James Baker, a 64-year-old owner of a gun store in Amelia, Ohio, died after he was shot in the neck during a shooting lesson at the store. This was the result of an accidental gun fire during a class. The person who misfired the weapon by accident was practicing weapon malfunction drills.
Sources claim that the student was in the conceal carry class; however, the conceal carry class doesn’t include weapon malfunction drills.
There were 10 people in the conceal carry class at the KayJay gun shop in Amelia just 20 miles east of Cincinnati. The student responsible for the accident was doing some weapon malfunction drills. The bullet passed through a wall and struck Baker, who was sitting in the adjacent room; we are not sure what Baker was doing in the other room. Also, it is unclear why a person in the conceal carry class would need to do weapon malfunction drills. The police have said that it was an accident.
According to the shop’s website, the conceal carry class included basic pistol safety, two hours of range time, and two hours reviewing Ohio gun laws. Another class on Tactical Rifles and one on Pistols included the malfunction drills.
For those of you like me who don’t know that much about gun classes, a weapon malfunction drill involves cleaning a gun that has malfunctioned. It involves cleaning out malfunctioned rounds. If that doesn’t work, then the whole magazine may be messed up.
Baker died on the scene. His neighbor, Anita Fritz, had this to say about him:
“I can’t say enough about him – how much he was loved by the whole community – and we lost someone really special. He loved and wanted to protect. That’s why he did what he did.”
“…Sheriffs and the cops come in and out all the time because they loved him, you know? Everybody did. All the neighbours did. So it’s a tragic thing that happened.”
In addition to offering classes, the shop sells firearms, engrave and clean guns, and has the authorization to manufacture their own guns and ammunition. They also have a “C” license, meaning that they can sell military-grade weapons.
The student responsible has not been identified. The gun shop has not issued any comments since the incident.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
