Three people were injured at the Dixie Gun and Knife Show in Raleigh, North Carolina when a 36-year-old man was unfastening the case of his 12-gauge shotgun on a table near the show entrance when it accidentally discharged. The man planned to sell the shotgun at the show.
The bird shot ended up injuring three people. One was a sheriff's deputy, who suffered a slight injury to his hand and was treated and released at a local hospital before returning immediately to work, said Joel Keith, chief of police of the North Carolina State Fair.
A 54-year-old woman from Benson, North Carolina, was being treated a wound to her right torso at a local hospital, and a 50-year-old man from Durham, North Carolina, was treated for an injured left hand, Keith was quoted as saying by CNN.
"I want to emphasise that this is an accident," he said.
Wake County sheriff's investigators and the local prosecutor will determine whether to file charges against the gun's owner, authorities said.
In the second incident, a person is in stable condition at a northern Ohio hospital after being shot by his business partner at a gun show, Medina police Chief Patrick Berarducci said.
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The man who bought the semi-automatic 9mm gun told police that he took it out, then accidentally fired it, hitting his business partner's arm and thigh.
The victim, meanwhile, is in good spirits with non-life- threatening injuries, according to Berarducci.
In Indianapolis, a man walking out of the Indy 1500 Gun and Knife Show shot himself in the hand as he was loading his .45-caliber semi-automatic firearm, Indiana State Police said.
The 54-year-old man was sent to a hospital for treatment after being "slightly" injured.
"The investigation determined the shooting to be accidental, and no charges will be filed," police said.
Reforming private gun sales is among the changes that US President Barack Obama is now seeking by requiring background checks.
Obama this week called for action in the wake of last month's shooting at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, which left 27 people, 20 of them children, dead. Gun control activists have likewise pushed for changes, while gun rights advocates have said restrictions on gun sales are unnecessary and in defiance of their Second Amendment rights.