Stupid!

[uncle joe]

All guns are always loaded until you PROVE otherwise to yourself.

I know first hand this can happen to anybody and I did "dry fire" mine
BOOM
lucky that my Dear old Dad beat me all about the head about NEVER pointing any gun at anything you did not want to put a hole through. True safetys usually have redundancy

thus my signature

[waksupi]

When you stop in to visit, don't bother checking to see if my guns are loaded. They are!

[Maximilian225]

The things that I started drilling into my kids head as soon as they were old enough

"All guns are loaded, All the time."

"I don't care if you just watched me clear it, clear it again when I hand it to you. Remember, There are no unloaded guns."

"The only real safety is the one between your ears"

[725]

Actions open, safety on (actually a safety is just a mechanical thing, made by man, and destined to fail at some point), look, look away, and look again. All these stories are so familiar and common. WE are all human, and we will all make mistakes. The difference is when you make a mistake with a gun bad things happen. Some are irreversable and sad. Good tactics are the only thing that makes all this a safe hobby.

While running a training day, my partner was off loading M-16s from the support vehicle. I was miffed that he kept handing me rifles with the action closed. When I mentioned it, he scoffed and snickered, and sure enough, one of the next ones to come down popped out a live .223 round when I opened the action and locked it back. What I said is unprintable here.

[Newtire]

A few years back an incident happened in San Francisco to an officer at the Golden Gate Park police horse stables. Since one of the officers was handy with guns, a guy took in a pistol of some sort for him to check out and after checking it out, told the guy to bring it in in a week & he'd look at it. The guy took back his gun, loaded it and went to leave but just then remembered something else he wanted the other officer to check. Whatever it was he checked caused the gun to go off, killing the gun handyman officer.

[Mumblypeg]

There are many safety tips which we all have heard over and over but to me the MOST important is "Always know where it's pointed ". Is there anyone here that has NOT had an unintentional discharge? Where it's pointed makes all the difference between an unintentional discharge and an accident. Play with them long enough and it won't be "If" it will be just a matter of "When". I have seen it many times instructing and as long as nobody gets hurt it's one of the best learning tools I know of.

[Bluehawk]

I ALWAYS check any gun to make sure it is unloaded before handing it to someone or letting someone pick it up . When handing it to ANYONE EVERYTIME I tell them to"Be care ful the gun is loaded " they normally look at me in horror then check. They then usually look at me again as if I have two heads and tell me "its NOT loaded " I always answer " NOW YOU KNOW THAT !!!"
I have done that for over 30 years including when i ran the firearms training program on the PD I was on I ALWAYS make the person check it him( Or her ) self .

[Shotgun Luckey]

THAT is why we should always check a gun.

and jmabbott it made ME proud of your sons as well

[Acronn]

All I can add to this is with a revolver, the way to make it safe is to have the cylinder OPEN. Otherwise it's loaded. By assuming that any gun is loaded until you check for yourself, you are in a much better position, and as soon as the gun leaves your hands, it is best to check again as soon as you get it back in your hands.

Ricochets off slabs, or concrete walls, anything, can be just as bad/or worse as being shot directly.

[303Guy]

I knew a guy who did that. Only he didn't do the recheck thing while 'cleaning' his gun (probably just playing with it) and it went off hitting him in the gut. He lived. Thing is, these things do happen. There is no such thing as an 'unloaded gun'. Even if it is 'unloaded'.

Multiple safety systems and safety checks have saved me I'm sure. We will slip up one day - that's a given.

[Bret4207]

Back when I had the gunshop it was routine for me to go through and wipe the guns down once a week of so. On more than one occasion I found live rounds in the guns. The only thing I can think is my younger brothers "borrowed" them, or some customer was trying to do me in.

My oldest son is a certifiable idiot as far as gun safety goes. Before I barred him from my guns it was common to find loaded guns in his truck, in the house, in the barn, in the garage. Screaming seemed to have small effect. That combined with other factors eventually lead to his loss of access to any of them.

[303Guy]

In my world, cirtain guns were kept loaded - we were at war basically - and I knew they were loaded. All the others were stored with actions open. I never picked up a gun without looking into the chamber or feeling the extractor of the loaded ones to make sure they were loaded. That life is in the past. Now guns are only for sport. And noises in the night is only the wind or my son coming home.

[oscarflytyer]

I have posted this on some other forums as a warning against complacency,carelessness, and stupidity. If it is in the wrong place, moderator, please feel free to move it.

I was loading some CB ammo for my revolver, and decided to check a few rounds at random, to insure proper fit.

About a week before, I had done the same thing. I opened the cylinder, to find ONE round remaining! WHERE did that come from?

I absolutely KNEW I had cleared the weapon before I put it away the last time.

