AlaskaErik said:
RexKwonDo said:
If you do something unintentionally, like fire a round while you're trying to dryfire, I would say it is an accident.
That is absolutely negligence. You were negligent in not ensuring the weapon was properly cleared. How anyone can consider that an accident is beyond me.
I agree that it is negligence, and never said otherwise. As I said, "99% of accidental discharges are negligent". I consider it an accident because something happened other than what was intended.
Jorg said:
Wait, what? That's pretty much the definition of negligent discharge right there.
Negligence and accidents are not mutually exclusive. In fact, a great number of accidents are due to negligence.
Once again, I agree, and never stated otherwise. What is it that you're arguing?
In my post, I gave an example of what I consider to be discharges that are negligent, but not accidental (firing into the air), and negligent and accidental (discharge while dry firing). I would consider one to be accidental but not negligent if there was some mechanical failure that no reasonable person would have expected. I guess this covers all the bases other than a discharge which is neither negligent nor accidental... which is of course your average day at the range.
Reading through my post again and the responses, it seems that since I did not explicitly call the dryfiring incident negligent, people assumed that I was asserting that it was not negligent. I never made that statement, and I stand by what I originally said, while also agreeing with the two posters who refuted me. I didn't explicitly call the dryfiring incident negligent because I made it clear that almost all accidental discharges are caused by negligence, and I thought it was pretty clear that it was one of them. It's really annoyed me a bit how people pick apart anyone who says there was an "accident", and tell them it's no accident if it's negligent. I think it's a really silly argument to have, and I responded to this thread because I see it come up so often I wanted to share my opinion of why something is rightly considered an accident. Saying discharges are not accidents really goes against the common usage of the word accident. People have car accidents, toddlers have accidents, my sister in law accidentally spilled my milk last night, and I accidentally locked my keys in my truck several years ago. Yes, all of these scenarios involved negligence. The immediate responses of "That's no accident!" have really turned me off, because it seems to be correcting something that was correct in the first place, and for no benefit.
Aaryq said:
I don't want this thread to get locked because of older members flaming newer members.
I didn't find offense in anything that was said to me. Also, although though I've only been registered for 7 months, I've been reading this forum for about 4 years.
