Over the fifty years that I have had guns in my house, I have shot off a gun accidentally at least seven times. One round went through the front door and out into the street. Another time I knocked a stack of books off a wall. A third time, my twenty-year old son picked up my 45-caliber pistol and blew a hole through our storage shed. Did I ever take the gun-safety course? I teach the friggin’ course.
Read that again if your Jaw isn’t agape!
Yes, Mike was (still is?) an NRA Certified instructor, and in his hey day was making good money running the NRA Basic Pistol course that is MANDATORY for somebody to get a Mass LTC which is the Massachusetts permit to OWN a gun…..and sometimes to carry, despite the fact that it stands for “License to Carry”.
And he’s admitting to SEVEN NEGLIGENT discharges in 50 years….
Ok first to be fair, I have had Three unintentional discharges in the approximately 20 years I’ve been shooting. Two were straight-up negligent discharges. The first was before I even owned guns, and was still living in Maine. I was still very green, and I was shooting a .22 caliber pistol with friends in a sand pit. I thought the slide had locked back and dropped forward when I pulled the empty magazine. Thinking the gun was unloaded I pointed the gun at the ground and pulled the trigger to drop the hammer. **BANG** It was scary, and it wasn’t good….but it was a hot range, and everybody even still had on their ear protection.
The Second was not long after I bought my first gun in Massachusetts. I was at my club and somebody noticed my 1911 and wanted to see it. I stopped shooting, and dropped the magazine and showed him the finer points of it, including how the grip safety works. I showed him how if I didn’t have a proper grip the trigger was blocked and the hammer would not fall….but a proper grip and **BANG** Shit. we were handling guns and ammo so the range was hot. The gun was always in a safe direction so the round went into the berm, we were talking and the only ones on the range, so no ear pro, that sucked…and well the whole thing sucked, I was mortified, but nobody was hurt and we knew where the round went, so that was the end of that.
The third incident was an honest-to-God ACCIDENTAL discharge (unlike what Mike calls “Accidents”) I was shooting a friend’s custom Bullseye 1911. It had all sorts of work done on it, and a trigger pull that allegedly was 3lbs, but it felt like 14 OUNCES. I took the gun up to the firing line with the action open, inserted a full magazine, and grabbed the slide and racked a round into the chamber…. **BANG** WOAHHHH!! My finger was off the trigger! Again, hot range, and the bullet went safely into the berm, but that was a REAL surprise. I immediately cleared the gun and took it back to the owner, who noted that my combat-style reload probably jerked the gun around hard enough that the trigger shoe got enough inertia to trip the sear, and that it would be best to load that gun by hitting the slide-stop….
That is it, Those first two Negligent discharges were within two years of each-other, and it’s been almost two Decades since them. The Accidental one was more recent, and really just something I didn’t expect at all.
All of them were learning experiences that stick with me today. When I’m working with an Unloaded gun I ALWAYS check the chamber. I’ve been known to check the chamber again IMMEDIATELY after I checked the chamber, because I didn’t give it my UNDIVIDED ATTENTION and couldn’t clearly remember the look and feel of that empty chamber….so I do it again, it only takes a second to NOT have a story to tell. Shortly after the 2nd Negligent Discharge a friend sold me a gun of his. He went into the other room and came back with the pistol and handed it to me. I first opened the action….and a round fell into my lap. He was MORTIFIED as he didn’t remember loading the gun. But This is why we always clear an “Unloaded” firearm handed to you….and generally do the polite thing of handing somebody a firearm with an open action. I recently was teaching my daughter some gun safety and we had a few unloaded guns out to look at, and as I put them all away I cleared them and showed her how to verify that they were clear….some mere seconds after I had already showed her….but if the gun is out of your control, check it again, it only takes a second!
The take away is that
#1 All Guns are Always Loaded
#2. Never point a firearm at anything you don’t wish to destroy.
#3. Never place your finger inside the trigger guard until you are ready to shoot
#4. Always be sure of your target, and what lies beyond it.
The difference between a negligent discharge and an accidental one was with the accident, I broke NONE of the rules. With the other two events I broke ONE rule (Both Rule #1 if you want to keep score) but with the other 3 being followed, no harm, except for your pride.
Now back to Mike “The Gun Guy”, he is an NRA Certified instructor and a hardcore shill for gun control and gun bans. Meanwhile he admits to AT LEAST Seven “Accidents”, and the three he lists are A) All NEGLIGENT DISCHARGES, not “Accidents” B) Seem to all have taken place in residential areas, not active firing ranges, and one he openly admits “Went out into the streets”. The Third was his adult son, who I assume should have been taught all the rules as well, and again fired into a shed….no mention of what Mike DID IN RESPONSE to his son discharging his weapon (which wasn’t properly secured, clearly), which would be an important detail in the story if I was telling it….
Not only are these stories INSANLY DANGEROUS, and blatant disregards for ALL FOUR of the above listed rules, they may also be a crime.
So yeah, Mike still owns guns, and clearly has no interest in handling them safely, despite knowing better, and will even talk about it in such a flippant manner if he feels that it is in his political interest.
