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July 27, 2020
By Clay Bell
If you belong to a group proudly called the “Not F#@king Around Coalition” (NFAC), you probably consider yourself to be quite a badass. However, judging by an incident that occurred in Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday, even badasses need to know and practice the four basic rules of gun safety.
At the protest, many of the so-called NFAC members were heavily armed and dressed in black. One, who was carrying a rifle, inadvertently discharged the gun in the tightly packed crowd near Baxter Square at 12th and Jefferson, hitting three other protesters. Protesters quickly ducked behind cars, thinking they were under fire.
Interestingly, the three victims were assisted and rushed to the hospital by the very police officers they decry and want to see out of a job. However, the irony doesn’t end there.
According to a reporter from local news station WHAS11, one of the members of the NFAC spoke to the protesters, saying, “We had a little accident. It happens.” In the aftermath of the “little accident,” one protester is in ICU, one is in serious but stable condition and the other only had minor injuries—all shot by someone other than a cop.
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Officers were on high alert in the area because of the group, many of whom traveled to Louisville from outside the state. Interestingly, according to news station WDRB, even the Louisville Black Lives Matter organization has distanced itself from NFAC, accusing the armed group of being “outside agitators.”
Latest reports out of Louisville indicate that charges might be in the works against the person involved in the shooting. According to the Courier Journal, police say the discharge of the weapon is being investigated as a negligent shooting—not an accident.
Note that the Louisville incident wasn’t the only time a protester was shot by another protester over the weekend. Also on Saturday, a protester in Denver fired a shot accidentally hitting another protester when an angry mob was gathered around a vehicle that had dared drive down the highway the protesters were occupying. That victim was taken to a hospital in stable condition.
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For anyone planning to carry a firearm during a protest—whether a peaceful protest or one of the all-out riots that are becoming so common—now is a good time to review the four basic rules of gun safety.
Treat every gun as if it is always loaded. Never point your gun at anything you are not willing to destroy. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you have made the decision to shoot. Be sure of your target and what lies beyond it. It seems that in both these cases, at least three of the four cardinal gun safety rules were ignored.
