negligent discharge

Thank you. As someone who is new to shooting, seeing stuff like this can only be good for me. I'm still in the phase where every time I handle a firearm, I'm going over and over and over lists of things in my head to do and what not to do and it's pretty nerve-wracking.

...but, it's better than shooting myself in the leg I guess.
 
z0mbi said:
Thank you. As someone who is new to shooting, seeing stuff like this can only be good for me. I'm still in the phase where every time I handle a firearm, I'm going over and over and over lists of things in my head to do and what not to do and it's pretty nerve-wracking.

...but, it's better than shooting myself in the leg I guess.
Click to expand...

First off, kudos to you for maintaining your nervousness. It will keep you and everyone around you alive and with less holes. As long as you always stick to the same drill when it comes to firearms you should be able to thwart that ND. Things such as having an unloading drill, using those orange cones that you get with new guns, aiming in a safe place et al..

I've been shooting for many many years and my guns have changed but my drill for unloading or holstering or checking? Never. I'm still terrified and it keeps me and everyone around me hole free.
 
Less anyone has any doubts, pay really close attention to the part where he says "It HURTS!" Don't ever be tempted to believe somebody who tries to tell you that it doesn't. Sure, if you've got enough adrenaline in your system beforehand (usually not the case with NDs) it might not hurt right now, but trust me, it most definitely and undeniably will. And it will keep hurting like a bitch for days and days (whenever they don't keep you stoned out of your living skull), and still hurt like you can't imagine when they decide you really don't need to be taking that much drugs any more. And it will hurt on and off for years if your lucky (and the rest of your life if your not as lucky).

Ken
 
z0mbi said:
Thank you. As someone who is new to shooting, seeing stuff like this can only be good for me. I'm still in the phase where every time I handle a firearm, I'm going over and over and over lists of things in my head to do and what not to do and it's pretty nerve-wracking.

...but, it's better than shooting myself in the leg I guess.
Click to expand...

Ditto. I do nothing fast. Would not say it is nerve wracking, just really cautious.
 
very sobering post. I read through the whole thing and then said to myself, its good to be Anal everytime I handle my firearms. Even when I know they are unloaded, I check and check again.
 
Damn! Just thinking about that .45 HydraShok expanding/fragmenting and tearing its path through the flesh of the leg is making me queasy.

I'm at the stage of beginning to introduce my 9 year old to firearms handling. I've gotten him in the habit of checking the chamber first thing after I hand a firearm to him, even if he just watched me check it myself.
 
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Let's review:

Keep the firearm pointed in a safe direction?

Nope.

Treat every gun as if it were loaded?

Nope.

Keep your finger off the trigger until you are on target and ready to fire?

Nope.

Be sure of your target and what's beyond?

Let's see, that would be "leg" and "basement floor", so, nope.

Gee, the guy blatantly disregarded all four basic safety rules, and ended up shooting himself. Shocking. He's lucky he didn't tear through an artery and bleed out on the spot.

Lesson learned: BE CAREFUL! Every incident like this serves only to embolden the anti-gun goon squad in their efforts to regulate the right to arms out of existence.
 
Definitely a sobering thing to see. As a new gun owner, I'm extremely careful with my handling practices. I don't care if I just checked 10 times to see it's unloaded, I'm extremely conscious of where the muzzle is when I pull the trigger. I obviously plan to never have an ND, but my backup plan is to only end up with ringing ears and a trip to the hardware store.
 
No Looking Backwards said:
Gee, the guy blatantly disregarded all four basic safety rules, and ended up shooting himself. Shocking. He's lucky he didn't tear through an artery and bleed out on the spot.
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Yeah. I didn't want to start bashing the guy, but the post did make me think: There are negligent discharges, and then there are damn fool discharges.
 
A very good lesson we all should learn from. I think his biggest mistake was muzzle discipline, I often function check firearms in my basement after reassembly or repair/modification, but I try to make a point of aiming at an empty corner. I think jar said it best:

I obviously plan to never have an ND, but my backup plan is to only end up with ringing ears and a trip to the hardware store.
Click to expand...
 
Ripach said:
A very good lesson we all should learn from. I think his biggest mistake was muzzle discipline, I often function check firearms in my basement after reassembly or repair/modification, but I try to make a point of aiming at an empty corner.
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+1

It is easy to read about these incidents and think "he's just a darn fool and that would never happen to me..."

I think that is a dangerous way of thinking. People make mistakes, including those of us who are safety conscious. When I read about incidents like this, I try to think about the mistakes he made and to remind myself about the safety procedures required to avoid such mistakes. In this case, the first and most costly mistake was that the gun was not pointed in a safe direction. The second mistake was that he did not properly check that the gun was unloaded.

It is easy to get distracted or to mess up when you are tired. We're all multi-tasking and thinking about a lot of things (job, kids, wife, get the car fixed, etc.) and working too hard and not getting enough sleep. When we're handling guns, we need to focus on the present and think about what we are doing. Once it gets "automatic", bad habits can start to creep in, and eventually those bad habits will bight you hard.
 
No big deal! It could have been worse, but stupid is as stupid does. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!
Good thing he didn't shoot his ASS because he might have suffered a BRAIN injury. It's not really that hard to make sure guns are unloaded and safe! It's idiots like this that make the stats look bad.[frown]
 
JGreen said:
I cringe everytime I see an "experienced" shooter do a chamber check by pressing the slide back from just behind the muzzle.

Why the hell would anyone want to put their fingers that close to the gator's mouth?
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Because it looks "tactical?" [rolleyes]
 
JGreen said:
I cringe everytime I see an "experienced" shooter do a chamber check by pressing the slide back from just behind the muzzle.

Why the hell would anyone want to put their fingers that close to the gator's mouth?
Click to expand...

Because the mfg's put the serrations on the front of the slide.
 
KMaurer said:
Less anyone has any doubts, pay really close attention to the part where he says "It HURTS!" Don't ever be tempted to believe somebody who tries to tell you that it doesn't.
Ken
Click to expand...

Good point, Ken. I've treated over 150 or so gun shot victims over the years and everyone of them that was in a condition to talk said it hurt. About the only thing that hurts more is when the intern puts in a chest tube. Just part of the fun if you're shot in the chest.

Gary
 
I'm hoping that when people that have seen these pictures pick up their gun, they think about the possibility of having to hold a towel around their leg, yelling at their spouse to call 911 and hoping that they don't bleed to death before the ambulance gets there.
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Word. [shocked]

Or worse yet, having to use a rag to hold the life inside of one of your loved ones....[sad2]
 
EddieCoyle said:
Because the mfg's put the serrations on the front of the slide.
Click to expand...

All my SVI's have front serrations, yet I manage to use them without placing body parts w/i the blast zone of the muzzle.

The serrations don't affect a race holster at all. They CAN be tough on conventional holsters, however. [wink]
 
EddieCoyle said:
And I am manly enough to press-check an unserrated slide.
Click to expand...

I don't really care about the "press check." I like rear slide serrations because:

1. Anything that reduces slide weight is A Good Thing in my book; and

2. I like the symmetry, as they visually balance the rear slide serrations.
 

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