A Florida man who authorities say accidentally shot and killed his 14-year-old son at a shooting range is blaming himself — not the gun — for the death.
Clayton Brumby, 64, told the Tampa Bay Times a smoking hot shell casing went down the back of his shirt, causing him to flail both arms in the air Sunday afternoon at High Noon Guns, where the Sarasota family had gone for shooting practice. His finger was still on the trigger, which fired.
He heard his 24-year-old son yell, “Dad, Stephen’s been shot.”
The bullet from the .22-semi-automatic Ruger SR22 ricocheted off the ceiling and struck the teen in the jugular vein, Brumby told the newspaper.
“The gun didn’t kill my boy,” Brumby said. “I did.”
Brumby said the gun belonged to his 12-year-old daughter.
Brumby said he has been shooting for about three years. Stephen took up shooting about 18 months ago and his father says he was “a natural” who would “shoot anything.”
Brumby’s version of events differed slightly from the one offered by the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies based their account on what witnesses told them. According to the report, Brumby tried to remove the casing, which had bounced in the back of his shirt, with his right hand, which also held the weapon.
“While doing so, he inadvertently pointed the firearm directly behind him and accidently fired,” the sheriff’s report said.
Brumby said he preaches gun safety. “That’s why yesterday was so stupid and freaky on me because the gun is supposed to be pointed down range at all times,” he said Monday. “My first thought was ‘That was pretty stupid of me. I should’ve put the gun down.'”
Sarasota County Sheriff’s officials are calling the shooting was accidental. As of Monday, no charges were planned.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
I can’t even stand to look at her pure EVIL…..
“Her”? There’s no “her” in the story.
Just goes to show you: being able to quote the rules forwards, backwards, and sideways does no good if you don’t develop an awareness of where the muzzle’s pointing.
The man is right. Although the shooting was an accident, he is the cause. His actions caused the gun to fire as it was designed to do. I’m not a fan of firearms because accidents can often injure or kill someone other than the person who operated the gun.
Great, he admitted it. Now, since he took a life through his carelessness, he needs to go to jail, period. Involuntary manslaughter, plain and simple. Did it, didn’t mean to, someone’s dead because of my carelessness. Sounds like he’s on the speaking tour promoting guns and not concerned at all that his son is dead because he’s an idiot.
I am very sorry for the loss of this mans son and my heart goes out to him and his family. But he is right he cause the gun to fire it was an accident nothing more.dont blame the gun. But the democrats will count on it those shitheads can’t wate for something like this to happen.
unfortunately accidents happen and this is a terrible tragedy. but again, the gun didn’t fire itself. human error was involved. i feel very badly for the family and the father. he was doing the right thing in making sure his family knew how to defend themselves but had a lapse in judgement. terrible, terrible, terrible incident.
Of course the assholes want to blame the gun for this tragic accident . I own firearms and am very cautious and can’t pathom what this father and family are going through. May God bring them peace in this difficult time.