The issue here is not the technical definitions in Webster’s. The issue is the impression the general public gets when they hear these terms used in relation to firearms. In a time when the anti-gun news media does everything they can to make people think guns are so dangerous that they shouldn’t even have them in the house, we need to be careful of the terminology that we use. The news media loves the bogus claim that a gun kept in the home is x% (I can’t remember the exact percentage but it was high) more likely to harm someone in the home than be used for self-defense. Couple this with news reports of gun “accidents†and the average non-gun person is going to think that guns are at fault or the cause of the accident. However, when the term “negligent†is used, it is plain that the fault is with the user and not the machine used, in this case guns. Why does that matter here, between us? If a non-gun person is surfing our forum and reads discussions about gun accidents then we have done nothing to change his impressions from those formed from watching the news, but if he reads our discussion of negligent discharges then maybe he will start to understand.