Local news reports
Det. Sgt. Courtney Williams, of the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office, wrote in his report of the incident that he responded to at 110 Perry St. in Garysburg around 10:04 p.m. Sunday in response to a shooting.
When Williams arrived a male witness let him into the house, where he found the home’s resident, Archie Kee, 51, lying on the kitchen floor suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest.
The witness told Williams he had been called by Kee moments earlier stating he had shot himself. When the witness arrived ahead of the police, Kee let him in, then stepped back and laid himself down on the kitchen floor.
Kee told Williams, according to the report, he had been trying to put a trigger lock on his .380 pistol when it discharged and he was struck once in the chest.
Williams found the firearm in the bedroom with a trigger guard in place.
Northampton County Sheriff Jack Smith said the case illustrates how careful people need to be with firearms.
“He was just trying to secure the gun and this happened,” Smith said.
“I encourage people never to point the barrel of a gun at any person, including themselves. This is a very tragic and unfortunate death for Mr. Kee and his family. We pray and hope they will be able to pull through this.”
Strict adherence to the One Strike You're Out policy would save lives. Guys like this should have been disarmed years ago. Unless, of course you think at 51 years of age, this was his very first gun mishap?
I'm sure the gun-rights fanatics will insist there's no evidence that he's ever done anything wrong before, but who's checking? No one, that's the point. We take gun irresponsibility too nonchalantly, especially when no one is hurt.
The true gun-rights fanatic will probably blame the trigger guard he was trying to install. This proves that trigger guards kill otherwise responsible and safe gun owners, right?
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