Sleepwalker + Guns = A bad idea

So I overheard a scary story on Christmas. I discovered an ardent gun-owner is also a sleepwalker. His significant other shared a story on how she felt he was going to kill her. He supposedly heard a loud noise, so he went to the safe and wasn't responding to his girlfriend. She thought he was sleepwalking again and was freaked out as he was loading his gun. Without uttering a word, he stood right in front of her with a loaded firearm, and it was this point she thought, "Well, I'm gonna die." Fortunately, he walked away, attempting to find the potential intruder (there wasn't one), and when he returned, he appeared to be fully awake and responsive.

For as much as I've written about gun violence and measures to reduce its frequency, I had honestly never thought about the potential dangers of a sleepwalker owning a firearm until this past Christmas.

Now, a shooting/murder while one is sleepwalking is incredibly rare. There have been only 68 documented cases of this occurring through 2005. However, it does happen on occasion, can't be ignored, and all sleepwalkers out there (and their partners) should take extra precautions if you do happen to own a firearm. If you're prone to sleepwalking and not knowing/remembering what you did while sleepwalking, perhaps you should think twice before purchasing a gun. A gun in the home increases the odds of injury/death by one. These odds increase even further when the owner sleepwalks.