PcolaDawg
Member
that it may prevent someone else from making the mistake I made. If you want to call me names, go ahead, but it won't be any worse than the names I've already called myself.
Around Christmas time I accidently fired my gun (a Kimber Ultra Crimson Carry II) INSIDE MY HOUSE. It sent a .45 round through the desk I was sitting at, then through the wall of the house in my upstairs study, and into an outside walk-in closet where my wife keeps all of her multitude of Christmas decorations. Fortunately, it didn't hit any of her many Nativity scenes (she collects them), so I am still alive.
My only saving grace here is that I did remember one of the main two safety rules, and that's to make sure the barrel is never pointed in an unsafe direction. I had it under my desk pointed at a wall that led to an unoccupied part of the outside of the house.
Why I'm putting this post in this forum is because of the debate about carrying 1911s cocked and locked. When I first got my 1911, carrying it cocked and locked made me nervous. So I would always keep a round in the chamber, but with the hammer down, un-cocked. To have my gun set up this way, it meant that I had to pull the trigger, with a round in the chamber, while gripping the hammer and s-l-o-w-l-y bring it to the 'uncocked' position. It was while I was doing this that the hammer must have slipped out of my grip and hit hard enough to cause the gun to fire.
I could not believe it happened. I was almost stunned from the concussion. It's amazing the effect a surprise firing of a .45 will have on your brain, especially if the concussion of the blast is magnified since it went off under the desk in a small space.
My poor dog (a Greyhound) was on the La-Z-boy next to me and her skeleton made it to the other end of the house before her body caught up with it.
Then, after it went off, my kids come running in wondering if they were going to see their Dad with his head blown off. One of my son's girlfriends was in the house and she comes running in scared to death and, of course, I scared my Wife to death. Unbelievably embarrassing.
I am a freak about safety and preach to my kids non-stop about it, and there I was having done an unpardonable sin with a firearm in my own home. Never thought it could/would happen to me.
Then I began to realize that, as stupid as I was, I was extremely lucky that night. In less than an instant I could have accidently killed myself and my Wife and kids would have rushed into my study to see a horrible sight. Or, much worse, I could have had the barrel pointed so that the bullet hit one of my kids, a guest, or my Wife.
I never, ever, could have forgiven myself for that.
So I'm keeping the desk, with the bullet hole in it, as a constant sober reminder that I can be incredibly stupid and irresponsible and I need to guard against it 24/7.
And I now carry the Kimber 1911 as it is designed to be carried. Cocked and locked. Or I don't put a round in the chamber.
This incident may be the number one thing I've ever done in my life that I am the most ashamed of. It's not easy to talk about. But it happened, and if it helps anyone here - or anywhere else - from making the same idiot mistake I did, then it's worth sharing.
Hope it helps.
Around Christmas time I accidently fired my gun (a Kimber Ultra Crimson Carry II) INSIDE MY HOUSE. It sent a .45 round through the desk I was sitting at, then through the wall of the house in my upstairs study, and into an outside walk-in closet where my wife keeps all of her multitude of Christmas decorations. Fortunately, it didn't hit any of her many Nativity scenes (she collects them), so I am still alive.
My only saving grace here is that I did remember one of the main two safety rules, and that's to make sure the barrel is never pointed in an unsafe direction. I had it under my desk pointed at a wall that led to an unoccupied part of the outside of the house.
Why I'm putting this post in this forum is because of the debate about carrying 1911s cocked and locked. When I first got my 1911, carrying it cocked and locked made me nervous. So I would always keep a round in the chamber, but with the hammer down, un-cocked. To have my gun set up this way, it meant that I had to pull the trigger, with a round in the chamber, while gripping the hammer and s-l-o-w-l-y bring it to the 'uncocked' position. It was while I was doing this that the hammer must have slipped out of my grip and hit hard enough to cause the gun to fire.
I could not believe it happened. I was almost stunned from the concussion. It's amazing the effect a surprise firing of a .45 will have on your brain, especially if the concussion of the blast is magnified since it went off under the desk in a small space.
My poor dog (a Greyhound) was on the La-Z-boy next to me and her skeleton made it to the other end of the house before her body caught up with it.
Then, after it went off, my kids come running in wondering if they were going to see their Dad with his head blown off. One of my son's girlfriends was in the house and she comes running in scared to death and, of course, I scared my Wife to death. Unbelievably embarrassing.
I am a freak about safety and preach to my kids non-stop about it, and there I was having done an unpardonable sin with a firearm in my own home. Never thought it could/would happen to me.
Then I began to realize that, as stupid as I was, I was extremely lucky that night. In less than an instant I could have accidently killed myself and my Wife and kids would have rushed into my study to see a horrible sight. Or, much worse, I could have had the barrel pointed so that the bullet hit one of my kids, a guest, or my Wife.
I never, ever, could have forgiven myself for that.
So I'm keeping the desk, with the bullet hole in it, as a constant sober reminder that I can be incredibly stupid and irresponsible and I need to guard against it 24/7.
And I now carry the Kimber 1911 as it is designed to be carried. Cocked and locked. Or I don't put a round in the chamber.
This incident may be the number one thing I've ever done in my life that I am the most ashamed of. It's not easy to talk about. But it happened, and if it helps anyone here - or anywhere else - from making the same idiot mistake I did, then it's worth sharing.
Hope it helps.
Luckily, he had proper trigger etiquette and didn't blow my head open. I told him to stop, he apologized, and stopped. Again... it CAN happen to the best of us. Luckily, no one got hurt. 