Have You Ever Had A ND?

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M4Carbine

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Before this degrades into an argument about whether or not there is such a thing as a Negligent Discharge, I have to say there is. It can be intentional and still be negligent.

The definition of negligence is a failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances.

So, now that we got that out of the way... This is a serious question.

I had one today. I'm really shaken up by it and I feel like I'm a really horrible and unsafe gun handler now.

Here's what happened: I was shooting at the handgun range with a friend, he gave me a magazine and said it had 4 rounds in it. I took the magazine, loaded the weapon, fired four shots and then had the gun held to my side as we approached the target to see how I did. As we were walking up, I pointed the gun at the ground and pulled the trigger because I had thought the slide just didn't lock back and I wanted to drop the hammer. Gun fires. We both stop and look at each other. Nothing happened, no one was hurt, no damage to anything, round just impacted the ground and didn't even ricochet (I think it hit some hay that was laying there).

A few things I know already and have learned:
1. Yes, I know I disobeyed the "all guns are always loaded" rule. I know this full well and am very upset with myself over it.

2. Yes, I know that you shouldn't trust anyone when they tell you how many rounds are in a magazine or that the gun is unloaded unless you check yourself.

3. Yes, I made the decision to pull the trigger and the gun was pointed in a safe direction. This was NOT an accidental discharge, I intended to fire the gun. However, it certainly was negligent.

I just had a momentary lapse of seriousness and concentration. It really scared me to the point that I'm actually afraid I shouldn't shoot guns anymore.

Those of you that have had this happen to you or something similar, how did you deal afterwords? Did you just let it go over time? Did it not bother you? How do you learn to trust yourself again?

I ask that you please don't troll me, I'm honestly asking for help and yes, this is a new account. I don't want anyone to know that it was me that did this, that's cowardly, I know, and I'm sorry for that. But I really need some advice. (Just so we're clear, I don't have another THR account, I do on other gun sites. So I'm not violating the rules by having multiple accounts)

I guess it really can happen to anyone if you let yourself get too comfortable just once. Up until now I never thought this would happen and I was always extremely safe. Even then, I thought I was being pretty safe. I'm glad that while I forgot one of the major rules I did remember the others and they saved me from a potentially terrible situation.

Thanks for your help.
 
No one was hurt and the round went into the ground. Count it as a learning experience and carry on. Now you are wiser and will most likely never make that mistake again. Don't beat yourself up too much. I don't see what help we can really be. You know what you did was wrong and unsafe and you know how to correct/ avoid the situation in the future.

And no I have never had an ND.
 
<deleted>
Oh well, thanks to those of you that took this post seriously and didn't berate me.

SpaceExplorer31, do you mind sharing your story with us or would you rather not?
 
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You have assessed the situation pretty well.

Yes, I had one almost 30 years ago, when I was young(er) and foolish(er), and long before I had the benefit of the internet to learn from the mistakes of others.

I had never heard of Jeff Cooper, never heard of "Four Rules".

Yep, mine was an ND, no doubt about it. It was me who squeezed the squeeze cocker and me who pressed the trigger. The gun functioned exactly as designed....and scared the crap out of me. Thought it was empty...wrong-o. I shot an interior wall of my apartment with an HK P7. Caused me to do some serious soul-searching, and (after my ego began to heal a bit) seek some professional training.

In retrospect, I'm not gonna say it was the best thing that ever happened to me...but I will say that it was a lesson well learned and fully internalized. :)

Sometimes the harshest lessons are the ones best learned. Glad to hear that no-one was hurt, and I trust you have learned as well as I did. Move forward and do not repeat your mistake.

BTW, if you do a search, you will find many interesting ND stories.
 
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No harm, no foul. Lighten up on yourself and thank God the Guardians were looking after you and buddy. Anytime anything like this happens it is a learning experience that has taught you a valuable lesson; now go and enjoy your wiser life!!

ps: from my experiences I walk a very wide circle around anybody with a autoloader and no grey hair.
 
I don't know if this counts as a Negligent Discharge. A friend and I were putting our guns away at the range, and we dry fire all our firearms (pointing them safely down-range) as a last precaution before putting them away. Sure enough, there was a live round in one of them where we thought there wasn't. The worst part was that we were cocky enough to take off our ear protection before the dry-firing. We don't do that anymore.

And hey, don't fret yourself to death over this, accidents happen. As someone explained to me before, there's a reason there are FOUR rules of gun safety. That reason is, if you break THREE of the FOUR, you'll still hurt no one, because you need to break all four in order to do that. You broke several of them, but still pointed the gun in a safe direction when you squeezed the trigger. Accident avoided. And you learned a lesson you will not forget in a long time.
 
NO never had a ND, but no harm no foul just learn from your mistake & try to do better next time, nuf said.
 
Yup, and if you want a HD shotgun load that will NOT go through the second half of dry wall. The Winchester Low Recoil Birdshot will do just fine.
 
