How do you recover?

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You make amends. You address and fix the cause of your "mistake" and you move on never to do anything like this again. End of story...
 
Very glad to read that nobody was hit.
It happened at a gun show in Bloomington, IL a few months ago, but sadly lots of people were around.

Maybe the Mini 14 rifle was brought in the night before by the seller; there was no info on this.

A visitor at the table either did not check the chamber, or the magazine(?), and when his finger pulled the trigger the .223 round caused fairly minor wounds to two other visitors but seriously injured a third bystander.

I always thought that at least two/three people checked each chamber at gun shows.
Over a week ago I carried my Yugo Mauser into a very small gun show at a Memphis Flea Market.

Despite paying the entrance fee, nobody sent me to the table by the regular entrance, to put on a plastic strap, and I'm the only person who ever checked it: once when leaving home and the second time when pulling it from the car trunk at the Flea Market.
 
One night I was speaking with an older man (in his 90's) and he was talking about a pistol he had. I said I'd like to see it sometime and he removed it from his pocket and handed it to me cocked, loaded, with no safety or trigger guard (NAA PUG-T .22 Magnum). I carefully made it safe and looked at it and said I liked it.

I told him with all due respect he was being extremely unsafe.

Later that night he had an Accidental Discharge and it went through the kitchen window into the neighbor's wall, no one was hurt thankfully. His wife yelled at him and said 'Ryan liked that gun, you're giving it to him tomorrow!' :) I paid him a fair (actually over) price for it and was a happy camper. We all make mistakes.
 
I, too, made a mistake that I won't detail (no one was injured). It made me realize that my brain WILL make a mistake if I rely on memory. Instead, I must follow the strictest protocol that GUARANTEES no mistake can EVER happen. I suspect this is true for everybody.
 
The problem with the 4 universal gun rules is they don't apply to dry-firing. Here are my own personal additional rules I came up with after having a couple close calls with my first gun... as in about to dry-fire a loaded gun and barely catching myself at the last second.

5. When dry-firing in the home, visually check that the chamber is empty.
6. Dry-fire in a safe direction.
7. If gun ever leaves shooting grip, it must be chamber-checked again each time you pick it up.

and most importantly:
8. If you choose to dry-fire guns in the home, you must NEVER again intentionally take a shooting grip on a loaded firearm in your home, except to immediately unload it or if you actually need it for self defense.
 
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I have two additional rules that I personally observe and have never (as of yet) had an AD.

#1 Anytime a gun leaves my grip I check it again. Even if I've already checked it 20 times.

#2 When dry firing, go outside and point in safe direction.


I'm not saying these are new but I do them (pain in the @$$) just to be safe. I find that it's people like us who are familiar with firearms that tend to cause ADs because we're so used to being on top of things it's automatic.
It helps that I have OCD :D
 
^^ your rule #1 isn't enough. If you pick up a loaded gun when you don't intend to dry-fire, you'll check it and say, yup. It's loaded. Then you might get distracted and have a loaded gun in your hand - and FORGET. And if you have a habit of dry-firing in your home, this is a bad situation. This is why I have rule #8. Simple, yeah. But when I got my first gun, it wasn't so obvious. I had a couple close calls.
 
Before dry firing always check if a gun is loaded... period. Don't rely on your memory or what you should have done the last time you handled the weapon. It pays to be a little uncomfortable dry firing a weapon.
 
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The problem with the 4 universal gun rules is they don't apply to dry-firing.
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Why not?

As I said, when I dry-fire I use a backstop that can absorb the baddest bullet that the gun can deliver. So the only thing I'm doing differently than live fire is I don't have hearing protection.

Massad Ayoob is obsessive about dry fire. He has a bunch of dry-fire rules that make a lot of sense, including announcing you're about to start dry fire, excluding other people from that room while you're doing it (unless you're both doing it), no interruptions, etc. I don't see them compiled on the internet anywhere.

But Cornered Cat has most of the same rules, and a few of her own I think. I use them; as she explains, they allow you to dry-fire while obeying the 4 Rules.
 
I have thankfully not had an ND yet, but the possibility is always there in the back of my mind.

I need to make a special effort to make sure my wife never messes with my guns.
 
The problem with the 4 universal gun rules is they don't apply to dry-firing.
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Why not?
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I agree they still apply. What I mean to say is they're not enough.
1. Every gun is loaded.

