If you own a gun and keep it in your home, should you and everyone in that home actually know how to properly handle a weapon, should the weapon be stored safely away from children?
Yes, of course, obviously.
But the article does a great job of cataloguing situations where either some or all of that didn’t occur, or someone just made a stupid, fatal mistake.
They were all instances where a fairly simple, well understood mechanical feature in firearms, a magazine disconnect, would have prevented those deaths.
… Some months back I got a bit of flack on a thread where some semi popular tiktoker game-overed himself by ‘performing’ to a song by pantomiming shooting himself in the head with his handgun.
He didn’t drop out the mag, he didn’t rack the slide, he apparently even could be seen switching the safety off.
I called him a Darwin Award winner, as, to me, someone with some actual firearms experience and training, this is a laughably stupid thing to do.
Would a mag disconnect have saved that guy’s life?
No, but that isn’t the point.
The point is that basically, any idiot can buy a firearm, and in all but 9 states, there isn’t any actual legal requirement that you be trained in how to properly use, store, maintain, carry, etc said firearm.
https://everytownresearch.org/rankings/law/training-required-to-purchase-guns/
In most of the country, you can legally buy and possess many kinds of firearms without going through the certification for a CC permit, as long as you follow the local laws that apply when you don’t have one.
This is not comparable to cars and drivers liscenses.
You need a liscense, and some level of insurance, to drive a car legally.
If we are not universally legally mandating firearm handling and safety training for everyone who lives in a home with a gun in it, I really do not think it would be that onerous of a burden on weapons manufacturers to include mag disconnects on applicable weapons produced from say the point from which some law regulating this is passed.
It would save lives, and it would cost a tiny amount.
Looking at this situation and just remarking ‘wow those people were all foolish and/or their parents were foolish’ is coming from a perspective that just assumes people who own guns either do or should have proper training and follow the practices from that training.
The reality is that many do not, and in 41 states, they don’t even have to.
(Please do not come at me with your action hero movie scenarios where for some reason you need to be able to load single rounds into a chamber without a magazine and fire a gun.)
One of the things I have decided to do is check the chamber every time the weapon enters or leaves my hand. Pulling it out of the lockbox? Check the chamber. Handing it to a friend? Check the chamber. Setting it down at the range after emptying a magazine and the slide is now locked open on an empty mag? Check the chamber. Picking it up at the range after reloading the magazine? Check the chamber.
Between this and pressing the “turn signal off” button on my motorcycle every time I go through an intersection, I am slightly less stupid.
Because this is absolutely what you should do, and you should still handle it like it was loaded even after doing this.
ITT: people absolutely refuse to accept that accidents happen—even to smart people—and the consequences can be mitigated through non-knowledge-based precautions.
I refuse to keep a round just stored in the chamber. In fact, I think it is incredibly stupid and irresponsible to do so. But, like, just put a fucking magazine disconnect in there too, just in case I make a mistake eventually.
If someone doesn’t know removing the magazine doesnt un chamber a round then guns should be locked away from them.
counter argument: revolvers exist and when the revolving thing is removed it is both obvious and has no bullets in a chamber.
That would be similar to a pistol having its slide locked in the back position, in fact those are the only ways you’re supposed to leave guns when you need to put them down when you’re at the firing range. Slide in a locked position or the cylinder removed so people can see from a glance the gun cannot fire. My local range has fluorescent weed wacker twine we put down the barrels for really easy visual identification.
If they’ve only ever unloaded a full magazine or shot with a magazine with a single shot in it, they wouldn’t know since the gun will be empty after they are done firing and drop the magazine.
Proper supervision and training is the way to prevent negligent discharges.
I have a hard time believing the Marine’s example. I’ve been in the military, and I was trained to ALWAYS do an eject when pulling out a magazine. It becomes a reflex. Also, it’s drilled into your brain that a gun, unless extracted, is by default loaded. Basic gun training.
In Canada we are taught a four step process in our mandatory gun safety courses:
- drop the magazine
- check the chamber
- check the feedpath
- check the barrel with light/pencil etc. Eyeball if that’s the only option.
Well there also is proper fucking training.
Always assume a weapon is loaded if you haven’t checked the chamber. Even then make sure you point the barrel in a safe direction.
- Treat every firearm as if it is loaded
- Never point your gun at something you are not willing to destroy
- Always know your target and what is behind it
- Never put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
Did I miss any? 🤔
Edit: Typo.
Visibly check the chamber before assuming it is clear.
- Don’t give access to a firearm to the ones who don’t know or respect the above.
Never take the safety off until you are ready to shoot
Always assume a weapon is loaded if you haven’t checked the chamber.
Always assume a weapon is loaded. Period. Even if you’ve checked the chamber. You can be mistaken on what you see, especially if you’re tired or not paying attention.
When I was in Iraq one of the guys in my unit had a negligent discharge. He swore he checked the chamber for a round. My guess is he halfway racked the slide and thought he saw the side of the chamber when he really saw dirty brass. Luckily he fired into the clearing barrel but you don’t want an ND ever.
Your eyes and brain can lie to you. Don’t trust them.
But with the blast shield down I can’t see anything!
I realize any sort of regulation whatsoever is anathema to a lot of people who own guns, but I really think we would cut down on gun deaths by a huge margin if you were required to take a gun safety class before you could buy a gun. I’m sure you could give a basic overview of gun safety with one short class and it would be enough to stop a great many accidental deaths.
