Accidental Discharge

Hello to everyone, would appreciate any thoughs, please no degrading remarks I feel bad enough as it is. I am a long time gun owner without any close calls and have actually prevented two AD's from happening by other individuals. I had two semi automatic pistols loaded not chambered and locked away in a safe. Tonight I decided to unload them to lessen the tension on the clip spring as I had not fire them in a while. First let me say, everyone that knows me understands that I am extremely repetitive in safely handing a firearm in some cases have been laugh at about how I'm never satisfied that a gun is empty. The last thing I do before putting a semi auto away is to put back on the slide, make sure its empty, then dry fire. I am very religious about this and feel comfortable in knowing my stored firearms are empty. With that being said, I unloaded the double action 45 cal. semi auto pistol with a safety without a problem. The other is a S&W 40 Cal. Glock Copy, I removed it from the safe ejected and emptied the clip then went to moved the slide back to check the chamber but before I could the gun went off. There are two things that are bothering me, one that I must of stored a gun loaded and two that I did not considered it to be loaded having my finger on the trigger. Even though I had the gun pointed in a safe direction this does not make up for the stupid mistake I made. I am thinking of selling my semi automatics as I have lost a great deal confidence in myself. I guess the purpose of this thread is that you never can be too cautious when it comes to firearms. I cannot believe this happen to me and I am very lucky that no one was hurt. In closing I just wish to say it wasn't the guns fault it did what it is suppose to do.

Very honest take on what happened. Thank you for it, you kind of "woke me up" or gave me a refresher, i think accidents happen and congrats that you are able to learn from this!

Good luck and be safe dude!

Accidents happen.

Yes, it was a case of negligence. But you're not the only person who has experienced this sort of discharge.
Besides, you were careful enough to have the gun pointed in a harmless direction, so no real injury was done to anything but your ego.

I have caused two negligent discharges in my life. One was dangerously close to being harmful, and the other was completely benign.
I learned important concepts from both accidents, not least of which was to always point any gun, always as if it were loaded, in a safe direction.

We are supposed to learn from our missteps. If you have learnt something from your harmless negligent discharge, you are ahead of the game.

Before your accident you were "cocky" enough to think that if you did certain things you will never have a negligent discharge with your guns. Now you can go on with CONFIDENCE that if you don't do certain things then bad things can happen.

The only mistake you can make in life is not learning from your mistakes.

Don't sell your guns, enjoy them....with your newly acquired confidence.

If your finger was on the trigger and you did not have nay intention of shooting it you need to practice your saftey routine a little bit more carefully and more often so it becomes second nature to you to do it correctly.

If you are not confident in your ability to handle the guns safely.......get rid of them. If you can use this experiance to be a better gun hamdler then keep them and enjoy them.

My neighbor has a poster on his gun safe that says "if your guns scare you.....you scare me.

RCG

You have beaten yourself up about this mistake, properly, I think.

Now you can move on and not repeat that very serious mistake again. The positive lesson learned is that you obeyed the first and most important rule and nobody was harmed.

We're glad that you're unharmed. We need to keep the finger off the trigger unless we intend to shoot the gun and we must treat all guns as loaded.

At least you had the presence of mind to have it pointed in a safe direction,that was good.We learn from our mistakes.

I've had 2 NDs in my life,technically.The first I was function checking my 45 after a trigger job and when I loaded it went right through the previous moves,boom in the wall.Surprizingly it wasn't that loud,because my hearing shut down for 5 minutes.

The second one is technically an ND,I was running a string of IPSC targets and got on the trigger a little quick.Hit the edge of the target and just missed the scoring ring.

Be safe.

I have a rule that states: All guns are loaded at all time (even when I am certain that they are empty). The only "unloaded" guns are revolvers with the cylinder swung open and an auto with the slide locked back.

I have two Glocks and I always wince when I have to pull the trigger to disassemble the guns--even though I know it is empty. (I always point it in a safe direction anyhow.)

I have a friend who has a similar rule. He says, "As soon as an 'empty' gun leaves my hands I assume it is loaded". For him, if he emptied a gun and put it on the table, when he picked it up again he would check to make sure it was still empty.

The point is to have a rule to live by; and then always live by that rule.

In my opinion your only problem is that you never established a fixed rule in your head--and this is the fault of whoever taught you to shoot. Rectify this oversight and you are good to own autos.

So find a rule that works for you. Then always follow that rule. (And keep your guns. An accident like this, unless it was from senility or some other disability, tends to keep you much more careful in the future.)

you made a mistake, you learned from it and no one got hurt. I had one in my 40 years of gun handling and wasn't a proud moment

I've had a couple and they are no fun. Fortunately or by the grace of God I didn't kill or injure myself or someone else. That being said, no matter how well trained, or how many rules, or how safe we are; we are all still humans susceptible to mistake and guns are not forgiving.:smt083

of the guys I know that are the real gun nerds..you know, the IPSC USPSA, 50k rounds a year, handle guns all day every day guys...every one of them, myself included, has had at least one unintentional discharge. "Accidental" is the result of parts failure.

