Judge Vincent A. Sgueglia of Tioga County Court (Tioga County is in “upstate New York”) has been censured by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Why?
Yes. Judge Sgueglia decided to work on his revolver (described by the NYT as a “.38-caliber Smith & Wesson”) in his chambers, and…you see what’s coming, right? Negligent discharge, bullet into wall, nobody hurt thank the Lord, Judge Sgueglia embarrassed and now censured.
Noted: Judge Sgueglia says he didn’t realize the gun was loaded. To which I say: WTF? WTFF? It’s a Smith and Wesson revolver! You didn’t swing out the cylinder and check the chambers before starting work, you idiot? Checking if a Smith and Wesson revolver is loaded is the easiest thing in the world! It takes two freaking seconds! And that’s if you’re clumsy like me!
Also noted: Judge Sgueglia wasn’t just censured for the negligent discharge, but also for approving his own gun permits. He got his first permit in 2005, “listing three weapons”, and approved it himself. (“The commission said it was ‘inappropriate’ for Judge Sgueglia ‘to take judicial action on his own pistol permit application and that he should have consulted with court officials to arrange for another judge to handle the matter.'”) Between 2006 and 2010, “the judge submitted 14 amendments to his gun permit, covering 17 other pistols”.
Some credit is due to the judge, though: at least he had the gun pointed in a safe direction when it went off.
(Edited to add: I assumed all of my readers are familiar with the Four Rules of Gun Safety. However, on second thought, that may not be a reasonable assumption, so here they are.)
Judge Sgueglia decided to work on his revolver
I guess that sounds better than ‘I was fooling around, practicing my sight picture and bam’. I bet he was one of those guys who said ‘I never-ever let my finger depress the trigger unless I mean to’.
First time I heard that was from a sergeant. About two seconds before he tripped and bang went his rifle.
Not an excuse for violating rule one, of course.