Man at NRA headquarters accidentally shoots himself

In a somewhat ironic twist of fate, a National Rifle Association employee has accidentally shot himself while doing firearms training at the organisations headquarters.

The 46-year-old man accidentally discharged his pistol while he was holstering it at the NRA's National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Virginia.

The staffer of the National Firearms Museum, a site within the NRA's Headquarters, suffered a minor wound to his lower body and was taken to a hospital for treatment.

No criminal chargers have been filed.

The NRA is the US's biggest gun rights organisation and has long been a champion of gun safety.

According to the Gun Violence Archive there have been 552 reported unintentional shootings in 2017 (five or six a day).

There were 2,200 unintentional shootings in 2016.

Picture: Gun Violence Archive

Overall, the Gun Violence Archive has tracked 15,704 incidents of gun violence in 2017.

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