Human Factors Issues in Handgun Safety and Forensics Human Factors Issues in Handgun Safety and Forensics Hal W. Hendrick Paul Paradis Richard J. Hornick Boca Raton London New York CRC Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742 © 2008 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business No claim to original U.S. Government works Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-8058-5742-9 (Hardcover) This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reprinted material is quoted with permission, and sources are indicated. A wide variety of references are listed. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and the publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or for the conse- quences of their use. Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www. copyright.com (http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC) 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photocopy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hendrick, Hal W. Human factors issues in handgun safety and forensics / Hal Hendrick, Paul Paradis, and Richard J. Hornick. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8058-5742-9 (alk. paper) 1. Firearms--Safety measures. 2. Pistol shooting--Safety measures. I. Paradis, Paul. II. Hornick, Richard J. III. Title. TS537.H365 2007 683.4028’9--dc22 2007032787 Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and the CRC Press Web site at http://www.crcpress.com Dedication This work is dedicated to our parents who taught us the value of human life. Harold and Audrey Hendrick, Joseph and Geraldine Paradis, and Clarence and Mary Horn- ick will never know that their respect for truth still influences us and, inadvertently, put us together. Contents Preface ......................................................................................................................ix Acknowledgments .....................................................................................................xi About the Authors ..................................................................................................xiii 1 An Overview ........................................................................................1 2 Human Factors Causes of Unintentional Shootings ...........................15 3 History of Firearms ............................................................................31 4 Handgun Components and Mechanics ...............................................47 5 Ammunition .......................................................................................83 6 Fundamentals ................................................................................... 105 7 Safety Rules: The Search for Commonality..................................... 127 8 Means of Preventing Access to Home Protection Handguns .......... 135 9 Training ............................................................................................ 143 10 Human Factors and Forensics .......................................................... 161 11 Conclusion and Recommendations .................................................. 177 Appendix A Case Studies of Inadvertent and Unintentional Shootings .........185 Appendix B Additional Information from a Study of Physics and Firearm Handling ......................................193 Glossary ..........................................................................................................197 References ..........................................................................................................215 Index ..........................................................................................................219 vii Preface In writing this book, our goal was to provide a text that would be a must addition to the personal library of anyone involved in handgun design, handgun training, firearms safety, investigation of shooting incidents, human factors/ergonomics, and litigation concerning shootings. When author Paul Paradis, a criminalist for the Colorado State Public Defend- er’s Office and firearms expert, read an Internet article titled “Human Factors as a Field” by Richard Hornick, he realized he had found someone with an area of expertise previously known to him only through experience. He had been unaware of the formal discipline of human factors. Paul immediately recognized that this scientifically based discipline was much needed in the understanding of inadver- tent and unintentional shootings. Paul was aware of psychology being brought into many civil cases involving accidental shootings, but he was looking for the expertise that could help determine events in criminal cases in Colorado. Too often, from his experience investigating hundreds of shootings and testifying as an expert witness in cases where he was convinced a shooting was unintentional, no expert with a professional knowledge of human factors and ergonomics was available to provide a scientific explanation to the jury. Unfortunately, Paul found ti was not uncommon for the defendant in such cases to be convicted of first- or second-degree murder. This concern is heightened by the fact that conviction of first-degree urderm in Colorado automatically results in a life sentence without parole (for what he and others would believe to be an accident). Paul contacted Richard Hornick in California, and Richard in turn put Paul into contact with Hal Hendrick, as he was living only 60 miles away from Paul in the Denver, Colorado area. Over the next decade, Hal worked with Paul inves- tigating cases for the Colorado State Public Defender’s Office, as well as on other cases involving either civilian or police shootings. Meanwhile, Richard also became involved in serving as an expert witness in shooting cases. A result of our collective experience was to identify numerous human factors safety issues regarding both handgun design and training, and related human behav- ior in shooting incidents. At the 2003 Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the authors held a workshop on the book’s topic. This led an editor for Lawrence Erlbaum to contact us about writing a book on the topic that would provide much-needed scientifically based professional information, together with our individual professional experiences, to those involved in handgun safety training, handgun design, and litigation involving handguns, including attorneys and forensics investigators. We concurred that such a book was needed and agreed to write it. You now have the result. The book begins with an overview of the problem, including available statistics on shootings and their limitations, and goes on to describe the discipline of human factors and ergonomics. The second chapter is a comprehensive review of the scien- tifically based human factors causes of inadvertent and unintentional shootings that ix x Human Factors Issues in Handgun Safety and Forensics we have encountered in our collective experience with actual shooting cases. To lay the groundwork for understanding the components and mechanics of handguns and the human factors and ergonomics issues associated with them (presented in Chap- ter 4), Chapter 3 provides a historical review of firearms. Chapter 5 gives a detailed explanation of handgun ammunition and the various human factors and ergonomics safety problems current ammunition creates. Chapter 6 presents the fundamentals of shooting and explains how violation of those fundamentals can lead to unintentional shootings. Chapter 7 covers basic firearms safety rules and their inconsistencies, which potentially can cause confusion. Chapter 8 discusses means of preventing all but the intended person(s) from being able to fire a handgun, including the current smart gun technologies under development. Chapter 9 outlines the importance of handgun safety training, including supporting rationale, and critically reviews the various National Rifle Association training programs—which are the most widely used programs available—and makes suggestions for further improving those pro- grams. Also covered is the issue of instructor training and needed improvements. Chapter 10 then goes into the application of the previous nine chapters in forensics, and covers a number of topics relative to the use of human factors/ergonomics and safety professionals as expert witnesses. A major feature of the book is the included DVD,