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AndyC wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 11:29 am

imkopaka wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 9:39 am

Odinvalknir wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:24 pm Someone told me once, there are no ACCIDENTAL discharges. Only negligent ones. Point being when dealing with a tool such as a firearm, you shouldn't allow any accidents. I feel that's true. In the chemical plants our safety culture says ALL accidents are preventable, both with proper training and planning.

That's a common mindset. I disagree. While 99% of unintentional discharges are negligent, there are some that are truly accidental. Striker-fired handguns in particular have occasionally suffered from manufacturing defects that resulted in a shot going off when it shouldn't have. True accidental discharges are rare, but they happen.

I'll give you an example. I worked at an indoor range when I was young and an old codger came in with a Baby Browning .25 - he came out after shooting a while, saying he was having an issue with it.

I went in and had a look - the pistol was laying on its side and pointing downrange so I picked it up (keeping it pointed downrange, finger off the trigger) and used the heel mag-release to get the mag out to clear the pistol - whereupon it fired. The old coot went bananas but I didn't care about his erroneous opinion, my finger was nowhere near the trigger. I suspect the slight jarring of the pistol while trying to get the mag out was enough to allow the (very primitive) sear on the firing-pin to slip off and fire the pistol.

My negligence? Nope - just wear and tear combined with a poor design.

I guess what those people really mean is that almost always a claim of an AD can actually be traced back to negligence of some kind - but I don't usually bother to argue over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.