How can one shoot himself accidentally?

[JOERM]

You hear quite often that someone shoots themself accidentally because they didn't "know" the gun was loaded. Some even get away with murder because of this reasoning.

I just read that it once again happened in Kent, WA. A man "inadvertently" shot himself in the groin on Thursday.

The man was handling his own handgun that he thought was unloaded when it went off. The idiot was transported to a hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries. And here is the kicker, "He is not expected to be charged for the incident." If he were to be charged what kind of charge should it be? I'd say he should never be allowed to handle a gun while in the present of other people, would you want hang with this guy?

I don't even want to think why he didn't know the gun was loaded and for sure don't want to think about why he was pointing the dang thing at his gut!

It's bad enough with all the shootings going on giving gun owners a bad name let along stupid stunts like this. Ok, I can agree that an accidental discharge, AD, can happen once maybe twice in a life time but if you obey the first rules, "Aways treat a gun as if it is loaded, and always point it in a safe direction", then hopefully things should work out ok. Not a difficult thing to remember and to follow.

 

[sigp220.45]

A lot of "I accidentally shot myself" injuries were actually inflicted by a wife or significant other.

 

[NKJ nut]

Honk on Mr. Trigger, gun goes boom; call it an accident. Where was the accident? The gun did what it was designed to do.

It's time that people take responsibility for their own actions. These guns are firing because the trigger is being pulled. And yes it can happen to anyone who forgets gun safety.

But pointing a gun at yourself AND pulling the trigger is behavior best reserved for the terminally stupid or the suicidal. I have sympathy for the latter but not the former.

 

[P&R Fan]

It's bad enough with all the shootings going on giving gun owners a bad name let along stupid stunts like this. Ok, I can agree that an accidental discharge, AD, can happen once maybe twice in a life time but if you obey the first rules, "Aways treat a gun as if it is loaded, and always point it in a safe direction", then hopefully things should work out ok. Not a difficult thing to remember and to follow.[/QUOTE]

Rule #3 would help a lot too. "Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on your target and you are ready to fire".

I think these people should be charged with Terminal Stupidity.
Rehabilitation is, unfortunately, impossible.
Jim

 

[GF]

A visual example of how someone just shoots themselves.

[Video contained profanity] edited phil
GF

 

[Alpo]

"Inadvertently shot himself in the groin" could have been sticking the gun into his waistband. That, I understand, is the reason for the heavy "New York" trigger on a Glock. If you have your finger on the trigger (thereby taking the safety off) and put the gun in your waistband, you can easily shoot yourself with the standard trigger.

"What kind of charge?" Attempted suicide. Discharge of a firearm inside the city limits. Reckless discharge of a firearm. I'm sure there are other things he could be charged with.

Many people (especially those with little gun experience) have made the stupid assumption that removing the magazine empties the gun. Then there are the people that have all of their experience with S&W autos, Browning Hi Powers, Ruger Mark IIIs, and other guns of that type stupidity, that have magazine disconnects. Then they get a gun without one, and based on all their experience, they think pulling the magazine makes it safe, and they don't even check the chamber.

 

[brucev]

How? The same way someone can hit the clutch instead of the brake, etc. People are not perfect. No matter how much we rehearse, practice, etc., absolute perfection is in this life an expectation that is guaranteed to be disappointed. Why do carpenter hammers have claws? You know. Even the best carpenters will bend some nails. Calling people who have AD/ND's stupid, etc. is pointless. When people from a wide variety of backgrounds engage in activity that is potentially dangerous, it is unreasonable to expect that sooner or later there will not be some sort of incident where a less than attentive individual accidentally discharges a firearm. Best thing everyone can do is just try to stay safe! Cheers!

 

[PALADIN85020]

I just read that it once again happened in Kent, WA. A man "inadvertently" shot himself in the groin on Thursday.

If he were to be charged what kind of charge should it be?

Making a dead weapon without a license.

John

 

[Rule3]

I am not condoning negligent discharges but unfortunately 'stuff" happens.

Why do people get in car accidents, chop off a foot while mowing, cut of a limb with a power saw, take the wrong amount of medicine. Put out a eye using power equipment (lack of safety glasses)????????????????????????????????????

The list goes on and the emergency rooms are full.

 

[billdeserthills]

I'll tell ya how my roomate did it last year,
Racked the slide on his Beretta 92, bullet fell out of chamber, dropped magazine, placed gun near hand & pulled trigger. Shot out a knuckle on his left (dominate) hand. Dude got all caught up in running the gun through it's motions, forgot about actually looking in the chamber.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Good question.

