.

Some years ago... maybe 1997? I was the center safety on a range. We were qualifying on the M-16A1. There was a person there who was waiting for the next string. Because it was hot, and sunny as all hell on Edward's Air Force Base (the nearest rifle range to us) the waiting string was standing parallel to the shooters on the line, because there was shade.

A new person (who was joining the unit, I don't think he'd been actually assessed onto our books yet) let his rifle drift a little past vertical, maybe 15°. I too three steps, pulled the muzzle straight up and down and said, "Sir, you need to keep the muzzle vertical," and went back to watching the line.

Captain Embrich, the Officer in Charge, was complained to. Captain Kozak had been a little bit startled, and so felt a bit put out by a Specialist telling him what to do. Embrich asked if I'd corrected Kozak, and I told him how I'd seen the events. Embrich's response was to tell me to make sure I was aware of the respect due to rank. Not that he thought I was out of line, nor that I'd been less than adequately respectful, but he had to say something.

I've heard Kozak tell that story too, in a couple of different ways, an in none of them did he think my reaction was wrong (sometimes he thinks I was too quick on the draw, but never that my reacting to something I estimated to be wrong was incorrect; even if he wasn't as far off vertical as I thought).

This... This is so far beyond that. It's Assault.

Arizona would seem to classify it as, Chapter 12 §13-1201 Endangerment; classification

A. A person commits endangerment by recklessly endangering another person with a substantial risk of imminent death or physical injury.

B. Endangerment involving a substantial risk of imminent death is a class 6 felony. In all other cases, it is a class 1 misdemeanor.

I'd say that it counts as the felonius aspect of that law.

Informal training indeed. She pointed a loaded weapon as someone, activate the laser sight (pointing a laser at a cop in Ariz. is a misdemeanor; when there is no gun attached to it. It, reasonably, makes them nervous. Having had someone painting me with one, I can attest that it's not a comfortable feeling until one realises it's just a pointer. Which was why they were doing it).

Close range, "my finger wasn't on the trigger", and she laughed. All in good fun, right?

No.

This is stupid gun hanndling. Her CCW should be suspended. She should be charged. If she's convicted, her license to carry concealed should be revoked. Honestly... this being an act of stupid with a gun, I'd be inclined to say that she should have her right to own suspended for some period of time, and a significant amount of remedial training in firearm safety (to include time with graphic information on gun trauma) requited before she gets it back.

I'm willing to grant the benefit of the doubt to people. She's lost it, and now I'd make her earn the public trust again before she's allowed to walk around with lethal force, at a distance, in her pocket.

Time to tell some stories

I've been shooting for something like 40 years. I've spent a significant chunk of my life with a firearm in arms reach. I've spent more nights with a weapon that had rounds in the body (not in the chamber) than most people spend with their boyfriend/girlfriend (I'm leaving spouses out of it, but a significant number of marriages are for shorter timespans, altogether, than I've spent sleeping with an M-16).

It's why the story of Arizona State Senator Laurie Klein pointing a .380 at a reporter bothers me so. I know the ways in which things can go wrong.

I have had three cases of unintended discharge. One was on a range, with a rented revolver. I was firing single action and as I brought the weapon to target I put my finger on the trigger, which blew a hole in the ceiling. I don't where, exactly, because when I looked up I saw the entire are in front of all the stations was a tattered mess of acoustic tiles.

One was at an outdoor shooting area. Again it was a revolver. I'd not fired this .38, and I was going to dry fire it to see how the action was. It was handed to me. I emptied it. Pointed it downrange and promptly scared myself silly. I'd not double checked the shell count when I dropped the rounds into my pocket. One had been stuck in the cylinder.

Skip ahead. Maia and I had just started seeing each other. I was spending the night and a raccoon was after the chickens. She got the air rifle and I was lining up the shot when I discovered the trigger had a pull of something less than 2 lbs; and no slack. I put a hole in the tree.

Any of those could have been a disaster.

Iraq, June, 2003, the NW tip of the Sunni Triangle. I am (among other things) Armorer for OMT-5, which was a group of three Tactical HumInt Teams. We depended on our rifles to keep ourselves from getting killed. We spent a lot of time with them in, "Condition One" (i.e. loaded). Missions had a simple weapons drill, just before leaving the base, put a round, "in battery". Just after returning, clear it (i.e. remove the round from the chamber).

Clearing was done in a "clearing barrel". One put the muzzle of the weapon (pistol, or rifle), into a 55-gallon drum of sand, dropped the magazine, put the weapon on safe, and pulled the charging handle/slide to the rear. Put the weapon on fire, dropped the hammer.

SSG McKinnon did this, and when he put his rifle on safe... it went off.

I took that thing apart, trying to figure out what the malfunction was. Couldn't.

So when she says, "You weren't in any danger, my finger was off the trigger," I don't care. There are too many ways a weapon can malfunction. I've seen all sorts of weapons problems. I know what happens when something that's not supposed to be loaded, or live, or what have you (I was working, indirectly, for "The Crow" when Brandon Lee was killed with a, "prop" gun).

There is no such thing as, "safe" when a weapon is pointed at you.