It happens. That's why you keep multiple layers of safety. Just because you are absolutly, positivly certain it's unloaded doesn't mean it ok to use the cat for a dry fire target.

as long as you keep up the multiple layers of safety, all you'll get is dook scared and embarrassed.
nothing will improve your gun handling skills like a UD will.

It was not accidental. It was a negligent discharge.
Yes many of us have experienced similar through our own negligance but we should not lable it accidental.

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Originally Posted by TOF

It was not accidental. It was a negligent discharge.
Yes many of us have experienced similar through our own negligance but we should not lable it accidental.

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I agree and am sorry that I misquoted the incident. It was a ND not an AD and I apologize for the mislabeling.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TOF

It was not accidental. It was a negligent discharge.
Yes many of us have experienced similar through our own negligance but we should not lable it accidental.

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When you didn't mean to do it then it's an accident and can be sued for it if warranted. By calling it an accident it is not a willful tort thus the insurance co will pay off on damages. When you’re in the military or a LEO then it's a negative discharge because people with extensive training are supposed to know better and it is a punishable incident

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Originally Posted by bojasmi

Hello to everyone, would appreciate any thoughs, please no degrading remarks I feel bad enough as it is. I am a long time gun owner without any close calls and have actually prevented two AD's from happening by other individuals. I had two semi automatic pistols loaded not chambered and locked away in a safe. Tonight I decided to unload them to lessen the tension on the clip spring as I had not fire them in a while. First let me say, everyone that knows me understands that I am extremely repetitive in safely handing a firearm in some cases have been laugh at about how I'm never satisfied that a gun is empty. The last thing I do before putting a semi auto away is to put back on the slide, make sure its empty, then dry fire. I am very religious about this and feel comfortable in knowing my stored firearms are empty. With that being said, I unloaded the double action 45 cal. semi auto pistol with a safety without a problem. The other is a S&W 40 Cal. Glock Copy, I removed it from the safe ejected and emptied the clip then went to moved the slide back to check the chamber but before I could the gun went off. There are two things that are bothering me, one that I must of stored a gun loaded and two that I did not considered it to be loaded having my finger on the trigger. Even though I had the gun pointed in a safe direction this does not make up for the stupid mistake I made. I am thinking of selling my semi automatics as I have lost a great deal confidence in myself. I guess the purpose of this thread is that you never can be too cautious when it comes to firearms. I cannot believe this happen to me and I am very lucky that no one was hurt. In closing I just wish to say it wasn't the guns fault it did what it is suppose to do.

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This reminds me of myself many years ago . The biggest hurt was my ego , the good part is I still remember it and there was no injuries and it made me a little more aware of the possibilities where guns are involved. I learned a lesson that time and have not forgotten it. Don't be too hard on yourself because you like me won't forget the lesson learned here. Good luck.

What is amazing to me (or shocking...I still haven't decided) was how many of you have had similar stories to tell of AD/ND. This is a good thing, meaning, one can never, ever,ever be too careful and the fact that there are so many occurrences is proof of that.
I myself have never had one but on more than one occasion was split seconds away from something that could have been a real disaster. In those cases, I was either lucky or double checked my firearm before holstering a loaded gun without decocking (SIG) it.
It's so easy to be complacent when you feel your routine is thorough, almost thoughtless in a way because it's such a routine.
The bottom line: PAY ATTENTION. Each and every step. I know I will from now on.
Thanks to all of you guys who put your egos aside to admit you're human!

I'm seventy years old. I've "owned" firearms since age six.
And actually bought and owned them since age fourteen.

I had a N.D. three years ago. With a S&W J-frame REVOLVER.
While I was sitting at my computer desk. HOW can that happen ?

I was lucky I obeyed the "never point unless" rule.

The metal window-frame deformed "self-defense" bullet sits on my desk as a reminder.
Yes, I actually pointed at the metal frame for "dry-fire". The other four were standing on my desk.
Along with one of maroon snap-caps. Can't get any dumber than that. "Keep live ammo in another room".

In other news: People can be divided into two groups in several "areas".

1. Those who have had a hard-drive failure, and those who WILL have a hard-drive failure.

2. Those who have had a wheels-up landing, and those who WILL have a wheels-up landing.

3. And, of course, those who have had a ND, and those who WILL . . .

I'm still doing OK with "will have" on item two. :mrgreen:

There are more scenarios to that,but if that ain't the friggin' truth.I always said you didn't do it long enough or you fibbed.

Hello and on my first post I want to own up to being guilty of a ND once while taking field stripping a Glock 23, thankfully I had it pointed in a safe direction. I had handled handguns for nearly 20 years before that happened and even though I was always careful I was a little cocky and thought I would never let that happen, well let me tell you just like you OP I was completely humbled.

