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No firearms expert has been able to fully explain or reproduce the “freak accident” that Gerald Stanley claims caused his gun to fire unexpectedly into the head of Colten Boushie.

The result is what David Tanovich, co-editor of Canadian Bar Review, said was a case of a “magical gun.”

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Stanley’s acquittal hinged on a claim of hangfire, an extremely rare scenario in which a cartridge discharges several seconds after it is struck by the firing pin.

Even then, Boushie should still have survived if not for a second extremely specific malfunction that could not be replicated by experts testing Stanley’s gun.

Boushie was killed with a Tokarev TT33, a semi-automatic pistol originally manufactured for the Soviet Red Army.

Photo by RCMP

After a confrontation with an SUV filled with trespassers on his Saskatchewan farm, Stanley testified that he retrieved the Tokarev from a shed, loaded it with three cartridges and then stepped outside to fire into the air. He said he pulled the trigger three or four times.