My understanding is that after his hand was obliterated by a grenade, the pieces of it were sent back with him in a baggie full of snow. They were able to mostly reassemble it with extensive surgery and some grafts from other parts of his body, but he does not have full mobility and use of it. It's very possible that he simply can't straighten that finger fully. To my mind, that is a valid excuse.RossA wrote:No excuse for poor trigger discipline.
ETA: Found a description from a little googling:
...a truly horrifying injury in 1983. It’s as ugly a tale as can be easily imagined—a malfunctioning prototype, an unexpected detonation, a near bleed-out, and the fragments of this world-class shooter’s right hand packed in a bag of snow.
“No way we’re gonna be able to save that hand,” was the first verdict. In the end, multiple operations, harvested bones and skin from elsewhere on his body—and a Ruger Security Six in the operating room for a mold so his grip and trigger finger could be reconstructed—gave James a right hand of sorts, though with a permanently shortened trigger finger and no “web” between the thumb and index finger. “It was a blessing in many ways, though that was harder to see at the time. I decided to see it as a challenge, and it sure gave me empathy for the pains and difficulties of others,” he says.