You're essentially throwing the first rule out the window when you decide it's ok to dry-fire in a place where a gunshot is not acceptable. If you make a habit of treating an unloaded gun as if it's unloaded, then you open up the possibility of accidentally, one time in a million, treating a loaded gun as if it's unloaded. You can no longer safely handle a loaded gun in the same setting, because you are not following all 4 rules, anymore. You can't follow rule 1 when the gun is loaded and ignore it when the gun isn't loaded. That completely defeats the purpose.

Since you are now completely ignoring rule 1 in your dry-fire room, you should make your best effort to keep any firearm unloaded when in that room.

Sure, as long as you adhere to the other three, it's just a backstop at stake. But that's still something to be avoided for sake of your hearing, legal reasons, and clean underwear. Not to mention possibility of eviction, if you're a renter.
 
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Mathematics tells us that in any given system, given enough time/chances, every possible outcome WILL eventually happen. Therefore anyone claiming they COULD never have an AD is claiming they are perfect. I don't think anyone would do that.

However that is obviously no excuse for bad gun handling. I dry fire all the time because I think it is the second best practice there is, and it is available and free.

I check the gun every time before I start, and not just with some automatic motions I've done a thousand times; I make the actual effort to really concentrate on what I'm looking at when I clear the gun. I want to see an empty chamber, and light through the magwell. I'll take liberal application of some actual common sense and real attention to detail over ability to recite four rules any day of the week. Its all about making YOUR system good enough to avoid mistakes. My walls have no holes in them and I intend to keep it that way.
 
You learned a good lesson thru actual experience which is the best teacher. You are most likely a safer person in the handling of a firearm than someone who has never experienced a AD. Be thankful that no one was harmed by the incident. I had that experience one time. Fortunately it was a 22 handgun that was pointed at the floor. Guy I worked with had a 44 mag SA revolver he dropped. Hammer struck on the top of his dresser and the gun fired. Bullet when up thru his armpit. Arm was saved but it withered up into a dried out looking little thing. Anyhow, no matter how many times you've checked your weapon, alway treat it just like it's loaded.
 
Mathematics tells us that in any given system, given enough time/chances, every possible outcome WILL eventually happen
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You must use a different brand of mathematics.

Given an infinite number chances, even the lowest-probability event will occur. As it turns out, most of us will not get an infinite number of events. So, we just have to turn the probability down enough to get through our allotted finite chances.

NDs do not happen when we are "due for one." They happen when we are not careful enough--when we let them happen.

Yes, I'm in "the club." But I won't have another. Has nothing to do with being perfect, just with being careful enough. I changed my practices a little, and my attitude entirely--and I can hardly believe how I used to handle guns. As I said, being "a very decent picture of firearm safety" isn't close to good enough.
 
There IS such a thing as accidental, such as you drop open bolt gun on floor and it fires. Happened in WWII all the time. Negligent results from user error, accidental is, well accidental
 
You must use a different brand of mathematics.

Given an infinite number chances, even the lowest-probability event will occur.
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I'm pretty sure you just said exactly the same thing I did.
 
Carelessness has nothing to do with an accident. be thankful you didn't harm, or kill anyone. You broke every rule in the book, and you want to recover, would a dead person recover from your carelessness.Get realistic, go get some quality training before you think of handling a firearm again.
 
I'm pretty sure you just said exactly the same thing I did.
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Then I misinterpreted you. I thought you were implying that NDs should be considered inevitable, even with the best safety precautions, because "nobody's perfect." I believe strongly that they are NOT inevitable.

If my sensitivity on that point caused me to misunderstand you, then I appreciate your setting me straight.
 
loosedhorse said:
I believe strongly that they are NOT inevitable.
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Which is exactly why you've already had one and will have a good chance of having another.

You believe that you have done everything possible and it can't happen to you. Unfortunately, the real world is anxious to prove you wrong.

My philosphy is that an ND is always just about to happen to me, I believe it's inevitable. So I'm always aware of basic safety rules and do everything I can to prevent it. Been shooting over 40 years and it hasn't happened so far, but I'm sure it will the very next time I touch a gun .....
 
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I guess you check, recheck and check again. After around 60yrs of having guns I was going to dry fire to check myself balancing the coin across the sight. I had dropped the mag and thought I had checked but I knew it wouldn't hurt to check again. Racked it and a 40 S&W popped out. Get over it and recheck every time. I did.
 
Thanks so much for sharing this. Truly.

The things that go thru your head in something like this are awful. The worst case scenario goes thru your head and you break out into a sweat. Over and over again. For some time. But time heals all wounds. And maybe your sharing is part of your catharsis. I know as I've had a few AD's. You learn, well, and move on as soon as you can.
 
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