How do people shoot themselves?

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" This is a Glock 40... 50 cent, too short, all carried Glock 40's. Now I am the only person in this room professional enough to carry this gun..."
BANG!
"Its alright, is everybody alright? Alright? Stop that ****!" This is him pointing to the cameras lol
 
Very funny,

Stupidity, no brains, idiots and whatever.

I'm sure these have played a role in many NDs but many of you forget the old adage.

To err is human,

People make mistakes and it doesn't mean they're morons.

I bring this up because many of the answers seem self serving and facetious.

NDs are no joke! They can be deadly and I find nothing humorous here.
 
I was at a cigar club a few years back, visiting with a total stranger. The guy was clearly in pain, being recently released from the hospital. He had driven 50+miles to retrieve his boat from storage, and forgot the key to the padlock. You are probably guessing where this is headed. He went to his truck, grabbed his .357, and attempted to shoot the lock off just like on TV. Wound up with bullet and padlock fragments in his gut, nearly died. Sometimes stupid combined with bad Hollywood roll modeling can be a painfull combo. No offense intended to the post above me. I have had an AD in my life, and I am the first to admit it was stupid.
 
I think its hilarious. They are all asking for a Darwin award.
 
"To err is human,

People make mistakes and it doesn't mean they're morons"

It is those that grossly err that are labeled the morons, least we go into a semantics debate here. You can err all you want just don't make the news :D
 
complacent behavior. alot of people seem to be so relaxed (i am included) with their firearms the sometimes put themselves in dangerous situations and don't even realize it... then that unloaded weapon that you started to clean or handed to someone fires the round that was NOT in the chamber when you checked it... i had a state trooper story told to me... the trooper unloaded his gun every night when he got home due to kids at home, after unloading it dry fired it aimed at the wall to be sure... well 1 night that revolver dumped 5 rounds in his hand and as he had done hundreds of times set the rounds down, slammed the cylinder closed and pointed at the wall..... click.... click.... click.... bang... long story short 5 rounds fell out of his 6 shot service revolver. he left that hole in the wall to remind himself about the day someone could have been shot with an UNLOADED gun....
 
Subject of my post should have been "how do people shoot themselves accidently". I'm not interested in the dark side. Suicides, insurance scams etc.

Look, most of the guys don't ignore the rules on purpose. Some of the accidents happen to professionals with many hours of training. I'm simply trying to better myself by learning from other peoples mistakes.
 
Actor/musician Levon Helm shot himself in the thigh while practicing quick-draw shooting for a movie role. Seems to me that a person would want to do that with snap caps or blanks for a while until he got good at it.
 
I suppose, if someone tried to catch the gun before it hit the ground, they could accidentally grab the trigger.

As far as handguns go only later designs are resistant to misfires when dropped.

As far as rifles I know of instances (one in particular) (and not wise because he had the gun loaded) where a deer hunter climbs up to his deer stand and he drops his gun. The buttstock hits the ground and the safety fails. (assuming they had it on safety)

Remingtons and Savages have pitiful safety mechanisms.

The only safety I trust is the one where you can actually see the hammer blocked with your own eyes like on the Ruger bolt action.

Anytime where you might drop a gun is the time when you should unload it before attempting to do said action.
 
Robber accidentally shoots himself When a robber's .38-caliber revolver failed to fire at its intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California, robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder: he peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. Happily for most concerned, this time it worked. -Police link story.
 
Follow those safety rules and all will be well. Internalize them. The hardest one for newbies is to always treat a weapon like it is loaded. When I first got a pistol it scared the heck out of me when I racked it and a cartridge popped out. I was positive it wasn't loaded. HERE IS YOUR SIGN.