Something like 50 to 60 percent of gun deaths are self deletions. I’m not sure how many of those are suicide vs negligent discharge though.
At least in my state this IS required, people just ignore all of it the second they walk out of the store with their license
I think the point here is that anyone without training can pick up someone else’s firearm and fire it believing that it’s empty when it’s not. A child wouldn’t necessarily know that there’s still a bullet in the chamber.
Edit: Apparently, I said something unpopular.
Why is your firearm somewhere it can be picked up by someone who isn’t trained?
That’s how most of these accidents happen. Only takes “forgetting” one time.
Because accidents happen?
What kind of accident are you imagining where someone untrained encounters your loaded weapon?
People sometimes forget where they left things. Even important things. Even things where somebody can die if you don’t remember in time.
It’s kind of like asking “what kind of accident are you imagining where someone leaves a baby in a hot car?” Nobody is expecting that to happen to them, but sometimes a person just forgets for no logical reason.
That’s not to say they’re not still responsible for whatever happens, though. But it’s still good to give consideration to the possibility.
Your kids guess the number to the safe is an easy one.
It shouldn’t be loaded in the safe, but it’s not hard to load a gun
Removed by mod
277 deaths in 25 years. 11 people per year.
30% of Americans own guns.
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/
The population in 2000 was 282.2 million people, so roughly 84,660,000 gun owners.
11/84,660,000 = such a small number, you need to represent it with scientific notation. By 2024 it’s even smaller. 11/100,470,000.
No piece of technology is going to prevent such an edge case of human stupidity, if it weren’t the magazine issue, it would be something else.
That being said, there’s another preventative measure, my first gun had a little red pop-up when a round was in the chamber:
There was also a red marker if the safety was off:
It doesn’t really matter if it’s an edge case or not. 277 people died because of it, many children. That’s not ok. I understand that people will go to great lengths to defend (often illogically) what they feel is their right, but your rights end where someone else’s rights begin. 277 lives, even if it’s over 25 years, is not worth an unsecured bullet in the chamber. It’s not even worth one life.
277 people… over 25 years. It’s statistically insignificant on a population of 300 million people.
By point of comparison:
“On average, about nine children under 5 years of age die every year from strangling in window blinds, shades, draperies and other window coverings with cords.”
So 225 over 25 years. Again, not statistically significant.
A child dying from something that could have been prevented cannot be dismissed as a simple statistical insignificance. That’s the most cynical thing I’ve heard in a while.
Individual tragedies are never going to be prevented. You might as well mandate kids exist in giant hamster balls 24/7.
Oh, but then they might suffocate.
It’s perfectly preventable in other countries. In the western world, this is pretty much a uniquely American experience.
We should ban seat belts, then. Theres a non-zero chance that they could trap you in a car in a crash leading to your death. Never mind that the chance is statistically insignificant.
Also, do other countries mandate this safety feature?
Seat belts are designed specifically to save people’s lives. In action, they prevent a lot more deaths than they cause. Firearms are designed specifically to take people’s lives. In action, they cause a lot more deaths than they prevent.
You can’t undo the 2nd amendment, there are over 400 million guns in the country.
The fact that there are only 11 deaths per year on a population of 400 million guns shows just how insignificant the problem is.
It’s not even a “1 in a million” kind of thing.
It’s a 1 in 36 million kind of thing.
It seems Trump has no problem advocating for undoing the 14th Amendment to ban birthright citizenship. If he does that, I see no problem undoing the 2nd Amendment.
What a non-story. Idiots do idiot things like not rack a slide and safe a weapon, then point it at someone and pull the trigger. Holy fuck.
Then we give them driver’s licenses.
What a non-story.
These 277 deaths could have been prevented with magazine disconnects. Not a non-story.
So in that same period of time, 810 people died from being hit by lightning. Maybe we need to mandate people walk around with grounding straps on their clothing and all doors automatically lock people in if it’s raining.
If you feel like pearl clutching some more, maybe worry about how many gun owners don’t have gun safes. I guarantee, that’s responsible for far more deaths than idiots that can’t safe a firearm.
This is amazing and such a duh duh feature. Completely mechanical and no different than the safety but automatic. It says not all manufacturers include it so it sounds like some might. It will definitely be something I will check to see if there is an option if I ever get a gun with a magazine. Which is sorta doubtful in my case. But cool to know the option is there. For anyone who did not read its just a mechanism such that if the magazine is removed the gun won’t fire in case there is a round in the chamber.
Another thing no other country has issues with
In general I feel less safe handling the guns I own with a magazine disconnect than the ones without. Having to put a magazine into the gun to drop the hammer puts me on edge every time.
Isn’t that a good thing? You shouldn’t feel comfortable casually dropping the hammer on a gun. You should be on alert and questioning whether or not you got all the bullets out before you released the hammer.
I disagree, you should absolutely feel confident that you are handling a gun safely and unease should never be a part of the equation. A magazine disconnect complicates safe gun handling by adding an unnecessary extra step.
Yeah they’re called gun safes
A gun safe wouldn’t address the issue, did you read the article?
They are talking about negligent discharges caused by pulling the trigger on a gun without a magazine that had a round in the chamber and the gun doesn’t have a magazine disconnect. They are advocating for magazine disconnects to be required on all firearms, which is the wrong way to go about addressing the issue.
Proper safe handling of a firearm is how you prevent negligent discharges, a safe will have no impact on the scenario they brought up.
