Accidental Discharges

[CLT65]

The point I was trying to make was that a negligent discharge, by definition, IS an accident.

No matter the level of stupid human-error screw up, unless it's intentional, it's still an accident. "Negligence" describes the behavior, whereas "accident" describes the result.

I don't know why everyone has such a problem with the word accident. It's not like it's a get-out-of-jail-free card.

If you say "Gee, officer, I'm so sorry I was driving drunk and killed those people. I didn't mean to do it. It was an accident."

He's going to say "Yes it was an accident, a bad one. It's also negligent homicide and you're going to jail."

 

[Crohnos01]

So he's showing it off and and swinging it around

And that in and of itself is the first clue that its time to get the bubblegum outta there.

 

[Josh89]

And that in and of itself is the first clue that its time to get the bubblegum outta there.

I was ignorant as well. I think I was 14-15 at the time.

 

[billdeserthills]

Ill eat the popcorn and add to this deadhead thread......How hard is it to keep your motherbubbleguming finger OFF the goddamn trigger????.........not that bubbleguming hard..




Just sayn.....

I was unloading a chambered round from my old 22lr, but unbeknownst to me, the firing pin had rusted in the extended position and when I pushed the bolt forward the extended firing pin caused the chambered round to fire. My finger never touched the trigger
Fortunately I was pointing the gun in a 'safe' position

 

[etrain16]

Never had an ND/AD myself, but was present and responsible for one a couple years ago. I was teaching my nephew how to shoot. We had spent time going over the safety points and I had him watch several videos on gun safety before he came to the range. He was very respectful of the rules and needed very little correction on gun safety. But, there was one item that slipped past us both, and I, as the teacher, should have caught it, but missed it.

We were well into shooting a number of different guns. He wanted to try my wife's SP101 with some .38's I had him adjust his grip differently than he had for the semi-auto and fire some rounds. I wanted to further adjust the grip and moved to the other side while he held the gun pointed downrange (still loaded) and at the grass. As I was going over his grip and was adjusting things, I didn't notice his finger had moved to the trigger - my bad. At one point, I had said 'then just squeeze, don't jerk the trigger' - he thought I was telling him to do it then, so he pulled. The gun fired into the grass about 20' in front of us. Caught us both by surprise to say the least - but that kid didn't freak out, he kept that muzzle pointed in the exact same place and just pulled his finger off the trigger. I used the fail (by me) as an opportunity to enforce why we follow all the rules. With the gun pointed downrange, we were both out of the way of harm, as were any others at the range. I think the point was well made about keeping your finger off the trigger until you're on target and ready to shoot. His response was very mature - makes me a proud uncle.

It worked out well for us that day and the rest of the time was uneventful. While I'm embarrassed that I let that get by me, I'm happy to say the other rules helped prevent something bad from happening. Stay safe and be vigilant of other's actions.

 

[etrain16]

Accidental discharge....this one time, at band camp....

 

[DuneHopper]

When I see threads resurrected like I have lately and they all tend to look negative on Gun owners, my nature tells me this is done for a reason just so happens all these new ones coincide with the new law sessions in our capitals. Coincidence ?.... I tend to think not.

 

[ZigZagZeke]

I am disappointed in some of you that think that so called gun accidents happen to all of us at some point and that it's acceptable. No I am not in denial that some people do stupid things but the first thing I teach new gun owners is that there are no accidents with guns, just sometimes bad judgment and that's not acceptable around me when it comes to gun safety. The people I have taught and shoot with either embrace this philosophy or they don't shoot with me.

I hope you are not saying that an accidental or negligent discharge can't happen to you. When I see statements like yours it really bothers me. The attitude that it can't happen to me because I'm careful is a sure recipe for failure in a lot of different endeavors, firearms included. I've been a race car driver and builder, a scuba diving instructor, a small bore rifle competitor, a tournament paintball player, a sailor and fishing guide, power plant technician, and operated in many other dangerous environments and activities. It can ALWAYS happen to you, no matter how careful you think you are being.

