The guy in Virginia who’s become a Brady poster child after ordering a beer in a restaurant and having his unholstered gun go off in his pocket is losing his permit for a year, and forfeits the gun he was carrying. He also pays a 500 dollar fine. The 30 day jail sentence was suspended.
Tiller told the court Latham reached in his pocket to pay the bartender when either his hand or something else in his pocket set off the unholstered gun.
Bennett told the court that carrying a pistol as Latham did, without a holster and with other items in his pocket possibly jammed into the trigger guard, was reckless.
So this didn’t really have anything to do with drinking and carrying, but rather had to do with carrying without a brain. BTW, how the hell do you pocket carry a Glock 36? Those have to be some pretty big pockets.
Besides the obvious law violation, pocket carry with no holster and other stuff in the pocket is stupid. So I can understand the fine and the suspension of his carry license. But the confiscation and destruction of his handgun?! I really don’t think that was necessary.
So it was 1000 dollar fine really instead of a 500 dollar fine.
More like 1500 dollars since he’ll now have to buy a new G36. The point being is that they may have just confiscated and destroyed his only means of self defense in response to a misdemeanor. Considering he still retains his 2A rights, it seems to me that they went a little far as far as that goes.
Hmm … maybe that’s why my G26 is carried in a pocket holster with nothing else in that pocket.
After reading the article I agree … he is an idiot. And damn lucky the judge went easy on him. Truth is stranger than fiction, eh?
Pistols go in holsters for the same reason that slings go on long guns.
“BTW, how the hell do you pocket carry a Glock 36? Those have to be some pretty big pockets.”
It wasn;t this guy, was it?
There are several reasons why a pocket pistol belongs in a holster even in your pocket. Along with the reasons listed above, most holsters end up breaking up lines, so that it doesn’t “print” on the outside of the pocket.
A Glock ESPECIALLY should be holstered because of the lack of an external safety. I have carried a Colt Mustang in my pocket, without a holster, but it has an external safety.
And carrying a pistol with other stuff in the same pocket with other stuff? Incredibly dumb. Not only might something end up in the trigger guard, but you might end up drawing our keys on a bad guy, instead of a gun. And remember what happens to James Bond at the end of the novel From Russia, With Love. His .25 ACP Beretta sight gets tangled in the waistband of his trousers, leading to an unfortunate incident involving curare-tipped shoes.
I don’t get a ‘was reaching into his pocket for his wallet’ vibe; I get a ‘was playing with his gun in his pocket and it went off’ vibe. G36 has a heavy trigger pull.
It’s possible he had a key or a pen through the trigger guard, but I suspect it was his finger that pulled the trigger.