But now YOU, YOU need to have your guns taken away because YOU are too dangerous, says Public Menace, Mike “The Gun Guy” Weisser.
Ironically the Anti-Gun groups LOVE Mike, because he is a gun owner, and NRA Instructor and Member who supports Bloomberg gun control. Remember this next time you hear about his appeal to Authority.
I have had two unintentional discharges in the 30 plus years that I have owned firearms: one negligent, and one accidental.
The negligent: I was dry firing my S&W Model 59. It was my first handgun, and I was all of 20 years old. When I was done, I loaded it. I somehow forgot that I had, pointed it at the wall, and pulled the trigger. The bullet lodged in the wall, scared the hell out of me.
The accident: I was at the range with my brand new S&W 4506. I pulled the trigger, and the hammer didn’t fall. Checked safety, pull trigger, hammer still back. Looking closer, I pulled the trigger again, and this time the hammer fell, and the bullet hit the ceiling of the range. That pistol would periodically do that: sometimes you would pull the trigger and it just wouldn’t fire. I got rid of it.
That’s it.
I caused my one and ONLY N.D. in over 40 years of firearms experience (it occurred about 6 years in to the 40) and was almost killed by someone else’s 4 0r 5 years later.
Mine: Classic 1911 mistake…racked the slide before dropping the mag. Then stupidly pulled the trigger. Gun was pointed at the ground, but still scared the living shit out of me. Caused by multiple mistakes and safety failures. Just like the one time I fell asleep at the wheel that makes me pull over and take a nap if I get sleepy; I ALWAYS obey Col. Cooper’s 4 Rules of Gun Safety, visually inspect an “empty” chamber, and never pull the trigger unless I am A) firing the gun, B) engaging in dry-fire practice where there is NO AMMO present, C) disassembling a Glock.
The Other Guy’s: On the way to a shooting range, the back seat passenger in my brand new car decided to unload his .22 Beretta Bobcat. He made the classic blunder like I did with my 1911 and pulled the trigger. The sound made my heart stop. I slammed on the brakes and checked to make sure my Dad seated next to me was OK. He was, and I didn’t feel shot either. The back seat passenger was uninjured and still holding the pistol with a look of absolute horror on his face. We secured his firearm and went looking for the hole. It was in the center of the back of my drivers seat. There was another hole in the door panel to my left, but I was in between! There was also a pimple dent where the bullet hit the door skin from the inside out, but did not exit the car. The bullet went into the back of my seat, hit the lumbar support, ricocheted off the floor, and up and out the door. It caused over $1000 damage which the guy paid to get fixed. That story got published in a state newspaper that were looking for near-death experiences back in the 1990’s.
Holy crap, that’s a crazy story! Also to unload a firearm in the back of a moving vehicle is a less-than-wise choice, to do it with a firearm that does not have an extractor is even more less wise. I will note for anybody reading, Beretta (or similar) Tip-barrel guns are fully functional with the barrel tipped, so when I and lowering the hammer on my Beretta I do it with the chamber well away from the breech face for this EXACT reason.
Have you ever given any thought to the idea that Mike is some sort of long running performance art?
I’ve had one ND in my life, and I think I was 12. I put a round into the overhead wooden 6×6 at the shooting range because I had my finger on the trigger before my sights were on the target. It was such a big deal that… no one noticed. I think I’m the only one who knew it happened, and I’m certain I’m the only one who remembers.
He might be, except he is directly working with the anti-gun forces to ban guns. I understand the sentiment, as Robert Farago pretended to be a gun guy simply because there was money to be made, and he indeed made money from The Truth About Guns. But in this case he’s walking like a duck, or quacking like a duck…..except I mean “Dick”, not “Duck”.
I have had two ND’s in 56 years of firearms ownership, both before I was 20 years old.
Both with 1911 style pistols, in each case I dropped the magazine and racked the slide before pulling the trigger.
In both cases I had failed to visually check the chamber and in both cases the pistol was pointed in a safe direction.
I learned to both visually check the chamber and to sick my pinky finger in the chamber EVERY time, sometimes a case isn’t picked up by the extractor and sometimes the case won’t be shiny, particularly with reloads.
It only takes a moment to do the tactile check and the additional peace of mind makes it well worth while.
Weisser fills an unusual niche in the world of firearms.
His anecdotes about his treatment of(and lack of respect for) guns leaves me shaking my head as to how is allowed anywhere near firearms and why he still is a qualified instructor.
The crowning turd in this punchbowl is that Mike owns a gun store that doesn’t sell guns……….
I follow him to get an idea of what the other side is up to and his is one of just about ZERO anti-gun sites that allow interaction with visitors.
The asshats at Armed With Reason used to allow interaction but removed that after I exposed one of the twits as pulling a Mary Rosh on me and other commenters on the site.
I think he’s no longer part of the gun shop now.
And you Caught Evan and Devin sockpuppeting????? I would love to have that info, either here or you can email me weerdbeard AT Gmail.