Accidental Discharge vs. Negligent Discharge.
In my mind, an accidental discharge is a firearm discharging when the firearm mechanism fails in a mechanical manner; the sear interface breaks or fails due to wear or damage, the firearm is dropped, safety is on and it fires because of mechanical failure.
Negligent Discharge is when overt human error is involved. Some call it operator headspace issue, some call it a brain fart some call it stupidity but its human error none the less.
this includes but is not limited to:
lowering loaded firearms from tree stands,
crossing fences with loaded firearms
finger on trigger, safety off in anticipation of a shot when target is not present and hunter falls and through "sympathetic response", he /she pulls trigger discharging firearm
"I didn't know it was loaded" events.
There are many more but ND's are different from AD's.
In my time in the military, and on all of my deployments there were numerous ND's. Usually occurring at clearing barrels.
the standard procedure when entering certain places on FOB's was to clear your weapon(s). stand in front of clearing barrel, verify weapon on safe, muzzle in barrel, remove magazine, retract bolt or slide, eject chambered round, lock bolt or slide to rear, visually and physically inspect chamber, breech face and magazine well or feed tray, release bolt or slide, weapon off safe, pull trigger.
do you know how often soldiers, marines, airmen , screwed that up? and no rank was immune. Of course, you could get an Article 15 for an ND. Lots of General Officers wanted heads when this happened.
I suggested an easy fix;
1. weapon on safe, remove mag, pull bolt/slide to rear ejecting chambered round. inspect chamber. run bolt/slide forward. place muzzle under ship, take weapon off safe, pull trigger. if there was a loud bang, the offending moron who couldnt do a proper clearing of their weapon was removed form the gene pool and would never propagate another like minded creature and after one or two of those events, everyone would really take it seriously and do the technique properly!!!!
needless to say, my idea was not adopted.
Of course I am being facetious, but you get the point.
