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Police lights by night (Photo: Alex_Schmidt, Getty Images/iStockphoto)
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A man accidentally shot himself and his wife at an east Tennessee church on Thursday while he was showing off his gun during a discussion on recent church shootings, police said.
Elder members of First United Methodist Church in Tellico Plains were cleaning up about 1 p.m. after enjoying a luncheon held to celebrate Thanksgiving. They began talking about guns in churches, according to Tellico Plains Police Chief Russ Parks.
A man in his 80s pulled out a .380 caliber Ruger handgun and said, "I carry my handgun everywhere," according to Parks.
He removed the magazine, cleared the chamber, and showed the gun to some of the men in the church. He put the magazine back in, apparently loaded a round in the chamber, and returned the gun to its holster, Parks said.
"Somebody else walked up and said, 'Can I see it?'" Parks said. "He pulled it back out and said, 'With this loaded indicator, I can tell that it’s not loaded.'"
"Evidently he just forgot that he re-chambered the weapon," Parks said.
The gun was lying on its side on a table. The bullet sliced the palm of the man's upward-facing hand, then entered the left side of his wife's abdomen and exited the right side, Parks said.
Both the husband and wife, who is also in her 80s, were flown to the University of Tennessee Medical Center with injuries that police said didn't appear to be life-threatening. Their names had not been released as of Thursday evening.
Charges will not be filed, Parks said.
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almmind on November 17th, 2017 at 15:03 UTC »
This deserves a repost in r/nottheonion
vanishplusxzone on November 17th, 2017 at 13:57 UTC »
Well it wasn't an accident then, was it? The idiot was playing with his gun like a toy.
These are also the kind of people you don't want having weapons.
CakeAccomplice12 on November 17th, 2017 at 13:25 UTC »
That is not something you should ever fucking forget
How does the saying go again?
A gun is always loaded..
even when it's not loaded, it's still loaded
Even if it is completely taken apart, it's still loaded
Edit: Great summary here
https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/7dkk00/two_accidentally_shot_in_church_while_discussing/dpytjcj