 

[ZigZagZeke]

I was at a gun show once just minding my own business when there's suddenly a loud bang. Everybody kind of freezes. Then all hell breaks loose with people running and shouting. Somebody examining a pistol had pulled the trigger and it went off. Luckily, nobody was hit. The vendor swore up and down that no ammunition for the pistol was even present in his booth. It looked like what happened is that somebody (maybe an anti-gunner) had slipped his own round into the pistol and then set it back down for the next guy to pick up loaded.

As a stupid 13 year old, I was shooting .22 shorts into a large stump in the back yard with my dad's bolt action rifle. As I walked back into the house with the rifle pointed down and the magazine removed I pulled the trigger to uncock the "empty" rifle. The bullet hit the pavement about 3 feet in front of me and splattered lead and pavement all over my lower half. No permanent injuries, but I got educated.

Just a couple years ago I'm out shooting and brought along the Colt 1903, which is pretty much a safe queen. I keep it for sentimental reasons, since it was my mother's pillow gun. I thought I'd use up some old ammo that had been laying around for years. I'm blasting away and suddenly it doesn't sound right. Wait...was that a squib? The empty did eject, but still... I dropped the magazine and racked the slide to empty it, and then locked the slide back. There's no casing in the chamber, but still no light is visible down the barrel. Yep, there was a bullet stuck about half way down the barrel. I took a closer look at the box of ammo and it's quickly apparent that it's much older than I thought. There's a price tag on it from a store that went out of business in 1970, so it's at least 45 years old. I disposed of the rest of that box.

 

[FriendOfEvanWilliams]

I've never had one personally, but I was present for someone else's ND with my pistol about 8 years ago. I was taking a couple friends out shooting for their first time on the way to Bagby, so we pulled off 224 up Memaloose to the big pit. After the whole safety spiel, I loaded my .38 snubbie for my friend to shoot and handed it over to her. She had taken the safety tips seriously, and kept the gun pointed down range, finger off the trigger, but as she was raising the gun to aim she tried to pull the hammer back simultaneously. Well, her thumb slipped off the hammer about 3/4 of the way back and the gun fired in to the ground about 10 feet in front of her and gave us all a bit of a scare. Thankfully she was listening to the rules, and had the gun pointed in a safe direction at all times so nobody got hurt. I like to believe that the experience taught her the extreme value of following all safety precautions to the letter when handling firearms.

 

[Mikej]

I'd gone back to Salt Lake to see the folks and spend time with a high school buddy. We went rabbit hunting. Me, the buddy and a work mate of his. I had a 10/22 and they both had 12 gauges. A real nice kid, younger sorta built/body builder type. Just getting back to the truck after a loop and kinda hiking up this last little hill. It was buddies work mate in front, me about 6' behind, and my buddy 6' behind me. Almost to the top and the workmate's gun goes OFF! Had the muzzle pointed of to the side and the charge went into the hill. Scared the crap out of ALL of us! I looked back at my friend, Erv, his eyes wide as hell and he said, "You got any toilet paper?" Dude workmate had been hunting all morning with the safety off! We'd walk in a line about 30' or so apart to jump rabbits. He got a major ear full. A lot of silence in the truck for a couple of hours.

Ervin was a master with a shot gun. He used to hunt doves after school. Never used the safety rabbit hunting. Used a single shot and could pull the hammer back as he swept for a shot and seldom needed a second shot on a rabbit.

 

[JohnnyD]

have never had one myself but do remember one when I was a kid. my mom was showing a guy friend her colt frontier 22 and this guy was foreign and obviously knew nothing. first thing he does is shoot a hole in our arm chair

 

[RicInOR]

Arise

Keeping tabs on Unintentional Discharges

"One of the ways I keep an eye on Unintentional Discharges is via Google Alerts on a weekly basis. Although I prefer the LAPD definition of Unintentional Discharge, the most common phrase found in the news is 'accidental discharge,' so that's what my search is set for. I know that "negligent discharge" is the common vernacular in the firearms community but as Marty Hayes of Armed Citizens' Legal Defense Network https://armedcitizensnetwork.org/ has pointed out, 'negligent' has a specific meaning in legal terms that does not fit the circumstances of most UDs. Consequently, I don't use 'negligent discharge' except when the applicable legal definition fits the incident. If we're going to pick nits about the difference between 'clip' and 'magazine,' let's pick nits consistently."

 

[titsonritz]

Don't do it.