Now days before I do any cleaning or dry firing of a weapon I check, re-check and triple check the pistol clear and I take my sweet time doing so. I was always conscious of safety but after my ND I have taken clearing a weapon to a whole new level and because me or no one else was injured I'm actually glad it happened, I'm better for it and it sounds like you will be as well.

What you did sucks but it's obvious from your post your a responsible gun owner and that you have put a lot of thought into what happened, I think just like when it happened to me you have been humbled and maybe added a new level of respect to safety so I think now would be the worse time to sell or trade your semi's.

Just work through it and get your confidence back but always remember what happened, I would suggest getting back on the horse right away by going to the range and then come home and break down your guns and clean them.

I have a confession to make as well, and you all will probably judge me for it but whatever. One night this past year, I was at a college party at my good friend's house. We were drinking and having a good time and then suddenly things went south. My friend had some depression problems back then and started acting really weird and reckless, talking about "ending it" so I took it upon myself to get his 1911 he keeps cocked and locked in his drawer and empty it. In my haste to empty the gun and hide it before he came upstairs and noticed, I emptied the chamber THEN dropped the mag...which, as you all know, means there's still one in the chamber. I pointed it at the outside wall and went to dry fire to drop the hammer. BANG. Thankfully nobody was hurt. I have three handguns of my own and ever since then, I'll randomly think of that moment and get really nervous. I think "what if I was an idiot and pointed it at myself when I dry fired?" Now to clarify, I know to NEVER do that, but I just keep thinking "what if I did?" I might not be here anymore. I'm safe as possible with handguns. I check the chamber several times during cleaning, I've never pointed the gun at something I didn't intend to shoot, and I always keep them locked up in a safe. The whole thing with me was how sobering the situation was. It only takes one bad screw up to potentially ruin a life. I like to think that my experience made me for conscious of being absolutely 100% safe, but I'd be lying if I said it still doesn't eat at me sometimes and make me a little nervous.

Several things come to mind here:
1. You were being pro-active in, perhaps, preventing a bad situation. KUDOS
2. Alcohol and firearms. BAD
3. You followed your training -- treat every weapon as if it was loaded. Never point a loaded weapon at anything you don't intend to shoot. Always keep the weapons pointed in a safe direction. KUDOS
4. Noun properly clearing the weapon because you were impaired by alcohol -- see number 2 above. BAD

For the most part you possibly averted a couple of tragedies because of training, however lack of adherence to training gave life to another potential tragedy. Once having lived through this I seriously doubt you'll do it again. LEARN from it, SHARE it and help others learn from it.

I understand completely how idiotic it was and I don't expect anyone to be understanding because I broke one of the most important rules of gun safety. Don't mix alcohol and firearms. My intentions were there I guess but that doesn't make it any better. Honestly, it makes me so angry at myself that I did that. Seriously, who the hell touches a loaded gun when they've been drinking? I never thought I'd be that guy because my dad taught me better than that and I haven't been since, so I guess you could say I learned from it, although I shouldn't have had to learn from it because I shouldn't have been that dumb to begin with. I will say, though, that having a negligent discharge, especially one in the circumstances that I had one, makes you respect gun safety more and respect the power of firearms as a whole a lot more. Be as safe as possible. Guns don't care if you mean to discharge.

Live and learn, I suppose.

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Originally Posted by hof8231

I understand completely how idiotic it was and I don't expect anyone to be understanding because I broke one of the most important rules of gun safety. Don't mix alcohol and firearms. My intentions were there I guess but that doesn't make it any better. Honestly, it makes me so angry at myself that I did that. Seriously, who the hell touches a loaded gun when they've been drinking? I never thought I'd be that guy because my dad taught me better than that and I haven't been since, so I guess you could say I learned from it, although I shouldn't have had to learn from it because I shouldn't have been that dumb to begin with. I will say, though, that having a negligent discharge, especially one in the circumstances that I had one, makes you respect gun safety more and respect the power of firearms as a whole a lot more. Be as safe as possible. Guns don't care if you mean to discharge.

Live and learn, I suppose.

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Absolutely like I was saying because of my AD I now basically have OCD when it comes to checking the gun clear of live ammo, that is not a bad thing just the opposite and hopefully others will read this and maybe pause an extra tick for safety.

If your reading this and never had a AD then great but believe us when we say it is very scary no matter how much of your life you have lived around guns. Because of my AD I'm a better weapons handler and I hopefully it rubs off on the people I shoot with or handle guns around.

Glad you didn't get hurt. Lessons learned at the school of hard knocks leave a lasting impression.

For what it's worth, you can leave your magazines loaded. Static load will NOT damage your springs.... springs get weaker due to cycling, and use, physical damage, or poor manufacturing processes.

Regards