Trump promised to end the “American carnage.” Gun deaths are up 12 percent

Man accidentally shoots himself and his wife at a church, shortly after a discussion on shootings.

About 20 elderly people sat down for an early Thanksgiving meal Thursday at a church in East Tennessee, unaware that the pleasant afternoon would take a grim turn.During their meal, they decided to discuss gun safety in light of recent mass shootings — an idea that came to them after a neighboring county’s sheriff’s department chose to hold similar seminars at its local churches, said Tellico Plains Police Chief Russ Parks.

“Well, I’ve got my gun on me,” an 81-year-old member of First United Methodist Church in Tellico Plains said, according to Parks, whose department investigated the incident.

He pulled out his holster, which held a .38-caliber Ruger handgun. He removed the magazine, cleared the chamber and showed the gun to the other parishioners.

They talked about how to safely bring guns to church — and how sad it was that so many people nationwide had been killed in recent mass shootings.

The 81-year-old man put the magazine back into the gun and put the gun back in the holster, Parks said.

Later, while people were cleaning up, a church member who had missed the demonstration asked to see the weapon.Just as he was about to show it to the church member, the man accidentally pulled the trigger without realizing the gun was loaded.

A bullet fired across the palm of the 81-year-old’s hand and toward his 80-year-old wife, who was sitting in a wheelchair next to him. 

It ripped through her lower left abdomen, out the right side of her abdomen, into her right forearm and out the backside of her forearm. The bullet then struck the wall and ricocheted, landing under the wife’s wheelchair, Parks said.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Last edited by DollyLongstaff (1/13/2018 8:43 am)