A US airman has been charged with obstruction of justice and involuntary manslaughter in connection with a fatal firearm discharge at an Air Force base in July, which resulted in the death of a 21-year-old service member…As a result of the incident, Air Force Global Strike Command ordered a pause of using the M18 handgun — manufactured by Sig Sauer — until further notice. [More]
I’m recalling all the times over the years “the gun went off” has been offered as an excuse that just never held up under scrutiny.
[H/T SigTalk]
“I’m recalling all the times over the years “the gun went off” has been offered as an excuse that just never held up under scrutiny.”
Especially if preceded by the words “He (or she) was cleaning it and …”
There is a good (and well known) reason why you don’t carry a Colt SAA with six rounds in the cylinder.
You also don’t want to drop a Colt 1911 (or clone) onto something hard muzzle first with a round in the chamber. IIRC the US Navy determined dropping it from about 8 feet onto concrete would do the trick.
If you’re reloading for an M1 Garand, you want to use primers with a “hard cup” or you just might find out what the term “slam fire” means.
I inherited my dad’s boyhood rifle, a Stevens single shot bolt action .22 made in the 1930’s. When he first taught me to shoot, we used that rifle. I remember him saying not to squeeze the trigger with a round in the chamber and the safety on. He said that nothing would happen until the safety was switched off but then the gun would fire. And it does!
The latest issue of “Firearms News” (August, 2025) in an article about the US M2 Carbine, the author writes (on page 56) “With the safety on and three rounds in the magazine, I jacked the bolt and the rifle launched all three rounds on full auto into the stratosphere without my touching the trigger. Thank the Good Lord the gun was pointed downrange.”
Well, thank the Good Lord, and the rules of safe gun handling. We say “keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction” BECAUSE sometimes guns will “just go off” If/when it happens to you, you don’t want bad luck combined with a layer of sloppy gun handling to result in personal injury or death. You don’t even want some southern lady saying “Well, bless his (or her) heart!” *
Or to hear Red Forman say “That boy (or girl) is a dumbass!”
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bless_your_heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBS_Ukbe2Vk
Actual mechanical failure is always a possibility, whether from sloppy manufacture, poor maintenance, damage, or something else entirely. Occasionally that mechanical failure will cause an “uncommanded discharge”. It’s rare for such a failure, and rarer still for it to happen combined with a round in the chamber, but it’s not unheard of.
Unfortunately, the Sig Sauer P320 (M18 pistol) seems to be manufactured in such a way that when subjected to real-world use conditions, such failures are baked into it. Like the “Walker Fire Control” used in Remington 700 rifles for decades, which could discharge with the safety on under certain conditions, the design plus manufacturing tolerances make “accidents” much more likely. And like Remington, rather than addressing it, Sig Sauer is trying to hand-wave it away.
What happened to Remington again?
IANAL, but the fact the Air Force has “paused” the use of the M18 pistol says they think there’s a strong possibility the pistol itself is the problem, which means the young airman shpuld not be culpable unless there’s more going on than we’re being told.