Education

Oops: Ohio instructor shoots student in gun-safety class

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A 73-year-old Ohio man accidentally shot a student with a .38-caliber bullet this weekend when he was teaching a daylong gun-safety class for people seeking concealed-carry permits.

Terry J. Dunlap Sr. was the instructor and the shooter, reports The Columbus Dispatch. The incident occurred Saturday at around 7:30 p.m. at Dunlap’s combination shooting range and training center located at 6995 Coonpath Road near the town of Lancaster.

Dunlap was openly displaying a hand gun in the classroom when he fired the bullet. It ricocheted off a desk and then hit a student in the right arm, between the armpit and the elbow.

The student, 26-year-old Michael Piemonte, was attending the course with his wife.

“My wife was sitting just inches away from me,” Piemonte told The Dispatch.

“I am thankful that it only ended up being in my arm, and didn’t hit my wife or individuals sitting at the desk behind me,” he added.

Piemonte also said he believes Dunlap was not aware that the gun was loaded.

The 30 or so students enrolled in the gun-safety course included several nurses. They were able to stabilize Piemonte after he suffered the gunshot wound. Medics transferred him to a hospital in Columbus, some 30 miles northeast. He was released later Saturday night.

No charges have been filed, notes The Dispatch. The local sheriff ruled the shooting accidental.

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Eric Owens