Buffalo Police Report

A brief vacation in the hurricane-afflicted Outer Banks has delayed the rollout of the latest GunFAIL installment, and the lazy pace of summer has kept accident numbers relatively low.

Low totals were tempered somewhat by the July 4th weekend, one of the two traditional high-water marks annually for celebratory gunfire. Despite the efforts of local authorities to discourage it with public awareness campaigns, it hasn’t yet been successfully wiped out.

Reports are still coming in, but to date we have four five incidents. In Oakland, CA, celebratory gunfire brought down power lines that electrocuted two bystanders, one fatally. (But because he wasn’t hit by gunfire, he’s not included among the 10 fatalities counted in this week’s list.)

A man in Chicago received minor injuries from a falling bullet. A man in Tennessee was shot in the leg. A woman in Missouri was wounded more extensively by a bullet to the face, and a father of four in Charlotte, NC, was left paralyzed when he was struck through the top of the head.

For a week with fewer than 40 included incident reports, an awful lot of kids fell victim to GunFAIL: 16 in total, ages 3, 8, 9, 9, 11, 12, 13, 13, 15, 15, 15, 16, 16, 16, 17 and 17.

Accidentally shooting yourself was once again among the most popular options, though, with 11 people going that route, including the three law enforcement personnel who experienced GunFAILs this time around.

Next most dangerous, as usual, was being near a friend or family member handling a gun. Eight people accidentally shot their friends, a ninth accidentally shot a fellow gang member, and I’m not 100 percent certain that counts as a friend.

Well, certainly not now, even if he was the forgiving type, since he’s among our 10 fatalities. Two sets of siblings shared interfamilial GunFAILs as well, plus one set of cousins, one 15-year-old uncle and his 8-year-old nephew, and one boyfriend who accidentally shot his girlfriend.