No Charges Against Marine Who Accidentally Shot Sleeping Neighbor With A Freedom Bullet
North Carolina police say no charges will be brought after a woman accidentally NRAed her sleeping neighbor on Thursday. Brannaird Riley was Second Amendmented in the upper right arm while sleeping in his bed inside his apartment in Havelock.
According to police, his next door neighbor in the duplex, who is a Marine at Cherry Point, was packing her belongings for a move back to California when she tried to make her 9mm pistol safe. I have no idea what that means.
Lance Corporal Marianne Lee’s “inanimate object’ fired while she was cleaning it, which sent a freedom bullet propelling through a wall into Riley’s apartment. It ricocheted off a wall stud, through another wall and hit the man, according to WITN.
The 47-year-old victim was transported to a local hospital for treatment.
After consulting with the district attorney, police said no charges would be brought against Lee.
Watch courtesy of WITN:
H/T: My BFF @ComgenKDT with thanks.
MIAtheistGal August 3rd, 2014 at 9:10 am
I hate that people are allowed to be irresponsible with guns with no ramifications. If I carelessly ran over a pedestrian with my car, you can bet your ass charges would be filed, accident or not.
Larry Schmitt August 3rd, 2014 at 11:12 am
Because when cars are outlawed, only outlaws will have cars.
arc99 August 3rd, 2014 at 2:25 pm
Even a civil suit would be pointless. A Lance Corporal is not likely to have enough in income or assets to even satisfy the attorney fees in a lawsuit.
Is this the society the NRA envisions where you can “accidentally” shoot someone, and there is no legal recourse available to the person who was shot? Everyone feel safer now?
Larry Schmitt August 3rd, 2014 at 11:14 am
How does an active service member, whose job requires her to carry a weapon, not have it unloaded with the safety on? How did it become loaded in her house? Seems the Marines should take some kind of disciplinary action.
MIAtheistGal August 3rd, 2014 at 11:15 am
Good point. She’s active duty, right? Seems the usmc should be investigating as well…
Herb Sarge Phelps August 3rd, 2014 at 12:16 pm
When I was a Security Police in the USAF we had a guy who had his private weapon in the barracks cleaning it and he was drunk. First being drunk was not the time to clean the weapon, and secondly, he wasn’t suppose to have it in the barracks period. He shot his knee and he got busted a stripe by the squadron commander. She might not face local charges, but I would think her commander would give her an article 32.
Larry Schmitt August 3rd, 2014 at 12:20 pm
And if I remember how things worked when I was in the Air Force, his time in the hospital would count as “bad time,” meaning he wasn’t getting paid.
Herb Sarge Phelps August 3rd, 2014 at 2:52 pm
Since I was a Security Police member in the USAF and carried a weapon everyday I worked, I will say it is easy to know better and know the proper way doesn’t mean you will not get careless. When I was weapons NCO I never had anyone fire off a round in the clearing barrel, but it did happen in my squadron several times because someone who knew better got in a rush and had cleared their weapon many times, accidentally skipped a step. I remember once I came close to firing my M16 but thanks to an alert weapons NCO he caught it before I could fire my M16 and I didn’t do it. Had I done so, like the others, I would have been punished.
Just another reason why regulations and control of weapons in a reasonable way are not only sensible but helps make accidents less likely.
John David Peer August 3rd, 2014 at 2:09 pm
“I have no idea what that means…”
Yes, it shows.
Obewon August 3rd, 2014 at 5:30 pm
Another of USA’s 84 daily gun deaths killing 32,163 in 2011 proves why even a well trained Marine, is no match for a loaded weapon that “fired while she was cleaning it.” Guns kill 22-43 times more friends and family-(CDC/FBI) than any intruder further proving why weapons should remain on the base and why people owning guns keep dropping, while each gun nut hoards many weapons on average.
John David Peer August 4th, 2014 at 12:21 am
So gun owners “hoard” their collections? But women “own” 25 pairs of shoes, Clapton has “collected” 100 guitars, and Opi-wan “treasures” his 250 Star Wars figurines, is that how it works? But I “hoard” my firearms like some sort of Tolkien-esque goblin??
