I think it can happen to anyone if attention to detail fails us. I remember my cousin cleaning his .22 rifle many years ago and firing a round into the ceiling of the bedroom at my grandparent's house.
I'm glad nobody got injured. Are you keeping the coffee table?
Wow, that is crazy. I would agree that the only way to be certain that a weapon is not loaded is to check it yourself. In today world I wouldn't trust anyone to to check a weapon for me as I think more often than not people lack the desire to pay attention. Glad no one was hurt.
I've responded to apartment-to-apartment ADs several times. Probably average once a year. Only once has a person been struck, and it was a nasty one. Victim was sitting there playing a video game and *pow* got hit from the apartment above. In through the shoulder, cracked a vertebrae, stuck in the right lung. 9mm, IIRC.
Also had a fellow shoot himself in the calf, but it was a taller complex with concrete floors, which kept it from going into the apartment below. Really nice guy, just forgot to check the chamber before pulling the trigger to break down his Glock.
In the others the only thing hurt was pride, furniture, and the structure.
man... I guess I just dont understand this... How do you not treat a firearm as if its loaded..... I have NO training, was NOT brought up by shooters, have NO military background, and I am ANAL about safety. ITS A FRIKIN FIREARM..... Its like common sense, if you dont get it, you shouldnt have one...
First, haha on the ikea comment. Second , I used to just always cycle whatever gun i was using , mildly paying attention to the chamber. Then one day(about 8ish years ago) I had just pulled the bolt back on my ruger 10/22, nothing came out of the chamber and no mag was in so i figured it was empty. I was in arkansas at the time at my grandparents house. I pointed the muzzle to the celing, took the safety off , pulled the trigger, and BAANG!! nearly crapped my pants as a round went off into the halway ceiling. Ever since that day i make sure to LOOK into the chamber and make sure nothing is their, and pass this message along when people ask my while i look so hard into an empty chamber, heh.
I've never seen it happen but I have read where a bolt can be retracted and have a round stuck on the extractor. I can see how that could happen if the bolt isn't pulled back far enough to eject the round. If you take a quick look at the chamber and your mind is set on looking at the chamber only, the round stuck to the extractor can be missed. Stranger things have happened. I always look left and right when I look into the action.
Why can't they just make it so the gun won't fire if there's a round in the chamber? I'm sending this idea for Feinstein as a way to maybe compromise on her assault ban idea