No felony charges against township trustee in concealed-carry class shooting

[SecularMotion]

LANCASTER, Ohio — A special prosecutor recommended yesterday that no felony charges be filed against a firearms instructor who accidentally shot a student who was taking his concealed-carry class last year.

Jeff Hunter, a former assistant prosecutor in Greene County who was appointed special prosecutor to look into the shooting, said he concluded the shooting was, indeed, accidental.

He also concluded that Terry J. Dunlap Sr. was not acting recklessly at the time of the shooting. That is, he was not playing with the gun or “goofing around,” Hunter said.

Dunlap, 74, is a Violet Township trustee who was re-elected last year.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/02/24/special-prosecutor-report-concealed-carry-class-shooting.html

[enough]

1. Incomprehensible. In that context, a gun-safety class, how can it not be reckless

for him to have a loaded gun in a position to shoot someone?

[Arkansas Granny]

2. This and similar stories only prove to me that even in the hands

of a "trained professional", guns can be dangerous. Something has gone awry when an instructor in a gun safety class cannot adequately control his own weapon without shooting a student and then gets to use "accident" as an excuse to avoid being prosecuted.

Explain that personal responsibility thing to me again.

[gejohnston]

3. not an excuse

and either of us know the details of the case, what the lawyer actually looks at. Everything that matters are in those minute details that the media doesn't mention, or does so incompetently when they do, are what actually matters. Almost everything is potentially dangerous even in the hands of a trained professional. In the case of guns, such accidents are almost non existent.
In order for there to be a crime, the instructor had to do something that either caused it or failed to do something that could have prevented it.

[enough]

4. He did fail to do something that could have prevented it. He failed to keep a

loaded gun secured and not pointing at somebody. That either means he failed to adequately confirm that the gun was not loaded, or he failed to keep control of the gun so that it would not be pointed at somebody. Or perhaps he failed to do both.

[gejohnston]

5. or,

there was a malfunction and the bullet ricocheted off the floor. Or, it was a cheap revolver without a transfer bar and the student dropped it. Neither of us actually knows, but the DA does and said he or she doesn't have the evidence to convince a jury of anything.

[enough]

6. I don't think it was from a student dropping it. The article states the instructor

"shot" the student.

Of course you are right that we don't know.

[ileus]

7. A little good news...thanks for sharing.