Talk about Gun Control!

[Bryant]

The weirdest thing happened to me tonight which I hope will never happen again. I was cleaning my Berreta 92 fs Centurian which I took out the mag and pulled back the slide twice before I started. When I finished cleaning it I pulled the trigger thinking it was safe well it was'nt. I ended up shooting a hole through my TV killing a re-run I guess but it deffinately scared the hell out of me. I imedietly called a freind and got the hell out of there because I live in an apartment complex and decided to waite it out drinkin' of course. The lesson here folks don't always assume your gun is safe until you actually can see daylight through the chamber. I know i should have checked more precisely but if you pull the slide a couple of times you just assume, not always correct. The reason I am telling you this is simply because I hope none of you experience the panic I felt after that incident happened. You may think I am an idiot but it was just plane common assumption I am damn lucky no none got hurt but I know it tought me a valuable lesson. I should have known better since I spent four years in the Army but hopefully you all check before pulling that trigger, never assume anything. The lesson here, I will now have to fork out 300 dollars to my brother to replace his TV but at least no-one got hurt because of my ignorence.

[Necron99]

Did something similiar several years ago with a Glock 19 and I have handled guns since I was a wee child. The saying never assume because it will make an "ass" out of "u" and "me" definitely appies to gun safety. Just last year a couple of Marine reservists had a tragic lesson in gun safety, in the town where I live. These two were horseplaying around and were probably drunk. They were fooling around with a .40S&W chambered Beretta 96 that they thought was empty and one of the fellas ended up blowing the other guy's head off. This occured in a small house in an alley directly behind the house I lived in at the time. I read about it in the paper, but didn't realize how close it was until I ended up talking to the resident of the house who saw the whole thing. They had to replace the carpet because of all the blood and gore. All because someone didn't check the chamber and pointed the gun where it shouldn't be pointed. I've also had the opposite occur. I often have a pistol at work when doing late night bookwork/deposits. The chamber always has a round in it, but every once in a blue moon I check the chamber to find I either forgot to chamber a round, or somebody meddled with my firearm without my knowing (highly unlikely). Imagine my fatal embarassment when I decide to dispatch some armed robber, pull my pistol and click! Oops!

[Gopher]

You guys are right about never assuming a gun is empty when you haven't actually checked inside the chamber. I was firing my MAK-90 at the range last week and, after emptying a 40 round magazine, I removed the magazine, placed the weapon flat on the table and dry-fired it. I was shocked when the gun fired and slid back 2 feet on the table. Fortunately, the weapon was still pointed down range. But it scared the shit out of me.

[MEL]

I'm all in there with you on that one my friend.It was about two years ago my range buddy and I where wrapping up about a hours worth of practice.We decided as usuall to let that last clip rip-you know what I mean.He had a Colt 45 gov. model&I had my Glock 21.We both finished at the same time.I with my own eyes saw his slide back-empty-he pulled the slide back down-left the clip in the pistol- dry fired the hammer down-as was bringing the pistol to his side-BANG!!!!!

Glad nobody got hurt, and I'm sure you guys learned a lesson you won't forget anytime soon.

As Eddie Eagle says, ALWAYS treat a firearm like it's loaded, and NEVER point one at something you don't intend to shoot.

Bryant,
You got off lucky, $300 is cheap concidering what you would have gotten had your brother or a neighbor been on the other side of the wall behind the TV. Cleaning them is probabaly the most dangerous activity gun owners face, as it's the time they let their guard down and don't use common sense to make sure the weapon is unloaded. It's easy to assume a weapon is unloaded when your familiar with it, but it can and too often is a fatal assumption.
You might want to check the extractor spring on your Berreta, it sounds like the spring is weak if you cycled it twice and it didn't clear the round.

Butch...