NRA Employee Proves How Safe Guns Are By Accidentally Shooting Himself

The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, or so the National Rifle Association likes to say. This week, an NRA employee apparently stopped himself by accidentally shooting himself during firearms training at NRA headquarters in Virginia.

Fairfax County Police reported on Friday that the unidentified man was rushed to a local hospital after shooting himself while trying to holster his weapon at the National Firearms Museum, NBC4 Washington reported. At the time of the accident, the NRA employee was participating in safety training at the museum’s firing range.

According to The Kansas City Star, the NRA boasts about its “gold standard” gun safety training of 1 million people every year, part of its strategy to fight stricter gun legislation in the U.S. by emphasizing education, most notably in discussions of accidental shootings among children.

The NRA also has fought efforts to ban assault weapons in the U.S., saying some outrageous things following some of the worst massacres in the country. After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, which claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre argued for more guns, not less, stating, “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.”

Recently, the NRA has been advocating on behalf of a House bill that passed last month to allow “mentally incompetent” veterans the right to obtain weapons permits, despite skyrocketing suicide rates among vets.

“America’s veterans helped protect us. Now we can ensure they themselves are not arbitrarily denied the right of self-protection,” the NRA stated in support of the legislation.

Opponents of the bill say it would allow at-risk veterans easy access to firearms, Newsweek reported.

The House and Senate also voted to revoke a regulation adopted after the Sandy Hook massacre that prevented people with mental health conditions from buying guns. President Donald Trump signed off on the measure earlier this month.

Which brings us back to the NRA employee, who joined a growing club of men who collectively are shooting the NRA in the foot, so to speak. He is at least the third person to accidentally shoot himself in recent years during NRA–sponsored events and training. In April 2014, a New Jersey man shot himself in the leg during an NRA event in Pennsylvania, according to Huffington Post. And in February 2010, a Florida gun instructor shot a student in the foot during a concealed weapon certification course.