A man and his wife were accidentally shot by his gun after a presentation on firearm safety at their church.
The 81-year old man took out a Ruger .38 hangun cleared it and showed it to other parishioners during an early Thanksgiving dinner on Nov. 9 at First United Methodist Church in Tellico Plains.
After talking about how to safely bring guns to church, the man put the gun away, not realizing he had loaded a bullet into the chamber. Later, someone who missed the presentation asked it they could see the weapon, and it accidentally fired.
"Somebody else walked up and said, 'Can I see it?'" Tellico Plains Police Chief Russ Parks told the Knoxville News Sentinel. "He pulled it back out and said, 'With this loaded indicator, I can tell that it's not loaded.' Evidently he just forgot that he re-chambered the weapon."
A bullet hit the 81-year-old man and his 80-year old wife, who was standing next to him.
The couple, whose family asked that their names not be released, were taken by helicopter to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in critical condition, according to The Washington Post. Their condition has stabilized Thursday and they are being treated for non-life threatening injuries, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
No charges will be filed.
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