My first Negligent Discharge -hopefully my last

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*NOVA*

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First of all - nobody was hurt - damaged a picture that was on the floor next to the TV stand. Destroyed a Spode Sugar Bowl - Collectible- sitting on the TV stand. I ordered a replacement sugar bowl this afternoon.

Here's how it started. Early this morning I opened the locked storage locker at the foot of our bed to retrieve my new CZ75. I have taken it to the range only a couple of times and was looking forward to going again tomorrow morning. Here is what happened:

After opening the locker the gun is easy to retrieve - it is right next to my revolver used for Home Defense. Next to the semi was a loaded magazine.

The lighting in the room was dim, the wife was still asleep. I was not wearing any glasses - normally for close up vision I have to wear reading glasses. I pick up the CZ, rack the slide and see the chamber is empty. I let go of the slide and point the gun toward the TV. My dry fire was not dry - BANG!

OK, I am bracing myself for a lot of harsh criticsm out there and I deserve it - but now I will attempt to analyze what happened - I am not offering excuses - I am trying to list all of the contributing factors:

Main factor - NOT THINKING / NOT USING MY BRAIN

1. My brain saw the magazine next to the gun - but I had forgotten that the gun came with two magazines.
2. The magazines are painted black. I also had forgotten a decision I had made to have TWO guns ready for home defense in that locker - the revolver and the semi. So my brain tells me the gun has no magazine in it. My brain fails to register there is a magazine inserted! All I'm really thinking about is how much fun it will be to get to the range tomorrow.
3. Dim lighting / impaired vision
4. Lack of experience - it is my first semi-auto pistol

So, as most of you already know, when I racked the slide to open the action and check for an "empty chamber", what I really did, having a LOADED MAGAZINE inserted was chambered a round after releasing the slide!!!!

Well, after the round went off of course the wife woke up, realized almost instantly what I had done - I was in shock and speechless for a minute but managed to stammer that its ok I had an accident but not hurt. She gets out of bed, surveys the damage and in typical New York City GIRL fashion (I married a smart woman) she proceeds to inform me that I am the DUMBEST person she has ever met in her entire life! And at the moment I was convinced she was right...

Well, its been several hours now since the incident this morning. Neighbors never heard anything so that's not an issue, but I did check with them soon after it happened. The whole affair is quite sobering. I have strong feelings of shame and doubt. I wondered if I should sell my guns. Going through a lot of emotional trauma. I will never live this down with the wife. Now I'm thinking I need to man up, suck it up (including the posts this might bring) go to the range tomorrow anyway and chalk this up to experience.

It reminds me of the cop in DieHard who shot the kid and at the end of the movie shot the bad guy. Ok folks, hit me with your best shot, but if anyone knows I am an idiot - its me.
 
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At least you can man up to it. Don't let it stop you from going to the range tomorrow. Thanks for sharing your story and I hope I never have to venture down that road. I usually rack the slide 3 or 4 times when safety checking a weapon. (not trying to talk down to you, just help for future situations) Maybe when live rounds started ejecting from the gun you would realize that there's a mag still in the gun. I usually also check for a magazine before I rack the slide...

But nonetheless, everyone is safe and you learned a valuable lesson. And make sure to work on your trigger control and accuracy tomorrow...you didn't even hit the TV like you were aiming for! :neener::eek:
 
After my 1911 ND I felt like I should sell all my guns too- That feeling passed- use it as a learning experience... you are probably safer with guns now than you were before.
 
Glad everyone is okay!!

I once dropped a Kel-Tec P11 muzzle first on concrete. It fell out of my pocket after I'd been sitting for awhile and I neglected to assure it was well seated in my pocket as I arose (the gun has a side clip). I was very tired and sleep-deprived but that's no excuse!! This one has a lightened trigger spring and, subsequently, a lightened firing pin spring. I don't know if an unmodified gun would have discharged but this one certainly did. It blew a hole in the composite tile about 3 inches in diameter but did no other damage because the bullet essentially disintigrated. I no longer keep a cartridge chambered in that pistol.
 
It happens to everyone at some point, and if it doesn't then you're the exception. Thank whoever or whatever you believe in that nobody was injured or killed and all that was damaged was a sugar bowl and a picture frame.

Instead of selling your guns and distancing yourself from them, use this as a learning experience and let it prevent the same thing from happening in the future. I'd suggest keeping the picture frame to remind you.
 
