accidental discharge ?

Has anyone else had an accidental discharge ? How & where did it happen ?

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I have seen some famous videos of it happening but personally it has not happened to me.

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Yep. In my home office with a Browning Hi Power. Clearing it to put it away.
Bullet stopped by a book on a stone top table. Case of dumbsh*titis on my part.

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Seen it happen to a few friends but not to me personally.

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Check the rear of the chamber again, slowly. If someone with you, ask if they can look in that chamber, if they know how to look at it. Bright lighting helps. Always keep it pointed in safest direction. Empty, empty, empty — unless you are in a condition of alert.

Very low cost and small effort, adds safety to your carry.

Barrel Block devices:

Flag Safety Indicators:

I’ve had one. Had a misfire, waited 30 seconds, dropped the mag, while inserting new Mag I had a sympathetic trigger squeeze. Thank god I kept the gun pointed down range and low towards the dirt. Lesson learned.

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Not me but I think about every time I /load/unload my EDC.

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It happens a lot when holstering and unholster but they are not accidental discharges they are negligent discharges.

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I have experienced a few accidental discharges, meaning I fired when I didn’t intend to. All of them happened at the range while learning the feel of a new trigger reset. No harm done, just damned surprising.

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So far I never have accidental discharge. Unfortunately I had a negligent discharge. :frowning_face:
Because 4 safety rules were applied, nothing bad happened.

EDITED / CORRECTED:
Because 3 safety rules were applied, nothing bad happened.

If I applied all 4… there wouldn’t be a negligent discharge at all :expressionless:

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Doesn’t sound like accidental… :wink:

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Finger off the trigger unless in the act of shooting

Guess it falls into negligent discharge. After 30 sec eject misfired round, Keep the booger hook off the trigger…two I missed.

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I had one near the end of my first defensive handgun class. The instructor handed me his DA/SA to try on a steel plate rack. I was surprised by how heavy the first trigger pull was which caused me to miss the plate I had been consistently hitting with my own pistol. And even more surprised by how light the second trigger pull was when I was getting it back on target and it went off again before I completely reestablished my sight picture. Not sure if that counts as negligent or accidental since I was intending to fire again but not quite as quickly as I actually did??

Had another situation where I was sighting in a new rifle and was certain I had fired my last round. But before putting it away I double checked to make sure it was clear and ejected a live round. Fortunately I was following all four rules and treating it like it was loaded even though I thought it wasn’t.

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Fortunately i have never had a accidental weapon discharge. I did have a 22 mag that someone screwed with the sear before i got it and it got when i closed the bolt it would fire. I filed where the hammer sat when cocked it would sit futher back on sear.

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No!
Wife and I quadruple check when cleaning, storage or prepping for the range. Holstering a 1911, thumb on hammer, index finger straight!

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Yeah, there used to be a hole in the roof of the Orange County, CA, police range that belonged to me. Cock the revolver while holding it in the air. Slowly lower it until the bull appears just above the front sight with the bottom of the front sight at 6:00 o’clock on the top of the front sight all the while slowly squeezing the trigger while lowering the muzzle. Oops. Just a tad too much squeeze before the bull appeared over the front sight. That was over 50 years ago. I still use that technique for slow fire but I don’t start the squeeze until the muzzle has at least cleared the roof of the firing line.

It used to be that you could go in the guard shack of any Marine Corps base and look up at the ceiling and see patches thereon. The drill was to remove the magazine, rack the slide catch the round before it hit the ground and then press the trigger while holding the 1911A1 with the muzzle pointed at the ceiling. Coming off the midnight to 0400 watch, at some time past 0400 some of us are not quite as alert as we might be. It was all too easy to rack the slide, catch the round, point the muzzle at the ceiling and OOPS! Nothing like having had the 2000 to 0000 watch and be suddenly awakened at 0400+ by the loud discharge of a .45 caliber semi-automatic in the close quarters of the guard shack.

By the way, they are not accidental discharges. They are negligent discharges.

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The reason I asked was because while I normally consider myself a safe gun handler I have
(much to my chagrin) had two accidental discharges, something I really hate but at least nobody was home at the time. Now , unless I’m actually shooting the pistol is either unloaded or in a holster.
Thanks for your reply… stay safe
T.

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Accidental or negligent pretty much the same thing in this instance, but you’re correct

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In the short period that I was a prison guard, some officers on perimeter patrol would play with the shotgun or AR-15 and a round would go off putting a hole in the truck roof. That usually cost them 2 weeks off w/o pay.

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Being a member of firearm community or responsible gun owner, we have to recognize difference between accidental and negligent discharge.

A negligent discharge is an unintentional firing of a shot due to a violation of the 4 Firearms Safety Rules and/or improper weapon handling.
The fault lies entirely with the person handling the gun and could have been prevented.

An accidental discharge is due to mechanical failure or equipment malfunction.
It has nothing to do with improper gun handling and it is not a fault of the person handling the gun.

I think the topic of the thread is confusing… but we either talk about accidental discharge or negligent one. We shouldn’t treat both as the same.

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