Two kinds of people with guns

[old Grump]

There are those who have never had a gun discharge unintentionally......yet. And then there are those of us who tell the truth and have had AD and ND a time or three.

Accidental discharge is when you have done nothing wrong. Your gun had no snot pickers near the trigger, you were not playing with the hammer, bolt, slide, safety etc, etc, etc. Yet due to circumstances beyond your control the gun fired a round, hopefully harmlessly into your neighbors TV and not yours. Sometimes the results are catastrophic and somebody dies or is critically injured. It sucks but isn't really your fault.

More common than any of us ever want to admit there is the negligent discharge and no Mable, you were not cleaning your gun when it accidentally went off. Somebody was playing backyard mechanic and super refined his sear or lightened up his trigger pull or had a bad habit of picking up a gun with the finger inside the trigger guard.

Maybe your reloads had high primers but you decided to shoot them anyway and you put one in your rifle to see if it would cycle...it did, right through the light fixture in the ceiling, up through the vanity and into the can of face powder surprising your wife and traumatizing the cat. Shortly after that there is an ad in the papers 'small gun collection for sale, no reasonable offer refused. Items must go.'

Better yet there was a loud bang, there were no witnesses and you are able to stick a dowel of wood in the wood floor of your shop and saw it off flush, nobody the wiser.

Worst case scenario there is the famous last words, "It isn't loaded." Just before the gun fires and your child has just killed his best friend or your best friend has just killed the neighbors baby across the street asleep in his crib.

Good news is rate of accidental shootings is very rare and negligent shootings are not only rare but the rates have been dropping for decades in spite of their being fewer outdoorsmen trained in shooting from childhood and an increasing number of firearms in this country. We know the rules. Most of us grew up with the 10 or 12 rules posted at the ranges we shot or in the books and magazines we read. The 4 rules that the younger generation is familiar with and everybody but everybody should have as a core part of every cell in their body is commonly known.

Only true anti-gun liberals object to their children or anybody else's children learning them because they fear it glamorizes guns. I will keep my thoughts about those kinds of brain dead moral morons to myself for fear I may traumatize the more sensitive among us.

So this is a fess up thread:

Last accidental or negligent discharge and be honest. If not the last then the most memorable. Those of you have never had one yet are either lying or you haven't been shooting long. You need not respond to this post.

Last: Brother hands me his empty 45. I take his word for it and take it into my bedroom to put into his gun box for storage till I can clean them. I note the slide isn't all the way forward. Brain not functioning, (I should have checked), but I did not. I pushed the slide forward and pulled the trigger to put the hammer down. There is a hole in my carpet near the head of my bed right in front of my book shelf. No I will not show you where it is. Verdict-negligent

[btcave]

11 years ago I was cleaning my .45 on the couch while watching the History channel. I had dry fired it and set it down. I watched more TV. Not paying attention to myself... I picked up the pistol up again, aimed at the floor in front of me. I dry fired it. BOOM! The Hydra-shok went into the carpet at an angle, dug a 6 inch long trench in the particle board underneath, came back up through the carpet, hit 10 feet away on the opposite wall 6 feet up at an angle and landed on the carpet 2 feet to my left. My ears were a ringing something fierce. I still have the bullet as a reminder.

Somewhere in between while watching TV, I had reloaded it.

Did I mention I was drinking beer?

Negligent all the way! My only so far.

[HDR]

My first shotgun was an old hand me down 410 bolt action. My father, some of his friends and I were going small game hunting. When it came time to load when I closed the bolt it went bang. I yelled I didn't do it and got "the look." Well, he tried to chamber a shell and bang. Then one of his buds tried and bang. At this moment my hunting for the day was over however my ass was saved.

The good news is I got a 12 ga LOL

[aliceinchains]

We have another thread on this. Where is it ?

[weevil]

I had one AD.

I bought an old 1903 Rock Island from a pawn shop many moons ago, and after work I took it to the toolies to try it out. Loaded up the mag with the brand new box of 30-06 I had bought and slammed the bolt shut and "BOOOM" it went off. I about crapped my pants. After taking it home and cleaning it up like I should have in the first place I found the firing-pin was all gummed up and sticking.

I also had an ND.

I had loaded up my pistols to go to the range, but I hadn't got a holster for my new CZ-40B so I dug out my box of holsters and started trying it in different ones. Well one was a bit too tight and cocked the hammer, without thinking about it I pulled the trigger to decock it and "BOOM". The bullet just missed going through a window and lodged in the window frame. My wife came running in to see what happened and of course I lied my ass off and used the old "gee I dunno what happened it just went off."

