Michael Nugent of San Diego was killed by a shotgun blast as he and his best friend were inspecting the gun in a bedroom of the house on Gallatin Way about 1 a.m., homicide Lt. Mike Hastings said…..Authorities are investigating witness claims that the gun went off when it was accidentally dropped.
via Fatal shooting occurred at home-based day care | UTSanDiego.com.
Listening to an episode of the ProArms Podcast, I learned what did the term Cruiser Ready meant and why. Cruiser Ready is a pump shotgun that is fully loaded with the safety on and no round in chamber. Police carries it this way in the patrol cars as the design of most (if not all) pump shotguns have it that the safety blocks the trigger but not the firing pin. That means that a round in the chamber and the police car rolling over something hard enough to move the firing pin, could create an accidental discharge and the vehicle suddenly acquire a partial sunroof.
This is what might have happened in this case. Drop the shotgun on its butt with enough force and it may have gong bang and take a life.
That design runs contrary to almost everything I know about handguns. Do rifles have a similar safety oversight?
(I’m speaking of the fact that with most handguns…revolvers, at least…, the hammer has interlocks and/or disconnects that prevent it from engaging if the trigger is not pulled. To prevent EXACTLY this sort of thing from happening.)
I keep my 37 loaded, safety off and no round in the chamber. Of course I don’t carry it in the car either. SW prefers a shotgun so I keep it loaded with #4 buck. She can rack the slide and be ready to rock.
Back in the 70’s, the H.P. White Labs did drop tests on nearly every gun manufactured. Modern guns aren’t supposed to go off if dropped from a height of 3 ft onto a hard surface. Something doesn’t sound right here.
It can happen, and has. I know of a couple of LEOs that had a round in the pipe in the gun rack of their vehicles, hit a hard bump, and blew the lightbar off. I also know of another who had something similar happen with a rifle. The triggers were never touched, and the internal hammers never touched a firing pin.
Most pistols these days have captive firing pins, held back from the primer by either a block or a spring. However, most pump shotguns, and all ARs/M4s/M16s have a floating firing pin. It takes a fairly terrific jolt in the wrong direction, but a hard enough whack can fire whatever’s in the chamber. It’s fairly easy to check this with a Stoner-pattern rifle: with the weapon on safe and pointed in a safe direction, insert a loaded magazine, pull the charging handle, and let go. Now drop the magazine, lock the bolt back, and look at the primer of the extracted live round. Unless you’re using something with a really hard primer, there will be a tiny dimple in the middle of the primer.
Now, reload it and whack the -whole gun- from the wrong direction, and harder. On second thought, don’t. I don’t want anyone claiming “the internet told me too!” when they accidentally shoot their neighbor’s cat, dog, kid, etc.
“Cruiser carry” is bolt forward on empty chamber, discharged (dry-fired) hammer, then magazine loaded, and finally put into a locking gun rack that holds the slide forward, preventing a round from being chambered until the shotgun is removed from the rack.
(Edited by Miguel to enhance last paragraph)
Well, now I’m going to have to go experiment with the M4. If I can get it to discharge (empty case, primer only) I will report back. I’d hate to shoot the cat, no matter how mad he makes me.