03-23-2021, 11:57 AM
(03-22-2021, 09:49 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: Yea somebody could clear a gun as I watch and hand it to me and the first thing I do is clear it myself. Pretty simple stuff to play it safe.
I actually witnessed a cook off too. We were doing another live fire drill us machine gunners were set up in a berm. Riflemen we’re going in clearing a trench system. Some super high up (maybe a one star or something can’t remember) showed up and watched for awhile then wanted to go down range and see what the setup was down there. Apparently one of the machine gunners didn’t do a very good job clearing their weapon because the officer started making their way down range we were off smoking and joking and bam one of the 240G’s sitting up on the tripod with no one around went off. I can’t recall anybody’s head rolling after that though which is surprising.
Yup, as we all stated, it's easy to be safe and stupid not to be. I appreciate the story, and it rather reinforces my point that you'll very rarely get a cook off outside the military. Most civilians aren't going to fire their weapon rapidly enough to create the conditions in which you'll get one.
(03-23-2021, 07:41 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: Not to be even more pedantic, but I wouldn't consider a delayed primer ignition an accidental discharge. Rather, I would call it a hangfire.
But yeah, I have to agree with all of this. I have had the "accidental" discussion with quite a few people. It applies to firearms and auto collisions. The vast majority of incidents in both are due to human error, which means it wasn't an accident. An accident implies it could not have been prevented.
To be sure. I realize some could interpret our point as a semantic one, but it's really not. Handled properly, a firearm is completely safe, IMO far more safe than a chainsaw. BTW, and I'm revealing a trade secret here, every department has at least one officer/deputy, who didn't know that shotguns have no drop safety and have shot a hole in the roof of their patrol vehicle when stowing their shotgun.
