Accidental Gun Discharges Are All Too Common In The Home

Accidental Gun Discharges

Brien Roche

Accidental gun discharges are all too common. On Christmas Day 2020 a 17 year-old boy was shot and killed. A teenage relative was handling a gun at home in Indian Head, MD. The shooting was on Mattingly Avenue at 6:45 p.m. on December 25th. A 13 year-old girl in the home was handling a loaded firearm. She accidentally pulled the trigger.

Accidental discharges are easy to occur with 9 mm. handguns. It only takes about 2 pounds of pressure on the trigger for this weapon to discharge.

Discharging many other weapons such as revolvers takes much more pressure on the trigger. A typical revolver requires 5 pounds of pressure on the trigger. It’s almost impossible for an accidental discharge with that type of weapon to occur because of the pressure requirement.

Accidental Gun Discharges-Liability

In any event if loaded weapons are kept around the house, they are more of a liability than they are a potential weapon for self-defense. Any weapons that are maintained around the home should be unloaded and should have either a muzzle lock or a trigger lock on them.

If there is ammunition stored in the house, then it should be maintained in a secure location that is some distance from where the weapon itself is maintained.

Several national gun safety organizations have published guidelines on safe handling of handguns. What is safe in your household is governed in large measure by who is in the household. If there is any chance of children getting near or finding a weapon, then you have to assume that it will be found and that it probably will be misused.

A loaded weapon in the home is in most cases just an accident waiting to happen.