An Oklahoma woman was shot in the thigh when a dog inside the vehicle with her jumped onto a back seat console, causing a gun under the console to fire.
The Enid News & Eagle reported that Tina Springer was in the passenger seat of the vehicle that had stopped on Oct. 3 to wait for a train in Enid, northern Oklahoma.
The yellow Labrador retriever, which belongs to the 79-year-old driver Brent Parks, was in the back seat and jumped onto the folding console. That’s when the .22-caliber handgun under the console went off.
The 44-year-old Springer, who lives in Nash, Oklahoma, and is Parks’s caretaker, was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Police say Parks told them the gun isn’t usually loaded. After investigating the car, officers found the gun under the center console without a holster, KATU2 reported.
Police say cloth from the seat covers could have gotten into the trigger well of the gun, making it discharge.
Burn marks were also found under the center console that was coherent with Parks’s story, and the case is likely to be ruled as an accident.
Accidental Shootings
Far fewer Americans fall victim to firearm accidents than some two decades ago, even though people own more guns, according to new data.
Accidental firearm discharges killed 486 people in 2017, down more than 50 percent since 1997, according to mortality data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Decreased popularity of hunting, improved trauma care, and gun safety education campaigns have likely helped decrease the fatalities.
The Associated Press and NTD staff contributed to this report.
