There is certainly a Scarlet Letter that surrounds an AD, ND, UD around here. That’s why I’ve never had one…
I would never be allowed to shoot again with them.
Some near me think that missing the paper with a fresh bore is a Negligent Discharge, even a hole eight inches high on the paper at one hundred from forgetting a scope was set to 600 would lead to a freak out. Learning a new target trigger and having it go off early, even leading to a wonderful group, was tantamount to driving drunk.
Somehow extremely poor pistol marksmanship was excused as “too far away”.
(Why are you even shooting at it then?)(It wasn’t.
)
And now, I don’t shoot with them anyway. Their close mindedness about every other thing Firearms was too much, and slowing my learning.
The funny thing is, I have been injured building with this guy more than average. He’s careless. I have stabbed him in the hand with a razor knife more than a few times cutting things because he feels he needs to have his hands doing it. I’ve been nearly knocked off a building, 160’ up from his gorilla-ness.
If I had let him make fireworks or any demolition explosives with me, we would both be dead!
I believe that Unintentional Discharges are not inevitable. They CAN be avoided. But accidents happen and being careful will mitigate risk. Statistics prove so. They are the reason for the overlapping rules. The important thing is learning from it.
Like not letting yourself be stabbed in the hand more than once…
But, I don’t understand the ostracizing. (Not in this thread or forum, but personally.)
It’s the stakes not the risk!
But has anyone ever ridden with someone who has had a car wreck previous? That is equally as deadly, I’d, with my bias, say more so. Yet we converse and interact with them. Even handing our safety over to them and every other driver. However, someone who has learned a valuable lesson with a firearm should be as a Leper to us?
It’s those who won’t learn, or those who have never had an accident and thus are careless that worry me. Not the “experienced” and now even more careful, I think.
An interesting facet to the firearms world.