Plus 1) the gun didn’t fire by itself, she must have accidentally nudged the trigger when the gun was loaded and cocked. Tragic, but one person’s negligence does not serve as a predictor for anyone else. Care is required when handling firearms, fast cars, motorcycles, and light sabres!
2) An intruder need not be shot to be deterred from burglarizing a house in a high gun ownership area. Where are the most home invasions/hot burglaries…Houston, Texas, or Chicago?
Use your Googles you rely on so heavily…
And finally, a full 2/3 of those 32,000 gun deaths were self-inflicted. Care to inform us how mag limits, bayonets bans and the prohibition of barrel shrouds and adjustable butt stocks would have prevented even ONE of those tragic deaths? Can’t? Then tell Feinstein to stop trying to ban them, and we might just see some progress.
An end-of-life euthanasia program would likely stop thousands of them the first year it was introduced. Ask the Swiss.
Obewon August 4th, 2014 at 12:50 am
About half of U.S. Gun deaths (2011: 19,766) are suicides, half are gun murders because accidental gun deaths e.g. 500+Kids Murdered by children each year in the USA, etc aren’t included -Both of which dropped 65% and 59% in Australia via their Gun Ban and buybacks “without a parallel increase in non-firearm homicides and suicides.”
Maybe your Canadian Halifax Nova Scotia government should buy back and ban more guns to save more lives too! http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states (You should sell your Guns to your Canadian government and collect what you obviously need instead: penis extensions!)
1) Australia’s firearm homicide rate fell by 59%, and the firearm suicide rate fell by 65%, in the decade after the law was introduced, without a parallel increase in non-firearm homicides and suicides. That provides strong circumstantial evidence for the law’s effectiveness. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/08/02/did-gun-control-work-in-australia/
2) Australia’s Gun buybacks of 3,500 guns per 100,000 people resulted in an estimated 35% to 50% decline in homicide rates too!
John David Peer August 4th, 2014 at 1:30 am
“”Both Firearm Homicides & Suicides each dropped 65% and 59% in Australia via their Gun Bans and Buy-backs “without a parallel increase in Non-Firearm Homicides and Suicides.””
This statistic, which only you and former Aussie PM John Howard like to wave around, and which is (again) referenced in the WP article, has been many times debunked and shown to be heavily biased. For the truth, see Melbourne study/Brookings Institute study and Harvard law School study…all of which found NO significant drop in either violent crime OR suicides after the failed “buy back”.
You can keep posting it over and over and over again, but it won’t get any truer, sorry. I have posted the URL’s of those studies, but as my momma told me, don’t be chewing your cabbage twice, so as you folks like to say “do your research”…or in YOUIR case, change the broken record, lol…
You deliberately ignored the inconvenient truth of the failure of the Aussie ban last time, and you will this time as well. Call me psychic!
Prohibition doesn’t affect availability. Something liberals USED to know, until they put their gun blinders on.
“”You should sell your Guns to your Canadian government and collect what you obviously need instead: penis extensions!)””
Seriously…what are you, 11?
John David Peer August 4th, 2014 at 1:33 am
…and you’re unable to tell when you have been misinformed by confirmation bias: seeking a predetermined result online, will get you what you want every time.
For everyone else, here’s an interesting read indeed.
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2013/10/jim-barrett/mythbusting-gun-ownership-decline-u-s/
Obewon August 4th, 2014 at 1:41 am
Maybe you can find a teeny tiny gun barrel matching the diameter of your teeny tiny appendage.
Obewon August 4th, 2014 at 1:38 am
You’re a debunked fool from Canada who’s so paranoid, your “afraid” U.S. gun deaths further prove why guns kill 22-43 times more friends and family. Boom!
Go clean your loaded weapon and ponder why Canadian gun laws correctly portended ‘well regulated’ U.S. gun laws in the very near future as 90% in the U.S. support background checks on every gun and ammo round sold including the 35% to 40% of guns sold escaping background checks. Go post in Canada!
greenfloyd August 4th, 2014 at 12:56 am
At the very least Marianne Lee should be required to turn in all her guns and be required to pass both a written test and show proficiency in basic gun safety before she can have them back.
Apparently the OP, Anomaly100 wants readers to blame the NRA for this incident. I think an explanation is in order.