The hardest of those rules to get someone to take serious to not to sweep or point the muzzle at anyone. I make it a point of familiarizing weapons with my kids. My 8 year old wanted to handle one of my pistols. I showed him and talked to him about unloading it. Big lecture on all the safety rules before I handed it to him. What is the first thing he did? Point it at my forehead and said bang. Big time scolding and he is like whats the big deal it was unloaded. Let my sister in law handle one of my pistols and she is talking with her hands and the muzzle is going every where. Again whats the big deal. It is unloaded. I have gotten to the point I don't like a water pistol or nerf gun pointed at me.

Complacency and carelessness are the only factors that will get you to shoot yourself. Usually. I have a friend that is an avid hunter and he fouled up and blew his foot off with a shotgun on a duck hunt. What got him was reflexes. The gun slipped and it grabbed it wrong and boom.
 
I've looked at this a lot, both when handling firearms and when driving. It's all about maintaining the focus of attention. Of course, I'm prone to doing stupid things, and that has been seriously noted. The known cure is to focus attention, and prioritize the most important thing. Ignoring the non-important is equally as essential. I almost rear-ended a car a short time ago because I allowed my mind to wander from the most important thing.
Whenever I handle one of my Glocks, I consciously keep the trigger area free of fingers and any object. That's hallowed ground. I've trained myself to keep the chamber clear. If I have to draw the gun, my free hand first racks the slide and then braces for the shot. It takes longer to get the first round fired, but that first round would probably have been fired short anyway.
When I put a Glock away, I clear it, and dry fire it. There is always a correct procedure, and anyone who has worked with procedure knows that no step can be performed out of sequence, whether you're clearing a firearm, baking a cake, or repairing a nuclear submarine.
That is the long way of saying that one either maintains the personal discipline to remain qualified to handle firearms, or one is just plain too stupid to deal with life. It's fine with me that those who prove to be that stupid with firearms are self canceling.
 
Not counting intentional...

There's a lot of "right" answers to the question, as has been shown.

But the best answer I think is "By not following all of the four basic rules of gun safety, always, all the time, without fail."

And actually more specifically and accurately, it would be better to say "by simultaneously breaking 2 or more of the 4 basic rules of gun safety".

If you only break ONE at a time, your chances of an ND which HARMS yourself or someone else are infinitessimally small. If you break two or more at the same time, then your chances of shooting yourself or someone else become enormously high.

Learn 'em, live 'em, love 'em, follow 'em!!!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_safety
 
I knew a guy that shot himself. The trigger was not involved but major stupitity was... as I have stated before (And mainly because of this incident...) I think that the Winchester 30/30 lever action is the most dangerous gun I know of. That being said, I do not think it is dangerous in general. I have no issues with mine.

But.... my friend was using his as a walking stick, thumb on muzzle.... ND... no thumb...

Leroy
 
How about while decocking a 1911 hammer and then losing your grip causing the hammer to fall at the force of the spring? I don't know if it would cause a round to go off, but on my STI 1911s, I'm not going to try because I'm pretty sure a round would discharge.
 
Some self inflicted accidents are caused because the gun owner had a "professional" adjust his trigger for match shooting.
 
How about while decocking a 1911 hammer and then losing your grip causing the hammer to fall at the force of the spring?

Well, the best way to make sure that doesn't happen is to drop the mag, eject the chambered round, then decock.

Trying to decock using the hammer like you see in the movies is a quick way to a catastrophe.


*edit*
Incorrect info, removed. Thanks for the catch RoadKing!
 
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Forming a lack of respect for firearms and not treating that said firearm at the moment as if it is loaded.
Not familiarizing yourself thoroughly with said firearm.
Becoming complacent and relaxing the safety rules.
 
like this?
Still%202a.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_91jcFTbLE8
 
How about while decocking a 1911 hammer and then losing your grip causing the hammer to fall at the force of the spring? I don't know if it would cause a round to go off, but on my STI 1911s, I'm not going to try because I'm pretty sure a round would discharge.

Why would one decock a loaded 1911 in the first place?

Same goes with a revolver. If it is cocked, before dropping the hammer, open the cylinder, then let the hammer down

I don't think either my DA or SA revolvers can do that.
 
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