Ex-NFL Player Dies After Accidentally Shooting Himself

Indianapolis Colts running back Zurlon Tipton (37) rests during an NFL game against the Houston Texans on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, in Houston, Texas. The Colts won the game, 27-20. (Greg Trott via AP)
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A medical examiner in Roseville, Michigan determined that a man who died after accidentally shooting himself Tuesday at a car dealership was former NFL player Zurlon Tipton, local TV station WJBK reported.

Police told the news station that a customer drove up to the service bay around 9:30 a.m. local time and went to take a duffel bag out of his trunk. There were two guns in the bag and one of them fired, striking Tipton in the stomach.

Police expected Tipton to survive his wounds since he was talking to people as he was transported to the hospital, but he later died.

Tipton, 26, played football for Central Michigan University and the Indianapolis Colts.

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  1. Loaded guns + round chambered + safety off =

  2. [Tipton] drove up to the service bay around 9:30 a.m. local time and went to take a duffel bag out of his trunk. There were two guns in the bag and one of them fired, striking Tipton in the stomach.

    Guns kill people. Unsafe gun designs boost the body count.

    Tipton wasn’t a bad guy, doesn’t seem to have been under the influence, wasn’t playing around with the weapon, and wasn’t even touching the gun. The fact that the gun fired indicates that its design is unsafe for consumer use.

    Gun nuts (a category distinct from gun users, gun collectors, etc.) will say that Tipton is to blame, not the gun, for a number of reasons. The idea behind product-safety is that, because “a number of reasons” is a near-constant feature of the environment for consumer products, products need to be designed to make it far more difficult for stupid mistakes and common misfortune to result in harm.

    There is a right to bear arms in the Constitution. There is no right to sell excessively dangerous products. Exploit the gap.

  3. Human + gun = high risk of death

  4. The fact that the gun fired indicates it was stowed in a duffel bag with a round chambered and the safety off.
    The definition of tragedy, dying by one’s own moronic negligence.

  5. + safer gun design =

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