Yes, very early in my shooting life. No injury, it still went downrange, but it surprised and scared me. A truly shocking learning experience.
 
I think this counts:

I was given some old store brand 12ga pumps a while back. The guy I got them from didn't know their working order, and wanted to go see if they worked. I quickly checked the barrels for obstructions, made sure the actions locked up tight...but I never checked the safeties or did a dry fire.

I took them to the range, put a single shell into the first one, brought to shoulder, pumped, and turned the safety off. BOOM.

I was in a bit of shock, thinking I somehow hit the trigger while working the safety. Loaded it up again, same thing. Damn gun fired when the safety was released.

All shots went down range, no one got hurt, but I kicked myself for a while afterwards for not doing something as basic as a full teardown and function check before using an unfamiliar gun. Never again.
 
I had one a few years ago. It was my first defensive firearms class beyond our state required class to get a concealed pistol license. I drew the gun and in the process of punching the gun out toward the target I unintentionally let one fly. It hit the target and obviously went into the backstop but it still shocked the heck out of me. I was quite embarrassed (even though I don't think anybody noticed) and will never forget it.
 
Yes I have after dropping an old .44 revolver in the 80's. I mistakenly thought there was no round in front of the hammer. I count my blessings and did learn from that mistake. Only cost me a little hearing damage and some minor home repair.
 
40+ years of gun handling and many many thousands of rounds fired. yep, had 2 whateveryouwanttocallem discharges. 1 was an iced up Ithaca model 37 while hunting in freezing rain and sleet. shot one dropped a bird and the gun fired when I pumped round 2 in and the trigger stuck in the fire position- gun was pointed safely skyward. 2 was when my thumb slipped off the trigger half way back on a .410 single shot while trying to put the sneak on a feral cat hunting under the birdfeeder. gun was in a safe direction but I had to fix a hole in the porch floor.
yeah, it can happen. how good or bad it turns out depends on adherence to the rules of gun safety.
 
I don't know if it would considered a ND, but I certainly broke rule #4, or at least part of it.
during my daily gopher slaughter, I took aim at one running along the base of the fence. I lead him a hair with my 20 gauge, pulled the trigger, and blam! A half second later, I'm being pelted by #8 shot that ricochetted off a piece of plexiglass leaning against the fence at that particular spot. Thank goodness for safety glasses. As it is, I got one pellet right between the my eyebrows, two in my neck, half a dozen in my support arm, and a dozen or so more in the stomach. A lot broke skin, but no penetration to speak of. I look like I was attacked by a swarm of bees.

Lesson learned, don't shoot the varmints along the fence line. Another lesson learned, put the sheet of plexiglass in the garage.


ETA: As long as no one got hurt and you learned something, don't beat yourself up over it. Don't let it stop you from shooting either. You gotta get back up on the horse and ride. We're fallible, but don't let your mistake get the better of you.

By the way, the damn gopher got away. First one I miss and I wind up shooting myself. Hey, at least I'm here laughing about it, it could have been a lot worse.
 
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I had one with a 6" revolver CO2 pellet gun when I was in high school.

It solidified my dedication to safety with firearms of any type. I was foolish and learned a lot from it, which so long as nothing tragic or devastating occurred, is fine from my perspective.
 
There are two kinds on ND's-AD's , the ones that have happened and the ones that are going to happen. If you handle firearms long enough the chances of it happening are 99.99999%.

The are two kinds of reports about ND'S-AD's the ones that tell about there experiance, and the ones that don't.

It happens, but you did the correct part about keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. A momentary lapse of judgement shouldn't keep you from enjoying the sport.

I did the same thing only I shot a hole through the wall of my mobile home.:banghead:

Bet you drop the mag and rack the slide next time.:neener:

And welcome to the high road !
 
I came sorta close once. Wasn't terribly close, but as close as I would ever care to.

Was at a buddy's mom's house in the kitchen. Her boyfriend was showing us his handguns which he had brought. He handed be an old .22 target pistol of some sort - don't recall what offhand. Without checking for a magazine, I began to rack the slide to look at the chamber, but darn near almost chambered a round. Before letting go of the slide, I had someone nearby drop the magazine out for me.

You may think "So it sounds like you almost just negligently chambered a round, not discharged." This is true, but this gun was unknown-to-me, and looked like it had seen better days. For all I know, it could have discharged when I dropped the slide. A negligently loaded gun is a negligent discharge waiting to happen.

I never thought someone would hand me a loaded .22 LR pistol in a kitchen. I mean, seriously. This guy had an XD and a .357 revolver in the same case, and was carrying a Keltech concealed - yet he keeps the old .22 pistol in the case with a loaded magazine? Goes to show you can NEVER assume ANY gun is unloaded.

Anyway, to the OP. Sounds like you've already beaten yourself up as much as you need to be. I'm glad nobody was hurt. A sobering experience, I am sure!
 
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