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Negligent Discharge and CCWs — 6 Comments

  1. While I agree with the statement you are trying to make, I want to point out one thing.
    You stated that “… note most accidental gun deaths were due to dumb behavior (not negligent discharge) – people drunk, playing with guns, walking into a hunter’s line of fire, etc.”
    The term “accidental” implies that there is nobody at fault for the discharge when in actuality “negligent” would be more accurate because all unintentional discharges are in fact due to negligence. “People drunk, playing with guns and walking into a hunter’s line of fire” are all descriptions of negligent persons and should never be considered an accident. Respect a firearm, obey the firearm rules and you will never have a negligent discharge. It’s that simple.

  2. @Mark

    I agree that the definitions for negligent and accidental should be more crisp. However, in the common classification schemes used in gun policy they overlap. “Accidental” typically means “unintended”, such as how the CDC dumps all gun deaths that were not homicide or suicide as “accidents”.

    What is amazing though despite aggregate human foolishness, that there are so few unintended/accidental/negligent gun deaths.

  3. I’m curious, what about having a page of your own with common definitions that you use to help refine the issues with which could be construed by those willing to change or lie about the facts?

  4. @JD. Good idea. I’ll add a section to the Miscellaneous Gun Control Information page, and if that section grows too large I’ll make a new page.

  5. I saw a pretty solid figure of 616 accidental discharges. I know I’m responsible for one. And a very good friend of mine was killed by his cousin, by accident. Hard for me to believe it’s rare.

  6. I had one, about fifteen years ago. I killed my mattress by accident. No drinking or drugs involved. That action has not been repeated since. Discharges are probably not reported, whereas deaths from them are.

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