Don't put your pistol in your pants:

 

A Waikato man who shot himself with a pistol down his pants was lucky he didn't hit an artery and die, police say.

The 35-year-old shot himself while trying to hide a gun from police while returning from possum-hunting with his brother on Friday night.
The man did not have a licence for the .22 pistol he had in his pants and was attempting to get rid of it before police saw it, Sergeant Jim Corbett of Thames Strategic Traffic Unit said today.
Officers were called to reports of shots being fired on a farm at Waitekauri, between Waihi and Paeroa, about 9.40pm on Friday, Mr Corbett said.
Police set up a checkpoint to stop cars coming down Golden Cross Road, when the man and his brother pulled up in a van.
"He'd got out of the car and he'd been trying to get the pistol out of where he'd had it positioned it in his trousers, and it went off. After he shot himself he managed to throw the gun over into the scrub."

"He went to the ground and the officers sorted out his wound while they were waiting for the ambulance to come....He was losing quite a bit of blood to start off with. He was conscious throughout and left in the ambulance."
Mr Corbett said the man was in shock and a lot of pain after he realised he'd shot himself in the upper thigh with the pistol in his pants.
"He was very lucky because if he'd hit the main artery, he could have very easily bled out and died."
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