We often hear, in the Democrat media, about negligent discharges (NDs) of firearms. They usually suggest firearms are far too dangerous for Normal Americans and must be banned for public safety. See how they’re shooting themselves and others?! After all, if it saves one life, don’t we have to ban them?! Isn’t that a moral imperative?! If we adopted that standard, we’d have no power tools, no kitchen knives, we wouldn’t be able to use fire or swim, and we’d be walking but surrounded by safety cages on wheels, just in case.
I’ve long maintained there are two types of gun owners: those who have had negligent discharges and those who will admit to having had a negligent discharge. I know many gun owners have never had a ND, but I trust you take the point. Fortunately, most NDs don’t result in injury or death, but the potential is there. The ultimate question is: “can negligent discharges be prevented?”
The answer is yes…and no.
Yes, because if everyone followed the four basic gun handling safety rules, NDs would be eliminated. They are:
*All guns are always loaded.
*Muzzle control: never point one at anything you’re not willing to destroy. If the muzzle is always in a safe direction, a ND can’t injury anyone.
*Keep the trigger finger out of the trigger guard and off the trigger until a millisecond before firing.
*Always be sure of the target and everything around and behind it.
There are, of course, other useful rules, including being intimately familiar with the manual of arms for every gun you handle, and clearing every gun—ensuring it is unloaded and the chamber is empty—before handing it to someone else or accepting it from someone else. Not handling guns when distracted, angry or under the influence of anything should go without saying, but those are often contributing factors to NDs.
No, because we’re dealing with the human race where 50% of the population is of below average intelligence and even highly intelligent people do stupid things, things they know better than to have done.
Among the more common NDs occur when one is cleaning a gun. How could an ND occur then? The gun wasn’t unloaded and the cleaner didn’t check, though they will often later swear they did. If a chamber is loaded and the trigger is pulled, the gun is going to go bang. Glocks are often accused of being prone to NDs because to take them down for cleaning, the trigger must be pulled. It’s an issue I covered in 2023’s Gun safety and the legacy of Gaston Glock.
Clearing revolvers is straightforward: open the cylinder and eject any cartridges. So long as the cylinder is not locked into the frame, it’s impossible for the gun to fire, loaded or unloaded. It’s easy to verify a cylinder is empty: either there are cartridges visible or empty holes where cartridges reside. If there are no cartridges in the cylinder, a revolver can’t fire.
Graphic: Clearing a Glock 19, Author
Semiautos are a bit more involved. Remove the magazine and set it aside, preferably out of reach. Lock the slide back, ejecting any chambered round and leave it locked back. Visually and manually—the tip of the little finger works well—verify the chamber is empty. If this simple, universal process is followed, NDs are impossible for any semiautomatic handgun (or long gun). If a Glock’s chamber is empty and the magazine is elsewhere, the trigger can be pulled into eternity with no danger.
If you’re not certain a chamber is empty, repeat the process just to be safe. I routinely do it twice and often, three times, which brings up another useful safety tip: don’t become distracted when clearing a weapon, and if you do, repeat the clearing process from step one. There is no such thing as being too certain a gun is cleared, thus, safe.
It's possible design flaws could contribute to NDs, but that’s normally confined to old guns long out of production. Modern guns, in our litigious society, are normally rigorously tested and certified before they’re approved for sale. Sig’s P320 is the subject of a number of current lawsuits claiming the gun can fire, even when holstered, without the trigger being pulled but even though at least one jury has found Sig liable, that supposed design flaw has yet to be conclusively proved. Glock’s take down process is not a design flaw, and again, if one follows proper clearing procedures, they’re not going to have NDs. Yet over and over, people have NDs while cleaning “empty” guns.
So practically, NDs can be prevented, but because human beings are involved they’re inevitable. Fortunately, even considering human negligence, guns are a far greater good than a danger.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.