Three People Injured in Florida Gun Range Mishap

Please note, I wasn’t there, I don’t know any­thing first hand, but the Jennings “fam­ily” of firearms is know to some­times have a man­u­fac­tur­ing defect which can cause these types of acci­den­tal discharges.

The prob­lem has to do with machin­ing tol­er­ances. The Jennings “fam­ily” of firearms has some rather loose tol­er­ances. When the rear of the slide is lifted up (as shown by the pink force arrow on the photo below), it can cause the cocked striker to dis­en­gage from the sear in the frame of the hand­gun. This allows the fir­ing pin to move for­ward and strike any live car­tridge which might be present in the cham­ber of the firearm.

Things would have to be in pretty bad shape for this to hap­pen more than once, but it’s been known to hap­pen with these types of firearms.

LAKELAND, Fla. — A Tampa cou­ple and an Irish tourist were shot at a Lakeland gun range after a hand­gun acci­den­tally fired.

Polk County sheriff’s deputies say it’s not entirely clear how many times Michael and Sherri Thourot’s 9mm acci­den­tally went off Saturday, or what caused the hand­gun to fire. The pis­tol was a Jennings make.

The man in an adja­cent stall, 29-year-old Gary Flynn, of Ireland, was most seri­ously injured. He under­went surgery after being hit in the shoul­der and throat, and was listed in sta­ble condition.

Michael Thourot was shot in the left hand, and Sherri Thourot was hit in the left arm. Both were also listed in sta­ble condition.

This arti­cle was orig­i­nally posted here on Fox News.