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A blundering police chief running for promotion has seen his campaign go off with a bang - after accidentally shooting himself for a second time.

David Counceller shot himself in the leg as he was browsing in a gun shop leaving him needing hospital attention.

“I need to pay more attention,” said Counceller. “I know what the dangers are. It was pure carelessness on my part.”

He said he previously shot himself in the hand 15 years ago while he was on duty adding “that one really hurt.”

The 60-year-old, chief of the Connersville police department in Indiana, is running for the Republican nomination for sheriff in Fayette County.

“If anyone says this could never happen to them, they’re mistaken,” he said.

“You have to keep your guard up at all times. Some candidates are out there doing things for kids to try to get elected. Me, I shoot myself. What a way to get publicity.”

Counceller was looking at a .40-calibre Glock handgun on Saturday when he put his own Glock, a similar model, back into his holster. The pistol went off when he put the gun away.

“It got tangled in my clothing,” said the police chief.

“I was wearing a sweatshirt and a fleece jacket. I felt (the gun) go in the holster and I pushed it, but it was tangled in the material, which caused it to discharge. The bullet went into my leg and then into the floor.”

Counceller drove himself to the hospital where he was treated for the flesh wound in his upper right thigh.

The town’s mayor, Leonard Urban, said he thought the officer was joking when he said he’d shot himself.

“It was just a little accident. Dave is an excellent marksman,”he said.

“Apparently the Glocks don’t have the trigger safety that they should have.”