Submitted by Dale Mullin on 5 January 2010 - 11:26am
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A member recently sent me some information about an unintended discharge which took place at a club in Northern Virginia. There weren’t a lot of details, but it seems that the pistol went bang when the shooter was reholstering.
As a review, there are two types of unintended discharges:
By far the most common is the negligent discharge, wherein the shooter does something which allows the firearm to discharge. Most commonly this involves allowing a finger, or other object to remain within the trigger guard when the shooter is not ready to fire. Keeping your finger straight and outside of the trigger guard until you are ready to fire is the best way to prevent the negligent discharge.
The second type of unintended discharge is the accidental discharge. These are caused by a malfunction of the firearm and are extremely uncommon with modern firearms. Keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction and keeping the firearm unloaded until you are ready to use it are two ways to prevent injuries from accidental discharges.
If you’re shooting a handgun and working from your holster, remember not to put your finger inside the trigger guard until the pistol is pointed safely downrange. Begin your practice with an empty pistol and draw in slow motion, doing it “by the numbers” until the various steps of the draw become ingrained in “muscle memory.” Don’t try to speed it up until you’re doing all of the steps correctly every time. As the steps of the draw become second nature your speed will increase naturally.
Last but not least, nobody ever accomplished anything good by being the fastest to reholster. Make certain that your finger is outside of the trigger guard and that no article of clothing or other object gets inside the trigger guard as you are reholstering. I’m told that there have been a number of incidents where the draw strings around the waist of jackets have been the cause of negligent discharges. If you’re wearing any article of clothing which has drawstrings, use particular care to ensure they do not get inside the trigger guard as you are reholstering. If your pistol has a decocking mechanism or manual safety use it.
Let’s all be safe out there.