[sisyphus]

I was about 15 and fiddling with the firing selector on the old Savage .22 / .410 up in the bedroom. Forgot about the round in the shot chamber. The upper .22 barrel went click and then BOOM on the bottom one. It tore a 6" ragged olblong gash through the bedspread, sheets and mattress. Nobody was home, so I (duh) changed the sheets and bedspread and threw the burned ones in the laundry.

Mom was justifiably pissed come washday but dad just shook his head and told me what I was. The gun was put out of my access for a long time. Brother had a good laugh though.

[Vorkutinetz]

In all honesty, only had a slamfire twice with my SKS at the range (firing pin was stuck) Thankfully it was pointed in the right direction with noone down range.
ND, none for me....However I was next to two or three of them...My brother put a hole in the cieling of a firing range and a buddy of mine put a hole in the ground next to his sisters foot...It was one of those "i did not know it was loaded" moments...And another buddy put a hole in a hotel room floor with my Makarov...THe other one was much more serious, it went in my direction and put a hole in the wall about 8" to the left of my head....That was a lesson for my friend (and myself) that neither of us will soon forget...
That happened a long time ago...if we were double checking our stuff then, we are tripple checking it now

[old Grump]

We have another thread on this. Where is it ?

New day, new thread, now fess up, what did you do?

[Schuetzenman]

New day, new thread, now fess up, what did you do?

I seem to recall he shot his refrigerator.

[TEN-32]

Twice. I'm a slow learner.

[6gunsal]

My only ND happened at the range, thank God, and was the result of poor trigger discipline. I just finished chasing a soda can around, kicking up dirt clouds with my romy G, turned to give my roommate a big shit-eating grin, and set off a mortar round at ~45 deg.
I'm just glad I kept the gun pointed downrange, and there was nothing but national forest behind the backstop.

[old Grump]

First and second ND's. Third time at a pistol match, getting to be an old pro right? Get through the 22 stage just fine. Do the slow fire stage with the 45 just fine. Now we are up for the fun stuff, time fire at 25 yards.

Range master yells out ready on the right, Bang/Bang, my buddy and I both let loose with one shot each at the targets that are not facing us.

Range master yells out ready on the left Bang/Bang; yeah it was the same two dopes.

All ready on the firing line, Bang/Bang, unperturbed range master says "Well two of us are ready anyhow."

The targets face us, I have two rounds left and I couldn't for the life of me get either one of them off, my finger was froze. Does Buck Fever count for negligent discharge or is that under a different category marked 'Rookie mistakes and why we have to go through that stage.'

[ksuguy]

The most recent AD was a few months ago. It was caused by a mechanical malfunction, not negligence. I was slung up and shooting one of my Garands from prone, and got a double. At first I thought I might have unintentionally bump fired it. Finished out the rest of the clip and the next one without incident. Then I got another double, and I definitely knew it wasn't me that time. At that point, I unloaded and cleared the remaining rounds and stopped shooting for the day. Contacted the CMP and sent the rifle in for repairs. They confirmed that the sear was worn and it was doing the same thing for them. So they put in a new fire control group and sent it back to me. Haven't had any problems since.

The only ND I've had was when I was first getting into shooting and I was shooting my first pistol, a CZ75 BD at a basic pistol class. I didn't quite understand how the decocker worked. When I bought the thing, the dealer demonstrated it by holding the deocker lever while pulling the trigger to let the hammer down. Being new to firearms and not knowing any better, I kept doing it the wrong way like he showed me. That worked fine until the time when my finger slipped off the lever, and BANG!. Fortuntely I was pointing the gun down range at the time, and the only bad result was some embarassment. Even though I was new, I was always very careful where I pointed the thing while decocking it and I only had it loaded when I was at the range.

It's always a good idea to make sure you know how an unfamiliar gun works before you get live ammo anywhere near it.

[L1A1Rocker]

Had one running and gunning at an IPSC match. Just jumped into a shooting box and was bring my gun up to start on a series of pepper poppers - just as I was getting sight alignment BANG - it "just went off".

Only one person noticed that it was a ND because I actually hit one of the poppers and it went down. He noticed because it was not the right one and it took me a second to recover and re-engage the targets. I called that a teachable moment as I did learn something from it.

