French police sniper accidentally shoots two people - Polidicks

[quote='BBC News'][B]A French police sniper has accidentally shot and injured two people during a speech by President Hollande. [/B]Mr Hollande was inaugurating a new stretch of railway in the town of Villognon in western France when gunfire was heard. A waiter and a worker attending the event were slightly wounded, one in the ankle the other on the leg, according to local media. One local report said the safety catch was unlocked and the gun discharged. The shot interrupted the speech for a few moments, but reports say there was no panic. "I hope it's nothing serious. I think not," Mr Hollande said as he paused his address to ask whether anyone had been hurt.[/quote] [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39121997"]Source - BBC News[/URL]

Someone's getting beheadeeeed How can you possibly be this bad at gun safety as a trained special forces officer

I'm more surprised that Hollande wasn't immediately ushered away per some protocol.

[quote]One local report said the safety catch was unlocked and the gun discharged.[/quote] Somebody's gonna get an earful about this, Jesus.

At least noone died.

[QUOTE=ferrus;51887939]I'm more surprised that Hollande wasn't immediately ushered away per some protocol.[/QUOTE] Either someone fucked up there too, or the sniper was yelling "ND!" (or the French equivalent) into his radio from the off to forestall that response.

Remington has had an issue with the whole "turn safety off gun go boom" thing. Considering that and how many places use the R700 as the basis for their sniper rifles the reason has some merit.

I'd probably blame trigger discipline. Probably was taking a looky loo through the scope towards everything and tapped the trigger.

He was probably zooming on a juicy bum and got a little too excited.

[QUOTE=PrusseLusken;51888522]jim, i thought french police used giat and pgm rifles? the article just says it wasn't put on safe, could be that the gun flopped around, the bipod tilted, he accidentally knocked it over while enjoying his baguette or something else. sounds very odd if he'd disengage the safety on a loaded rifle pointed towards people.[/QUOTE] That could totally be the case. It was more so making the point that guns can have mechanical failures that cause them to fire without the trigger being pulled, with the 700 being the most recent and encompassing (they did a massive recall on them covering decades of guns).

[QUOTE=ferrus;51887939]I'm more surprised that Hollande wasn't immediately ushered away per some protocol.[/QUOTE] Just watched the video. He seems completely unfazed by it. I'm also surprised he wasn't basically pushed into a car or something.

[QUOTE=UncleJimmema;51888128]Remington has had an issue with the whole "turn safety off gun go boom" thing. [/QUOTE] I second it. I've had same issue. But I still don't understand is this REAL reason or ...? :conspiracytheorysmiley:

[QUOTE=UncleJimmema;51888899]That could totally be the case. It was more so making the point that guns can have mechanical failures that cause them to fire without the trigger being pulled, with the 700 being the most recent and encompassing (they did a massive recall on them covering decades of guns).[/QUOTE] (my ignorance in using guns and general gun knowledge is going to be very apparent in this next statement) But i didn't even know the safety on guns COULD fail, I thought that, next to making sure the gun goes off, the most important feature is making sure it DOESN'T go off.

[QUOTE=_Maverick_;51889573](my ignorance in using guns and general gun knowledge is going to be very apparent in this next statement) But i didn't even know the safety on guns COULD fail, I thought that, next to making sure the gun goes off, the most important feature is making sure it DOESN'T go off.[/QUOTE] That's true. As with most complex mechanical items, however, quality control is important if you want to turn out a product that works. If you ever buy a gun (yeah I know, you live in the UK, it's a pain in the ass for you guys) or a car or anything with a complicated mechanism, do your research first, otherwise you could end up with something like this: [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fn6GFSwTEw[/media]

i'm gonna go with it being the firearm discharging by fault. i can't imagine a person who is in a sniper position, even if its just local police, hasn't had extensive training and experience with operating a firearm.

If it's not a flaw in the weapon's design I imagine that sniper's career is going to be pretty fucked.

-snip dumb