How Not to Shoot Yourself - Beating Murphy's Law

If you perform a search online for accidental shootings you will find lots of cases where people have been shot and sometimes killed with their own handguns by way of an AD or accidental discharge or a ND, negligent discharge.  The difference between the two in the minds of many is that negligence means the gun fired due to improper handling while an accidental discharge occurs through some mechanical or bad luck failure.  We'll run through some examples but here first is a video found online that shows one risk of carrying a loaded Glock handgun while wearing a jacket with a drawstring.  Police Chief shot with his own gun by accident.

Why you should worry about an accidental discharge.This is the kind of thing I always worried about and why I still think about the risk of a ND or AD with whatever I might carry.  Little .22 revolvers seem awful safe with those 12 pound triggers and a round that might not require an amputation if they were to hit an extremity.  What good is having a self defense weapon if you end up maiming or killing yourself with it.  The other risk is that of shooting someone else by accident and then you have a whole new list of worries that include your own emotional trauma, lawsuits, criminal court, and loss of your gun rights. 

On the light side.
How about this one.  I just shot F_ing shot myself: The Musical
This is a great Youtube remix of the guy who shot himself. 

Murphy is ever present and not a day goes by when I am trying to snake an extension cord or computer wire past something that finds a way to grab it and tangle it.  My cell phone always goes to the worst possible place in my car to retrieve it.  Think of a trigger as a hook and imagine how many things a hook can catch on it if you drag it through the house, car, or your pocket. 

Here are a few stories to convince you that accidents do happen when it comes to carrying a firearm.

Never stick a Glock in your pocket.  Man kills self in parking lot by accident with a .40.  As the policeman said, "use a reputable holster."


Man shoots self with pistol after it falls out of his holster and he picks it up incorrectly. 
 
http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/freak-accident-leads-to-shooting-in-walmart-parking-lot,1343379/
This wasn't a freak accident.  The guy picked his gun up the wrong way with it loaded.  Duh.  But it happens and I could say it is possible any of us could do it during a moment of inattention.  A freak accident might be if the pistol fell out and a bird flew down and grasped the trigger causing it to fire.  This guy just screwed up.

Man shoots self in head during gun safety lesson.
This was not a gun safety lesson if the guy was drinking.  The article shows the ignorance of the reporter more than the total stupidity of the guy showing off to a girl with his handguns while he was drunk.

Murphy is Ever Present and Waiting for You to Screw UP.
The common thread here is that things are always tilted in the direction of bad outcomes when you handle firearms incorrectly.  Even handled correctly, bad things happen when Murphy intervenes as in the example of the drawstring that pulled the trigger with the innocent tugging from the police officer.  He had no idea that the jacket drawstring was jammed into the trigger guard.  Some weapons have less tolerance for screw ups and as much as I love Glock pistols of which I have more than a few, you cannot ignore the risk of anything finding a way inside the trigger guard.    

One other option that I have used.  Condition 3 Carry also known as the Israeli Method.
 
Many experts would call this foolish since you may not have both hands available to chamber a round.  True, but for that matter you may not have your dominant hand available to draw it and thus you may have the weapon unavailable..  As for time needed to chamber a round, well I think that in most situations you have the time if you are aware of your surroundings and the situation.  If not then your luck may have run out and that happens too.

The Double Action Option 

The hammer drop safety approach is the answer given by Sig P226/P229 and HK P30.  If you try out either of these two weapons you will note that the trigger pull is long and heavy in double action.  If you cock the hammer the single action is much lighter and unless you have the HK P30 model with a safety you normally wouldn't carry the weapon around with the hammer cocked.  I consider both of these weapons to be the cream of the crop when it comes to safety in automatic pistols.

If you have concerns about carrying a round in the chamber but do not like the condition 3 method then my advice is to consider a revolver or double action auto pistol in a holster combination making it a very low risk for negligent or accidental discharges  and still achieving the instant use option.    This is my preference though double action does require more live fire training time to master the double action first shot of an automatic or the repetitive double action of a revolver. 

It always comes down to defining the task and if personal safety is the purpose then why compromise your safety with the risk of an accidental discharge.    Develop your skills and choose the equipment that will greatly reduce your risk.

Here is another option.  Just get a tatoo of a gun at around the same position as you might carry one and just flash your tattoo when you want to dissuade an attack.  It was enough to get this guy hassled by the police.