[Broondog]

had an ND once upon a time.

i had just gotten a new WASR and it had jammed shut on me for some reason so i walked back around to the front of the house to find something "soft" to beat on the charging handle with. so there i was with the rifle butt on my thigh and one hand holding the pistol grip in a reverse fashion while striking the handle with a piece of 2x4. of course the muzzle is near my now unprotected ear and there is still a mag in the rifle.

you see where this is going right?

the carrier was beginning to free up and i guess i changed my grip and got my thumb somewhere it didn't need to be and the last whack cleared the stuck case and chambered another round which promptly went off up into the air. where the round went is anybody's guess but the population around here is more livestock than humans so that's the bonus part of it.

my ear rung for two days straight after that too. and yes i had been drinking a bit that day, which led to one of my new (at the time) range rules. "no drinking until the guns have been put away".

[btcave]

and yes i had been drinking a bit that day, which led to one of my new (at the time) range rules. "no drinking until the guns have been put away".

Some of us, myself included, just have to learn through experience, I guess.

[AKTexas]

One slam fire in the French MAS only had only one round.

No ND ever.Been in the company of one but not associated with the retard.

[ATAK, Inc.]

AD: About 14 years ago went out shooting with my FIL. I was shooting a 16" AR when all of the sudden it went full-auto! I stopped, removed mag, cleared weapon, inserted new mag (I know, stupid thing to do), and pulled the trigger! 8 rounds went down range! That is when I put up the red flag, broke down the rifle and found the rear of the hammer had broken off, nowhere for the sear to engage. Had a new hammer in no time!

ND: I was 19, had a Colt SP-1 and was playing Rambo in my appt. In the process of "clearing" my bedroom, BOOM! Nice hole in the wall, but nothing on the other side of the sheetrock! The whole time I was doing this; 1. there was a loaded mag in the rifle. 2. There was a round in the chamber. 3. The safety was off!!!
Needless to say, it was a critical learning experience that I've never forgot. Right after it happened, my neighbor comes pounding on my door and asks me if I heard a gunshot. I said, yes, where did it come from? doh

[gunslinger]

Well, I have to agree that,given you stick around with guns enough, sooner or later you gotta get an AD.
I had one at the range.
Personally, when I'm finished shooting I go through this procedure:
- Unload gun
- Check that gun's unloaded (look into chamber)
- Point gun towards target, pull trigger (if revolver, repeat for number of chambers +1)
- Put away gun.

It may sound redundant... because it's meant to be. Human beings are prone to error and to believe one did something he actually didn't just because he always does it.

So I finished shooting my Walther PP, all the 8 shots in the magazine (or so I believed), checked the gun was empty (or so I believed) returned from throwing away some empty ammo boxes, picked up the gun all of which cartridges I had shot, and which I had checked it was empty, pointed it downrange and pulled the trigger.
And it went BANG instead of click.
Obviously I hadn't shot ALL the ammo and when I had gone to to throw away the boxes, I chatted with a friend and THEN came back to the bench BELIEVING I'd already checked the gun.
Safety is overlapping procedures, each one the safety net of the others, for when we get stoopid.

So, on this one

Sometimes the results are catastrophic and somebody dies or is critically injured. It sucks but isn't really your fault.

I have to STRONGLY disagree. It IS your fault, and nobody's else.
You handle something can kill a person instantly? You follow the safety rules and be careful with it.
Guns don't shoot by themselves, and between the gun and you, only you have a brain and are responsbile for what happens.



If handling gun:
- Check that gun's unloaded (look into chamber)
- Keep finger off trigger.

[gunslinger]

Had one running and gunning at an IPSC match. Just jumped into a shooting box and was bring my gun up to start on a series of pepper poppers - just as I was getting sight alignment BANG - it "just went off".

Only one person noticed that it was a ND because I actually hit one of the poppers and it went down. He noticed because it was not the right one and it took me a second to recover and re-engage the targets. I called that a teachable moment as I did learn something from it.

If one's serious about safety (and he'd better be, if he's handling guns), it makes no difference if he fucks up and just him notice it or if everybody notices it.

As I said to a friend who had no notion about gun safety, but wanted to shoot, if you fuck up with a gun it can end just in three ways:
- you fuck up, and only you know about it, but it's very embarassing anyway.
- you fuck up, and everybody knows it, it's very embarassing and, if you are in any kind of serious environment, "there will be consequences" (hopefully dire ones)
- you fuck up and somebody dies. If you are lucky, that's you.

there are no excuses, and no "mitigating circumstances".