There’s a very human tendency to believe that as individuals, we are exceptional — we aren’t stupid like those idiots who do stupid things and suffer the stupid consequences. Even when we’re at our worst, we’re still ‘with it’ enough to take responsibility and keep ourselves and our loved ones alive. We need to believe that…and then, in a heartbeat, in the middle of proving to someone that we are responsible and together, something we would never predict happens, and suddenly, we’re just another statistic.
Take the example of Stryker Brigade Sergeant Nathan Michael Higginbotham. As a Sergeant in the U.S. Army, Higginbotham was responsible for the training of the soldiers under his command, and was expected to be unquestionably competent. And he was — but anyone can make a simple mistake.
“Higginbotham was in the process of confirming his personally owned .40 caliber Springfield XD was unloaded while at his acquaintance’s residence,” said Fairbanks Police Officer Doug Welborn. “He had run the slide on the firearm and ejected the loaded magazine. Higginbotham never cleared the chamber of the live round which had been loaded when he ran the slide. Higginbotham reportedly discharged the weapon at his head during this process to confirm with his friend it was unloaded.”
Higgenbotham was one of 31 Americans who died of gunshot wounds on January 30th, 2016, according to GunViolenceArchive.org. Only three of those shootings involved a police officer.
The next time you think that training and competence are the solution and that responsible gun owners cannot, in the blink of an eye, become a statistic just as easily as the rest of us, ask yourself: how long has it been since you made a mistake? How long will it be until you make your next mistake? Will there be a gun involved?
Here’s a thought: if your guns are in a cabinet, behind a lock, with no bullets in them, the answer will be ‘no’ a hell of a lot more often than if you keep a loaded gun in your nightstand. Guns aren’t the problem. People are the problem…but thinking that other people are the problem and you aren’t a statistic waiting to happen, well, that makes you a problem, too.
(Featured Image courtesy of The U.S. Army via Flickr, shared using a Creative Commons 2.0 license.)
