Gresham man dies in accidental shooting
PORTLAND, Ore. — Police say a Gresham man has died in what appears to be an accidental shooting.
Jeffrey Dennehy, 23, was accidentally shot by one of his close friends when a gun discharged unexpectedly, police said. Dennehy's friend, whose name has not been released, is cooperating with the investigation, according to police.
Gresham police Detective John Rasmussen said Saturday that officers and medical personnel were dispatched to a home in the 1600 block of SW Orchard Avenue just after midnight.
Dennehy was taken to OHSU hospital where he died at 3:30 a.m
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 @Dr. Rawdog I hear more about accidental vehicular deaths; than, I do the others.
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Someone should tell his friend that when you pull the trigger, a bullet comes out.
It would be nice to know the circumstances of the death. Most often in these incidents, once investigated, there is a clear case of mishandling of the firearm and is no accident. Modern guns just don't fire themselves. Somewhere the trigger has to be pulled by something.
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In days of old a firearm could discharge itself if it fell on the hammer especially cheap guns. Even then it had to hit pretty hard to make that happen.
 @RalphCramden I once told a grandson and his friend that if I found them with guns on our property, I'd kick them out. The next day, a young woman told me that his buddy had scared her by pulling a gun out of his pocket (on our property) and swinging it around the room pointing it, announcing, "I KNOW when I have a bullet in my gun." This boy was in his mid 20's and is the nephew of a big Republican hot shot.Â
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Tell me. Is that what you mean by mishandling? The other person in my life who blisters our ears with the litany that no one has the right to "take his guns" was the ex who came screaming into my home shooting a gun because I'd filed for divorce (he missed me by 18 inches but didn't know it because I was hiding). Is that what you mean by mishandling? We won't go into the one time that someone put a loaded gun into my teen-aged hands and was startled when I turned to ask him something (as in ... turned my whole body including the loaded gun).
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No, I know what you mean by mishandling. And I don't disagree. But I've lived a pretty quiet life, and yet I am aware of too many instances in which guns endangered my own loved ones.Â
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Swinging a knife around almost never accidentally kills someone. Accidental firearm deaths accounted for about 850 deaths in 2011. That was up by about 150 from the previous year. Maybe having more guns in homes is going to bring those numbers down.
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Not.
 @SilverGuardianÂ
I have dozens of guns. My wife has several of her own guns. All my family has guns. My neighbors have guns. My friends have guns.
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No one has ever shot anyone, threatened anyone, had an accidental discharge and are not criminals or prone to violent outbursts.
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One can always find the horror stories but in a land of 300 million guns those are rare. Even the murder rate from guns is very low considering the number of guns in the US.
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There are countries that have a high murder rate with guns yet have a low percentage of gun ownership. Most of those are African countries where armed thugs kill innocent people on a regular basis. Some of those areas have trained the local folks to use firearms and the murder rates in that are have declined significantly.
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The same thing happened with Peruvians and the Shinning Path extremists. Once the government armed the locals the Shinning Path looked elsewhere for easier targets.
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Defenseless folks are always the easy targets.
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My condolences go out to both Mr.Dennehy's family and to the "close friend" who now has a nightmare to live with. I am also a firearm owner and staunch believer in the rights for such. I, too, believe that before one owns a firearm of any type, they become solidly educated in firearm safety and usage. Through training and practice, in the 40 years I have used firearms, I can honestly say I have never seen anyone, in my company, get hurt by an accidental discharge. I am sorry to read this article as it is a lesson of the hardest sort. Firearms are a dangerous tool and need to be respected at all times, loaded or not! Again, my condolences to Mr. Dennehy's family.....
I have yet to see the occasion where a "gun discharged unexpectedly". This firearm might have had a bad day however. Most discharges of firearms are the result of an undisciplined finger pulling the trigger. Â
Gun owners are responsible for guns deaths.Â
My condolences to Jeff's family. Gun safety says it all. This is mandatory.
I'm an ardent supporter of the second amendment. However, owning a firearm brings heavy responsibility and the owner should have a high degree of respect for it. This man found that out the hard way.
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 @Torino_v2 There's no need to be an ardent supporter of the second amendment. Most Americans support it. However, the notion that we can't REGULATE guns is so new that it is laughable. Regulations on guns have existed all my life. And I'm ancient.
I used to work in the aerospace industry  Once a guy was crushed between a lift and a wall.  He was killed, it was an accident.  Nobody called for controls on walls or lifts.  Go figure.
 @Siwash Excellent trolling. Of course you would have known that virtually every aspect of the aerospace industry is subject to very tight regulation and oversight, and that anytime a worker loses his/her life (or is badly injured) in a workplace accident, the employer must go to extreme lengths to comply with OSHA investigations. But you knew that, right?
 @davejpdx  @Siwash Excellent trolling is when lots of people fall for it, this was just an amateur idiot with limited mental capabilities.
You could have just said "a rightwingnutjob" !
 @Siwash Yeah it is very strange considering all the Murders committed with Wall and Lifts.
@Siwash BS they didn't. Ever hear of OSHA? Here are some of the controls on lifts: http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=standards&p_id=10754
@Max Quinn  OSHA, occupational safety and health administration. They only cover businesses! I can buy and install a lift mi my house's garage and OSHA has no legal authority to stop or control it! I don't need any background check either. Nor do I have to be over any certain age. This means Siwash is exactly right in what he wrote.Â
@sargerator My past experience as a ship board mechanic and ship yard worker, where I actually built and maintained several cranes and gantries, leads me to believe I could install one. It couldn't be used commercially until I got it certified, but then OSHA would have authority over it. Someone visiting you for a cup of coffee puts you in the same "legal authority" arena, which is actually called legal liability, as me with the lift. Burglers have been allowed to sue their victims when they've been injured during the burglery..... Loopholes in Oregon's liability laws. If it happens on your property, you have liability for it. Of course there are exceptions to this general rule.
