Christmas Day Gun Accidents

In Nashville, Tennessee, 81-year-old Johnnie Thompson was showing a friend how his Derringer pistol worked. He was fatally struck when he dropped the gun on the floor causing it to unintentionally discharge. Police don’t anticipate any charges being filed.

Diego Diaz-Martinez, 31, was a guest at a Christmas family gathering in Naples, Florida, when he asked his cousin, the homeowner, if he could look at a type of gun he was considering buying. The cousin got his gun from a safe and told Diaz-Martinez that there was a magazine in the gun, but that it wasn’t loaded. While handling the gun and holding his daughter, Diaz-Martinez unintentionally fired the gun into a wall, striking a 4-year-old in the living room. He now faces multiple charges including shooting into a dwelling, child neglect with great bodily harm, and using a firearm under the influence of alcohol.

Two men were target shooting with a muzzleloader in Catawissa, Pennsylvania, when both were injured when the gun malfunctioned. Police report that the barrel exploded after one of the men pulled the trigger.

And in McColl, South Carolina, a concealed gun in John Townsend’s pocket accidentally went off hitting a person in the leg. The victim was treated at the hospital and Townsend was charged with felon in possession of a firearm and discharging a firearm in an occupied dwelling.

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