Negligent Discharge

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biokillr

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Last night I experienced my first negligent discharge. I will tell the story of how it happened because it does happen and people should always be aware of safety and NEVER get complacent. Yes I expect snide comments about keeping my booger hook off the bang switch. I Knew better!

To set the stage I have my workspace in the laundry room along with the gun safe. It was about midnight I was waiting to put the last load into the dryer. I had just got a new dsg holster (I really like) for my M&P 9. I was working with it trying to get a good fit and practicing trigger control and my draw from the new holster. I had the magazine out of the firearm sitting on the workbench with a checked clear chamber. Everything was going as normal.

The next part is where things went wrong. (100% MY fault) the washer was done so I holstered the m&p and best I can remember put the magazine in the gun at that time. (I never put a round in the chamber until I am out of the house and I am still unsure of when a round entered the chamber) I switched the laundry to the dryer and was about to head to bed when (without thinking and checking safety rules) I drew and acquired my sights and as I pulled the trigger to "dry fire" BANG! My training immediately kicked in I knew something went very wrong I cleared the weapon immediately.

Lucky for me (thank God) I was pointing in a "safe" direction (the best place to put a hole if there is one). The bullet went through one wall and stopped it hit a small metal clasp on an old guitar case I was aiming at before going through the wall.

Yes I am expecting criticism I well deserve it. This is how my ND happened.

I am not new to firearms. I have been shooting for 16 years with safety always being no. 1 priority. It took just a few seconds of being complacent and now I have (luckily nothing more) an embarrassing story to tell new and old shooters alike.
 
None yet for me, but stories like yours are a good reminder to always be vigilant. Thanks for sharing.
 
Live and learn.

My uncle, unfortunately, did not live, nor learn, from his experience.

You *might* only *get* one negligent discharge. It *might* be the last thing you never see coming.

Do be careful.

PS No snide remarks - you know what you did, you understand the consequences, and you're going to forever take steps to prevent it from happening again. That's why we have MULTIPLE rules. You broke two. A third and fourth one saved anything worse from happening.
 
there will be a lot of "you should of" posts, so ill avoid it for now lol.

There will always be that instance where you get complacent with your self, the gun and the to all consuming "I know what im doing" after being around guns for so long, and sometimes we just forget.

I am a bit OCD with my guns, in the fact that i remember what each round looks like in each round of my gun, and what gun is or isn't loaded.

Did you crap your pants when it went bang? :p

just practice of not having live rounds remotely close to you when practicing, cleaning and the likes and you will be ok.
 
had to run for a minute,......simple things to do/remember, when practicing with the gun, delibertly clear the gun and load a flag safety or snap cap, place the mag and chamber round in safe place in plane view where you'll see it later, dummy mags are a great tool, or dedicate a mag for the moment to be the practice mag, anything you come up with is a good plan as long as you can remember the particulars of it,.....the best plan is simply clear the gun everytime you plan to do anything other than carry or fire it. and check to make sure it's loaded everytime you plan to go out and use it, and the purpose doesn't matter,......the old timers used to have a saying, you though you had to fart, but pooped your pants instead,....i've pooped once or twice, and i've been really lucky, so no i make sure it is what it is,....take care
 
I'm normally very OCD about checking the chamber. Usually even if I just put it in the safe and I take it back out I drop mag if any and check the chamber. I always check the chamber of every gun I touch each time I touch it, once was all it took.

I will tell you nothing gets you adrenaline going faster than a gunshot when there shouldn't be one.
 
I have a 'crapped my pants story' I won't tell here, because it's not the least bit gun-related (it did all come out just fine in the end)... but if I did tell, you'd laugh a bit, shake your head, and make a mental note to NEVER do what I did to lead up to that.
That's exactly how the rest of us need to respond to this little 'discharge' story... chuckle a bit, shake our heads, an make a note not to do THAT.
'Nuff said. Thanks for manning up to it and telling for our amusement AND edification.
 
Not that this is a laughing matter.... but.... I LOL'd at this part.

(without thinking and checking saftey rules) I drew and acquired my sights and as I pulled the trigger to "dry fire" BANG! My training immediately kicked in I knew something went very wrong I cleared the weapon immediately.
Click to expand...


Nothing snide to say. I'm LOL'ing with you, not at you.

Again, this isnt a laughing matter but I hope you understand what I mean.
 
