Conservative Columnist Killed
In Shooting At Maine Home
By Bob Owens. December 30th, 2016
A long-time defender of the Second Amendment was shot and killed in what appears to be negligent discharge death at his home involving a young guest.
Maine State Police and Sanford police are investigating the shooting death of Portland Press Herald columnist M.D. Harmon at his home Wednesday afternoon in Sanford.
Police say Michael D. Harmon, 71, died at his home on Brunelle Avenue after a handgun he was showing to a teenage boy went off while the 16-year-old was handling it.
Harmon, a steadfast defender of gun rights and a champion of conservative viewpoints, was a longtime editor and columnist for the Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. He worked for the newspaper for 41 years, and continued to write a weekly column after he retired in 2011..........
Firearms are only as safe or as dangerous as they are treated, just like any other complex tool. Complacency kills.
....... 
This sad event is mentioned to once more highlight aspects of gun safety - complacency can be a creeping affliction. Looking at the unlikeliness of this having been intentional -- more to the point is that this ''accident'' was not such at all - rather it was pure negligence. Safety can never be over stressed and it always worth reviewing the essence of the late Col Jeff Cooper's four rules of firearms safety.
1) A gun is always loaded.
2) Never point a gun at anything you do not want to destroy.
3) Keep finger off trigger until ready to shoot.
4) Know your target and what is beyond.
If any rule is to be given precedence it is #2 (opinions may vary) -- should a gun discharge but is not pointing at anything damagable, then no lives need be lost. It is all too common so see muzzle sweep occuring along with finger on trigger - the biggest recipe for disaster. These rules should be drummed into children even if they never shoot a firearm.
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