Texas Shooting Range Employee Inadvertently Kills Customer

A routine gun cleaning procedure went horribly wrong Tuesday morning at a shooting range in Cypress, Texas. According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, an unidentified man died in an accidental shooting.

Apparently, another unnamed employee at Hot Wells Shooting Range was cleaning a gun when it unexpectedly went off, KHOU reported. The resulting shot “went through a wall and then a window, striking a man in another part of the range,” according to KHOU’s report. The victim was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The United States has significantly more gun deaths per year than any other country, but only a small percentage of them are the result of accidents, according to The Guardian. Approximately two-thirds of all gun deaths per year are suicides, The Guardian reported.

Back in July, a 14-year-old boy died in an apparent suicide at a gun range in Florida.

In 2016, Mother Jones ran a piece from the perspective of a shooting range employee about the precarity of their work environment. The employee talked about all of the potential safety issues present in an establishment dedicated to recreational use of firearms.

“But there were certain people who were difficult. At some point during the day, you would have a gun pointed at you. I had a guy with Parkinson’s, and he had severe muscle tremors. He can’t hold the gun properly, and it jams. He walks off the range, he’s pointing the gun at me, and he’s saying, “Hey, hey, my gun is jammed!” I sidestep the muzzle and say, “Let’s have a look, shall we?” All the while that I am handling it I am saying, “You really shouldn’t be doing that.” And the guy, without missing a beat, says, “It’s all right, the safety’s on the gun.” I pull the slide back and there’s a live round that ejects from the chamber. And I’m thinking, okay, I was a three-pound trigger pull away from getting shot.”

The employee also spoke of using “bleach and kitty litter” to clean up after accidents at the shooting range.