OK, I'll tell my story...

Had my first revolver (.357Mag Blackhawk) only a few months. Had been watching toooooo many of those "Saturday Afternoon Westerns" on tv. Decided to try the "fake hand-it-over-by-the-trigger-guard-spin-it-up-and-snap-fire" move.

Went OK for a few times, but I decided {even MORE stupidly} that the balance wasn't right without ammo. So, I loaded up some of the CCI shotshells [you see where this is going...]

Again OK for a few times, then "BANG!"

Fortuneately, the only thing killed was the living room mirror, and the new paint job.

Yes, fresh "Bloomers" were needed.
 
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BK, If you've lived long enough, you've had one ! IOW, be suspicious of anyone claiming "I've never !" !! FWIW, here's my take on it.

Most of these sorts of "accidents" center upon how the brain processes/directs tasks. You're in the middle of doing something you've done hundreds of times and something interrupts your "chain of process" and your brain skips to the next task at hand. This is why professional pilots - and others that want to keep breathing - follow check lists like fundamentalists follow their bible. Because our brain - despite our best intentions - is fallible ! Especially when performing rote/repetitive tasks ! Get interrupted twixt "steps two and three" in a six step series and likely step three gets missed.

Best real world example I can give, I caused. Walking into work I saw my opposite number, ( having already loaded it ), was in the process of parking my truck. I waved a greeting and he responded. He left for his run and I went to sign in . The truck (my truck), rolled down hill causing considerable damage. The parking brake hadn't been set ! In private conversation post incident we determined my appearance coincided with the act of parking. My greeting wave caused a responding wave at the precise moment hls brain was directing that hand to set the parking brake. The brake didn't get set because the "wave" activity met its movement criterium. Russ never knew he didn't set the brake because his brain told him he did ! I suspect your incident had similar antecedents, (i.e. the dryer).

I've spent countless thousand of hours operating all sorts of equipment, observing others do the same, and reading about how "accidents' happen. Approaching my 7th decade I know my bran is fallible and have, in consequence, become somewhat rigid and dogmatic in my job performance. And I still catch myself making mistakes if distracted ! >MW
 
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Agree with:

Late is poor time to be doing drills
At least you pointed it in a safe direction

I don't know if its my personality or my training but I check things repeatedly. But still appreciate accidents can happen.

Appreciate your honesty and encouraging others to learn from it.

Watch your lane.
 
Millwright - you're probably spot on with this, mostly.

My first ND was when I was a kid, my step dad took me rabbit hunting and gave me a pump 22. I was walking along in the snow with the gun pointed at the ground like he told me, saw a rabbit move, and put a bullet in to the dirt 1" away from my right foot. I went to jerk the gun up to aim, and pulled the trigger in the process.

My second ND happened as an adult (early 20's, 15ish years ago). I was in the kitchen after a range trip. MAK90 was leaning against the counter. I was going to put the gun away. Saw a loaded magazine on the counter, picked up the gun, jacked the slide to clear the chamber. Round flew out. I didn't stop and think WHY, I dropped the hammer. With the muzzle right in front of and under my FACE. (I didn't even HEAR a gunshot).

(EDIT: when I saw the magazine, my brain instinctively went "there's no magazine in the gun", it never occurred to me that I had one in the gun and ALSO on the counter..)

Ever since then, I visually inspect the magwell (on pistols), the chamber (on everything else), AND feel the chamber with my finger (if it's reachable).

Since my uncle's untimely death due to firearms negligence, I've been even more cautious. Particularly if I've had any alcohol whatsoever; I will NOT handle firearms, period.
 
You are not alone a lot of us have had them. Mine were both with lever guns but that is no excuse and in both cases the only good thing about them were that the Muzzle was in a safe direction.
Teaches me something reading about others and reminds me to be more vigilant.
Thanks for posting.
oh yeah, Keep your booger hook off the bang switch........
 
Treat all guns as if they are loaded. Broken

Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot. Broken

Never point at anything you do not wish to destroy. Followed

Even after breaking two of the four golden rules, 50%, there was no trip to the hospital or morgue because you still followed the most important one. If just that one rule was followed no one would ever be harmed by a negligent discharge. Glad no one was hurt.


Oh yeah, I bet you will be triple checking the chamber from now on.