Congratulations on manning up and admitting it. Yeah, it was an ND, but at least you were well aware enough to point it in a direction that led to no bodily harm before "dry firing." (Really, at the TV?!) In my book, that right there makes you safer than the average Joe. Just take it as a learning experience.
Incedently, that's just about the same as my first experience with a handgun. I had my father's 5906, which he had loaded without telling me, to test me. He told me to dry fire it (We were at a gun range) so I picked it up, fanned the hammer back, and...Bang. It scared the hell out of me. Something tells me that you already are conditioned to never pick up an autoloader again without pressing the mag release.
 
It's been said that pretty much everyone who owns firearms will have an ND eventually. I'm not sure how much I believe that, but the law of averages seeme to state that a fair number of us will.

That said, here's what I think:

You screwed up. But, you know HOW you screwed up, and how to prevent that from happening again. IMHO, that's the important bit. If you weren't ashamed, and you weren't freaked out, then it'd be a problem.

As for selling your guns - to be blunt, don't be a fool. Do you stop driving when you have a fender bender because of a moment of distraction? of course not. You learn from it, and move on. Same thing goes in this situation.

Long story short - glad everyone's ok. You just learned a hell of a lesson, and it looks like you're taking it to heart. Good for you.
 
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*NOVA* said:
Well, its been several hours now since the incident this morning. Neighbors never heard anything so that's not an issue, but I did check with them soon after it happened.
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I'd be interested to hear what you said to them. :)


"Soooo.... you guys okay? Nothing out of the ordinary or anything?...." *whistling*


:D
 
My uncle sold his 870 right after he got it. On the first hunt, he had an AD, thankfully straight up in the air. That he sold it was probably the best thing for him. For him anyway.

I haven't had one, I never want one of course, and I'm careful and have a routine. Before dryfiring, like with a Glock during breakdown for instance, I like to check the chamber twice and see light through the magwell.

Just be more careful next time. You are lucky nobody got hurt.

BTW, I have seen an AD that nearly killed someone as a kid. The guy put a pistol he thought was unloaded to his head and pulled the trigger, just "messing around". He severed the right optic nerve and the left eyeball just exploded, the sinus drained all at once. What a mess. He's blind and can't smell now, ruined his life at 14 or 15 years old. Shame.
 
You may have been the dumbest person your wife had ever met at the time of the ND, but you got smarter before the echo died down. I'm willing to bet that's a mistake you'll NEVER make again.
 
And following the "never let the muzzle of your gun aim at anything you're not willing to destroy" rule at least minimized the damage. But as some training that I've had pointed out, check and double-check that a gun is not loaded. When dealing with pistols (or any semi-auto weapon) always remove the magazine before you rack the slide.

Some people train to feel both the magwell and into the chamber to confirm a visual inspection. As you found out there is some sense to that as well.

Glad all went well, and that the wife didn't decide to make you the next casualty.
 
what exactly is the point in aiming your pistol at your TV and pulling the trigger?!
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Good point. Decocking a gun should be a careful manual process or use the decocker if it has one.

Although in this case that would have left a chambered round in a gun that the individual thinks is unloaded. Which is still a problem (the "individual thinks is unloaded" part).
 
Good on ya for manning up.

I have a mental picture of how my wife would have handled it - the report would have had her levitating 3 feet off the bed while flapping her arms!

Her hollering would have had my ears ringing louder and for longer than the pistol's....
 
Welcome to the club... Here you can have the Dunce cap I've been wearing for the last few weeks... pass it on to the next ND/AD guy.

No-one physically harmed, you may be shaken up a bit, but don't over-think yourself out of owning guns. Spend the over-thinking time double checking the chamber/cylinder.

It happens to many of us.. not all as my prior post admitting my own ND recently may state... but it's an ever-present risk that CAN happen to any of us given the right (or wrong) set of circumstances.
 
At least you had the wearwithal to point it in a safe direction to dry fire it.

Glad no one was hurt, it happens. Just dont make it a habbit :)
 
I think you should.

...and the experience should be extra painful.

I'll give you $50 each, and that's more than you deserve.
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That's more than a little harsh, IMHO. Some of our best members have had ND's. It happens. The important things to take away from the OP's post are:

1. Nobody was injured.
2. He understands what he did was epically dumb and avoidable.

That, to me, says that he'll be extra-super careful not to do it again. Hardly cause to brow-beat the guy or suggest he's all the sudden too dangerous to own guns.
 
You're an idiot!

OK, there, I said it. Now, take the experience and file it under "learning" and don't do it again. In fact, your posting this shows that you've already absorbed the lesson. Now go buy some ammo and apply the lesson.
 
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