Last year, Florida resident Silvia Fabelo and her husband went to a gun range called “Shoot Straight Tampa” to practice her firing technique, but she never even got her chance to try to “shoot straight.” Before she’d even loaded up and put on the noise-cancelling headphones, a bullet from another range participant ricocheted, struck, and embedded in her thigh, according to the Tampa Tribune. Her day of shooting was cut short by a trip to the hospital, instead.
Gun accidents are a fairly common occurrence among gun owners, with over 3,800 people in the U.S. dying from unintentional shootings in 2010, and ricochets and stray bullets are usually considered just another risk of sportsmanship. Like a good gun enthusiast, Febelo knows that it’s not the gun’s fault that she got shot, but it sure as heck isn’t her fault, either. So she had her attorney, Richard Tanner, file a lawsuit in the Hillsborough County Circuit Court against the shooting range.
“You don’t go to a shooting gallery expecting to be shot, that’s for sure,” Tanner told the press. (Even though this is allegedly the second such incident at Shoot Straight in recent years, and according to a smattering of gun ownership message boards online, gun accidents at firing ranges are indeed quite common.)
When Febelo made it to the emergency room, she was informed that “she had been hit in the leg by a large caliber bullet,” according to the lawsuit. Fabelo says Shoot Straight Tampa was “negligent” and that the injury is “unattractive.” Febelo’s lawsuit contends that she will face multiple surgeries and medical professionals can’t guarantee that the “discoloration and scarring of the wound” will fade.
Imagine that. Playing with guns can leave you scarred for life with a large, unattractive wound that will never go away. (Heck, sometimes a stray gunshot or ricochet will even leave you dead.)
Who would’ve thunk it?
Maybe they should change their name to “shoot crooked” 🙂 so their customers don’t have expectations of safety
Or “Shoot First, But Don’t Ask Who Accidentally Shot You”
Or maybe they should have everyone sign waivers that the RANGE/OWNER is not responsible for practice shots going awry? This is a stupid lawsuit.
I’d think that would be something you signed when you registered to shoot there.
I’m betting this lawsuit is thrown out. Every sport has risks and dangers, and when your sport is shooting guns, the risk will probably involve bullets.
Just how bad is the wound??
Not sure, to me, the way the original article reads is that it was a “flesh wound” — most of the complaint centered around her “ugly scar” — which most of us end up with, one way or another, in life anyway, regardless of if we are shot with a gun.
TBH I’d count my lucky stars I wasn’t shot above the waist, and count my lucky stars lol