Here is a DEA agent giving safety lessons to school children. He inspects his pistol to ensure it is empty, and also has it inspected by another. He then shoots himself.


DEA Cop Shoots Himself

 

[NKJ nut]

Good question.

Here is a DEA agent giving safety lessons to school children. He inspects his pistol to ensure it is empty, and also has it inspected by another. He then shoots himself.


DEA Cop Shoots Himself

What a way to teach the children!!

 

[427mach1]

What a way to teach the children!!

What better way to teach than by example?

 

[Joe in SC]

One would think it would never happen to them if they followed the 2 simple rules of never pointing the muzzle in an un-safe direction and always treating the gun as if it were loaded. I agree.

Reality is, that we are still human, subject to a lapse in concentration or subject to being distracted, if only for a moment. Therein lies the flaw. Some of the safest and most highly trained gun handlers still experience accidental discharges from time to time. Sometimes it is due to mechanical failure. Other times it is a result of the flaw (being human).

Thankfully, most of the time the bullet flies harmlessly off into a berm or the ground. Sadly, in a few instances the gun handler is shot. If he is luckly he lives to tell about it, giving us all cause to take a moment to reflect on our own gun handling practices and do a reality check. Hopefully, as a result, we are made safer through knowledge of this other persons bad experience.

When I hear of these instances I try and say quietly in my own thoughts,"but for the grace of GOD, there goes I".

 

[sigp220.45]

Inspector John A. Rector, US Border Patrol was shot and killed by a fellow Border Patrolman in 1956:

John A. Rector - CBP.gov

Anyone care to guess who the offender was?

(Clue - he was really tall, fast on the draw, and wrote a popular book on gunfighting)

The "negligent discharger" in this case went on to a pretty distinguished career. I was told his actions that day deeply troubled him until the end of his days.

Stuff happens.

 

[Steve in Vermont]

I've investigated a number of "accidental" shootings that involved people practicing fast draw with an old west holster and single action gun. Usually ended up shooting themselves in the foot or leg. Haven't heard of this lately, perhaps it was a fad that died out.

 

[feralmerril]

That video cracks me up every time I see it! He is one tough guy though! As to the accident that bill jordan was in, I seen my best friend pull the same thing but the bullet didnt hit anybody. He also was a gun person and a cop! We had been together in a sporting goods store and I had bought a set of grips for my s&w model 60. His house was nearby and we went there and I changed the grips in front of him. I had unloaded the gun, put on the grips and laid the gun down on the coffee table between us. Bill picked it up and dry fired at a picture of a moose on a rug nailed to the wall. Okay. Right in front of him, looking him in the eye I reloaded as we BS`ed. I made the mistake of not putting the gun back in my pocket but left it on the table probley as I was squashed deep in the couch and was going to put it in my pocket when I got up. We talked awhile and bill reached over and picked up the gun again. I thought he was again wanting to get another feel of the grips as he had a similar gun. All the sudden he raises the gun and shot the moose again as I bellered, HEY! He said, "Well ya rotten ----"! He for awhile, honestly belived I had set him up and tricked him! Thats another way accidents happen, and it sounds just the same as what happened in jordans story.

 

[mm6mm6]

I know of two "cleaning their gun accidents" that were in fact a wife shooting the husband and a suicide.

I also know of a true "accidental" hanging that was publicized as a hanging on purpose. Sometimes it goes the other way too.

 

[oldman45]

I guess it can happen the same way a man committed suicide by shooting himself in the head TWICE with a bolt action hunting rifle.

It all depends on who is ruling on the incident at the time. Not all investigators take the time to figure entry wound angles, distance measurements and such.

But I can see someone shooting their own self in the groin.

 

[Vartarg]

Familiarity

I use to teach the CCW course here in LA, and naturally talked a good deal about gun safety.

One of the points I tried to make with each class was that probably the person most likely to have a Negligent Discharge were those who were totally ignorant about guns, and those who had handled them, used and generally been around them for a long time.

The first group because of lack of knowledge, and the second group because of that old saying (in the Navy, at least) "familiarity breeds contempt."

If you handle guns enough, over a long period of time, you're going to find yourself at some point in a situation where you have a loaded gun in your hand, but aren't consciously aware of it.

Which calls to mind something I saw as a "signature" on another forum: "it's not the things you don't know that are the most dangerous, it's the things you think you know, that simply aren't true, that are going to come back and bite you in the a**."

Never take gun safety for granted...but also recognize the limitations we humans share.

If you can ask: "how could anyone be so stupid?".....stand by!