@Max Quinn @MickRoh Hmmm, nice attempt at distractive defense. You did not say "almost" in the statement I replied to..... I also never said nor did the original comment say "misuse". Accidents happen. Perhaps the guy who was crushed by said arial lift wasn't using it and was just in an area where he should not have been which was out of the operator's vision?Â
When you install a lift (and I doubt you have the capability to do so, so you'd have a licensed contractor do it) and someone visiting gets injured by that lift, osha will be the least of yours (and the contractor who installed it)  worries......regs come in many different forms, one of the strongest is "legal authority" or whats know as a law suit actions....
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Next......
 @MickRoh You know what? When 30,000 people a year get killed by aerial lifts, they'll be under some tighter controls. Until then, since the are almost entirely used on the job, OSHA controlling them does the job. If you want to rent one and misuse it, you can.
opps, in instead of mi.....
Instead of trying to ban guns, why don't they try to make a requirement that everyone that has a gun LEARN HOW TO USE IT SAFELY! How about a requirement that if you want to own a gun you have to posess a gun safety certificate. Old timers claim they "know" safety...so why is it these accidents still happen...it's because, even though they "know" firearm safety, they keep forgetting to use that knowledge. A required safety course would be a good reminder...it just MIGHT lessen the number of accidental shootings. Sure won't end them...most are caused by stupidity...and you just can't fix stupid!
@flyingtime How is being 23 years old, being an old timer? I'm 53 and not considered an "old timer". I am still middle aged. Old timer begins at 65. hahaha If you are going to use a title describing a group of people, use the right one!
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I do agree with the firearm safety certificate to a degree. I just know that even with the certificate, there will be more accidents. Look at drivers! Far more are killed each year by car wrecks than firearm accidents. And all the drivers are licensed!!!!!
 @flyingtime No you can't fix Stupid,, But you Can Kill it or let it Kill Itself!
@swede760 @flyingtime Trouble is, with that approach, stupid could also "accidentally" kill you or someone close to you.
If legislation is created that bans accidents,
things like this wont happen.
What do you bet there was Alcohol involved.
Don't know but wasn't there 5 people "accidentally" shot at gun shows this weekend and no alcohol was involved in those incidences
 @swede760 You could speculate about that, but two things are for sure. 1- there was a gun involved; 2- there was a person who shouldn't have had a gun involved.
 @correct I have to say that on this you are absoultely Correct.
Crap, another gun that 'mysteriously' went off by itself!! Is it twue that guns really do kill people??
 @boned Guns rarely kill people. It's actually those pesky bullets they spit out. Dirty habit, spitting. I once had a dog who could spit kibble if he didn't like it, but not nearly as fast as guns do. And when guns kill, it's usually by blunt-force trauma.
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Yes...it's been one of those days. :-P
Does anyone know why at least 7 cop cars were swarming to the area of about SE 122nd and Stark today, Sat, 1/19, at about 3:30pm? Â
 @hope4future I was wondering the same thing. Heard a lot of people in the restaurant we were in today talking about it as we all waited for a table. They said they saw a lot of officers.
 @Jenni S.  @hope4future New donut shop opening? ;-)
"Oops I did it again"
Must be anti gun day all the press is publishing all 2 negatives stuff oh and 1 positive..I choose to remember the positive story about people standing for t here rights. accidents do happen..Be it Gun or Automobile or Airplane.
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Man! Guns are so awesome! I wish we lived in a world where everybody had them.Â
@dboon4 That way you could be one of the bodies lying in the street
@dboon4 Yes, according to the NRA, if everyone in the house had been armed nobody would have been shot.
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Condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Dennehy.
The NRA has never said or inferred that if everyone in a house is armed then no one will be shot. Your statement is false.
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This looks like a tragic accident.  NRA-sponsored courses teach gun safety. This is a positive contribution that the organization makes.Â
Shouldn't you be at an anti gun klan rally right now?
 @thesixthmoon Yeah, I think that was sarcasm.  They must not have that at NRA meetings.
My condolences to the family, I have buried a child it is the hardest thing you will ever do in your life, it does not matter if it was an accident, cancer, or anything else. Â Prayers to all of you....
The media is really jumping on anything gun related it seems. No details to backup their story, but apparently that isn't enough to stop them from their "guns are evil" campaign.
@axpman So some local guy got shot, was taken to a local hospital and died....should the news have said that mr. snuffleupagus killed him ??? Or do we just ignore gun violence.....uh oh now I've given you some ideas huh ?
 @axpman In this case I think it's because there was a death, not because it was a gun. Had someone been hit by a car and died, we would have seen it on the news as well. Deaths tend to get local coverage regardless of whether it was a car, a gun, a baseball bat, a drowning in a river, etc. that killed them.
 @axpman They've ran this type of story for years, sometimes they run ones that aren't even as close as Gresham.
The media may not have all of the information yet...
No one is saying "Guns Are Evil", most people with common sense are saying that some people who abuse weapons are evil, or have some short circuits.
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Guns properly used are a good tool. Guns that are abused are dangerous in the wrong hands.
It is somewhat funny that so many want to jump one way or the other...and not realize what the real problem is.
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 @Fed up Fed You are. If I were king for a day, anyone purchasing a firearm would have to recite the basics of gun safety on demand and from memory. I don't think that's too much to ask.