Obviously, I had not!

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!

I KNEW that gun was unloaded. It is just a good thing I didn't do some dry firing!

Like they told me in Journalism school, NEVER ASSUME NOTHIN!

I know this will receive least several well-deserved "aw ****!" comments, but NOBODY can say anything I haven't said to myself multiple times. Turns my insides to water, just thinking about it.

BE CAREFUL! Be Safe! It co$t$ nothing to re- check.

I might have injured someone, or worse!

Thanks for allowing me to rant at myself!

Years ago, friend/budding gunsmith and I were doing some work with a Ruger 45 Colt in my garage. For some reason, it included loading rounds and verifying they would fit and function in the gun. Can't remember why...

I had loaded it to check the rounds, and placed it on the bench for a minute to pick something else up. My buddy picked it up, gripped it, and sighted it at the garage door, and started to thumb the hammer (it was a Ruger BH SA). I sat there stunned for a split second, then said, "you know that's loaded, right?" He turned white as a sheet and nearly dropped it! Spooked him bad.

I have another buddy, works gun shop. Says people bring in guns loaded all the time. Had another buddy that was being shown a gun at a shop, and went to check it. Sales clerk told him not necessary - their sales guns aren't loaded. Buddy promptly dropped a 44 round on the glass counter top! Said it sounded like a bomb going off, then you could have heard a feather hit the counter top! He left and hasn't been back!

Can NEVER be too careful!

[nonferrous]

This is a kind of a scary thread, it shows that anything can happen. Years ago I was working with the Sheriffs Dept giving a group of school kids a gun safety class so they could get their hunting certificate. They were all told to bring the guns that they would be hunting with.
We were in the parking lot waiting to go in, when I saw one of the kids start to open his case. Before anyone could act he pulled the gun out, levered the action, point it at his friend and pull the trigger.
It was a Winchester Mod 94 30-30 and it was unloaded, however, every time I think of it I shudder.

We sometimes shoot at a very nice range located in a county park, it is run by Park Rangers. One day we show up and they are wearing bulletproof vests. What happened was that a Tyro with an automatic, finished shooting and placed the empty gun on the bench with the muzzle pointing backwards. It went off and the 9mm round went right between them and lodged in the 4X4 post holding up the roof.
They have the spent round on display, the shooter is in the doghouse.

[captain-03]

"All guns are loaded, All the time."

[tommygirlMT]

In my parents house while I grew up --- all guns were treated as loaded --- because they were

Same rule in my home now --- also the rule that you dont touch another gals/guys gun without asking permission first --- unless you want an instant @$$ kicking or worse --- also another rule of the house that I learned as a kid

[mpmarty]

It's always the unloaded gun that goes off and causes problems. Ergo all mine are loaded all the time. I find no value to an unloaded gun. Same as locking them in a safe where you can't get to them when you need one. In every room of my home there is at least one loaded gun within reach of wherever I'm likely to be sitting.

[303Guy]

Is there anyone here that has NOT had an unintentional discharge? Where it's pointed makes all the difference between an unintentional discharge and an accident.

I had one. All I did was to lock the bolt over a chambered round with the firing pin down so as to have it uncocked (Lee Enfield). Who'd have thought the forward motion of the firing pin would set off a primer just from locking the bolt?! Well it can. No harm done as the gun was being pointed in a safe direction - after all, I was loading it. (The Lee Enfield has a long firing pin travel on rotating the bolt loacked. There is the firing pin cam plus the extractor cam moving it rearward and I slammed it closed because the case was quite tight).

[MBTcustom]

When I was about 20 my brother and I were admiring my dads .22 that I had permission to use. I decided to make sure it was unloaded first thing. I pulled the charging handle back and out pops a live round. (shame on me, I was the last one to use it.) Well, I pulled the charge tube and dumped out all the ammo,
worked the charge handle several times,
looked carefully inside the chamber - no cartridges,
I slid the charge tube back into the rifle,
opened the chamber one more time - no visible cartridges,
lifted the rifle,
picked out a safe place on the wall,
and Blam!
my brother looked at me with that "i cant believe you just did that" look on his face but he said "well, I have to hand in to you; at least you were safe about it!"

This experience taught me a valuable lesson:
It is far better and much less likely to mistake a gun that should be loaded for one that is empty, than it is to mistake a gun that is loaded for one that should be empty.
Hence all my guns are loaded except a very few, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were loaded too. That's just the way things run in my house.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

Last summer I was at my brothers farm. I had just got done putting a few rounds through my GP and before I left I went up to his house. We talked, he got out an old .22 revolver his father in law had given him years ago from a drawer in the kitchen. He said it was unloaded. As he handed it to me I could see brass. I unloaded it...........