Tragic Violation of Rules 1, 2, and 4

A UK soldier killed his best friend in Afghanistan while cleaning his rifle:

Ranger Dalzell, of 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment, died from a single shot to the chest while erecting a commemorative flag pole for a colleague who had been killed by an improvised explosive device.

The 20-year-old from Bangor in County Down, Northern Ireland, and his comrades had returned just 20 minutes earlier from a patrol in the Nad-e-Ali district of Helmand and were relaxing at Check Point Ranger when the incident happened at 11.20am on February 4, 2011.

Ranger Sean Barry had stripped and cleaned his SA-80 rifle in an attempt to stop the safety catch and magazine sticking but failed to notice the magazine was still attached as he carried out a functioning test and a shot was fired, killing his friend instantly.

Jeff Cooper's rules for gun safety can be found in my blog sidebar. Rule 1 is A gun is always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are. Rule 2 is Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist that this particular gun is unloaded, see Rule 1.) Rule 4 is Identify your target, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything that you have not positively identified.

The soldier who committed this tragic act isn't making excuses for himself:

Ranger Barry, who went through basic training at Catterick and joined The Royal Irish Regiment alongside Ranger Dalzell, had noticed the problem with his rifle following the morning patrol.

To clean the weapon he sat at the end of a bench at the front end of an accommodation tent facing outwards towards where Ranger Dalzell was helping to put up the flag pole.

"When it was issued we were told to clean it and make sure we were happy with it and it was functioning," Ranger Barry said.

"I got out my cleaning kit and laid it on the table... I went through each piece individually, cleaned the whole weapon.

"When it had been stripped it was still hard to move so I used a bit of oil to free it up.

"I put the magazine on and off again making sure the oil was making it easier to come on and off."

Ranger Barry then went on to carry out a functioning test. He told the court this was always done with the magazine - which contained live ammunition - off the weapon.

"I did not realise the magazine was still attached," Ranger Barry said.

Asked if the rifle was pointed in a safe direction, he simply replied: "No."

"I was expecting just a click, but the force when it went off was a big shock to the system," Ranger Barry said.

The shot was fired out of the open accommodation tent and hit Ranger Dalzell, who was not wearing any body armour, in the chest.

Ranger Barry was working since 3am that morning and went out on patrol at 5.30am returning around 11am.

"We were tired for four or five months, so we got used to it, but I'd never use that as an excuse," Ranger Barry said.

"There were days where you were tired, but that was our job.

"It (weapons handling) is trained into you, when you're confident and you've done it a few times it does become second nature to you, but I'm not using that as an excuse."

The punishment?

Ranger Barry pleaded guilty at a court martial to a charge of negligently performing a duty while handling a service rifle causing the unintended discharge of a round.

He was sentenced to six months detention suspended for a year.

That, and a lifetime memory of having killed his best friend.

Robert Ruark, in The Old Man and the Boy, discussed gun safety:

I've seen just about everything happen with a gun. One fellow I know used to stand like Dan'l Boone with his hands crossed on the muzzle of his shotgun, and one day something mysterious happened and the gun went off and now he hasn't got any hands any more, which makes it inconvenient for him.

I've seen drunks messing with "unloaded" guns and the guns go off in the house, sobering everybody up. An automatic went crazy on me in a duck blind one day and fired every shot in its magazine. Habit had the gun pointed away from the other fellow, or I'd of shot his head off with a gun that was leaping like a crazy fire hose. I saw a man shoot his foot nearly off with a rifle he thought he'd ejected all the cartridges out of. I saw another man on a deer hunt fire into a bush a buck went into and make a widow out of his best friend's wife.