This was no fake Hollywood drama. A man accidentally shot himself at a Salina, Kansas, movie theater Friday night, freaking out the audience, KWCH reported.
Forty-five minutes into the movie "Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials," Heather Myers thought she heard a popped candy bag or prank . Then, she said, "This guy started shouting 'Oh my God, I just shot myself! I just got my concealed and carry,' and then everybody jumped up."
According to the Salina Journal, moviegoer and military veteran Tim Coleman, who sat one row in front of the man with his 12-year-old daughter, said he quickly determined the man wasn't intent on shooting anyone else because just one shot was fired. While others evacuated the theater, Coleman said he helped the man remove his belt and used it as a tourniquet around the man's upper thigh.
“By this point, the guy was starting to turn pale,” Coleman told the outlet. “He got pretty weak pretty quick. As I was putting the belt around his leg, he started praying.”
Coleman added that first responders arrived about 15 minutes later. Station KAKE noted the man was treated at a local hospital for an injury to his upper thigh that was not life-threatening.
A state law recently went into effect allowing gun owners to conceal and carry without training or a permit, KWCH pointed out.
"I believe in protecting yourself, but it is scary knowing they're in public places," Myers said. "I feel absolutely terrible for the gentleman that shot himself, but the first thing I thought of is thank God he didn't shoot somebody else."
Theater shootings in Aurora, Colorado, and Lafayette, Louisiana, have drawn attention to movie-going safety.
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