Accidental Discharge of a Firearm


Accident: n. an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally
and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss.

Not one in one million times that a gun goes off was it accidental. Guns do NOT just go off. In fact since the early 70's there have been so many safety features/devices built in to new guns that it is virtually impossible to get them to fire without taking overt action to make them fire.

Add to that the NRA's three rules for firearm safety.

  1. ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
  2. ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
  3. ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until you are ready to shoot.

Is there anything ambiguous about ANY of those three? NO!

If you only follow one of the NRA's three rules, how many people will be hurt by "accidental" firearm discharge? Can you say NONE? If someone is hurt from the discharge of a gun, how many of the NRA's firearm safety rules were violated? Can you say ALL of them?!

Therefore, if someone was hurt inadvertently/unintentionally it was NEGLIGENCE! If someone insists it was not negligent, then it was done intentionally.   This IS a binary situation.    You are either following the three rules of firearm safety or you are not.

If anyone tells you that someone was shot "accidentally", you now know that they:

  1. Have a hidden agenda to vilify guns
  2. Are ignorant about firearm safety, or
  3. Are trying to fool you into thinking THEY were not to blame!

Keep the above in mind the next time anyone tells you someone was shot "by accident",
who are they trying to fool, AND WHY?



E-mail at: w0ipl@arrl.net