Shawn
 
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That sucks dude. At least no one was hurt, that's the most important thing.

Years ago, in an engine building class I was in, one of the instructors gave us good advice.

He built high performance, high precision racing engines. He said that whenever he was working on an engine, he focused on that task and that task only. No radio playing, no drink on the counter, no distractions. If a friend or his wife or whoever came out into his work area, he would stop what he was doing until he could go back to directing his full attention on the task again.

From my (limited) experience working on cars, and watching other people work on cars, it seems that people often get hurt when they get tired or distracted.

At the range I've had a couple of times where I thought the pistol was empty, dropped the mag and racked the slide only to see a round fly out. Oops. I know now that I need to stop once I begin to get fatigued. It does affect one's judgement and thought process.

As for dry firing, I don't do that either when I'm tired or have a lot on my mind or anything like that. I'm somewhat OCD by nature so that helps somewhat in terms of safety at least! :p

But like I said though once fatigue sets in all bets are off. Best not to handle firearms then when you're worn out.

Not preaching at ya or anything. All of us need to realize that when we read about accidents like this, "there but for the grace of God go I".


Glad you're all right.
 
The only times my Glock is NOT chambered and ready to rock and roll is when I'm cleaning it and when I'm at the range. Makes gun handling real simple.
 
Accidental

I've had exactly one.

I was at the range with my wife, demonstrating the XD40.

I explained that I would demonstrate the mag disconnect safety that prevents it from firing if the magazine is not in the gun, and proceeded to do the demonstration.

Did you know that the XD40 does not actually have a mag disconnect?

:eek:

BANG! :what:

Pointed downrange. Everybody had eye & ear protection on.

It was simply a demonstration under "ideal" conditions. Well, maybe "ideal" isn't the perfect word here, since the demonstration failed.

:D

But at least I'm not likely to forget that the XD will fire without the magazine.

 
Accidental discharge

I very well know how you felt, had one myself but won't tell. Scared the hell out of me though and was a reminder, you can't ever be to careful. Al
 
If you handle guns much, eventually one will go bang when you aren't expecting it. Glad to see that folks aren't giving you a whipping. Move on and be more careful.

Things like this happen when you do something non-typical and your brain doesn't kick in because it has been conditioned to your safety routine.
 
Hey ArfinGreebly,

At least that was a good demo on why NOT to trust the mag safety, or any safety. It may not work, or it may not actually have a mag safety in your case... good story! There was the sad case not long ago of a SEAL(?) in a bar, demonstrating the safety on his gun and shooting himself in the head. Another reason not to rely on the safety (and not to point it at one's self)...



A family friend said that when he was introducing his young kids to guns, he fired off a few rounds, then removed the magazine, and asked his kids, "is the gun unloaded and safe?" The kids said yes. He pointed the gun at the target again and pulled the trigger: BANG!

He said his kids' eyes got really big after that demo!
 
Last night I experienced my first negligent discharge...
Click to expand...

That's really a defeatist comment to start off with. NDs are NOT inevitable! Anything caused by negligence is completely preventable!

Your breakdown occurred because you bought into the lie that "all guns are always loaded". It's a lie because all guns are NOT always loaded. We don't clean loaded guns, and as you discovered we don't dry-fire loaded guns.

Dry-fire practice is good, but demands serious care and absolute adherence to the proper rules for firearms handling.

-All guns are always loaded until you positively verify they are not.
--ANY time the gun leaves your hand, even for a moment, requires that you verify it is not loaded.
--Notwithstanding the above, if there is even the slightest doubt whether the gun is clear or not; check it again.
 
55 years, and not one yet. I do not expect to ever have an ND. I have NEVER become complacent around firearms.

They don't scare me, but I damned sure respect them. In the course of my long life, I have seen four family members shot, three dead, two self-inflicted.

One dear LEO friend killed in-the-line, he jumped in front of his partner to shield him.
 
One point to mention, why do you rotate chambering a round and not chambering a round when you're leaving the house? This constant fiddling/drawing/remembering whether a round is chambered is asking for trouble.

When you're fussing with any gun, take all the ammo/mags away and set them elsewhere.

When you are done fussing with it, load it and put it in your holster and make a mental note that you are done fussing with it.

There should be a clear line between "I can fuss with it and practice with it now." and "Now I've loaded it and I'm done fooling with it and it's put away/holstered."
 
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