Back to Basics with Jeff Gonzales Episode 4: Negligent Discharges

VIDEO – Back to Basics with Jeff Gonzales Episode 4: Negligent Discharges

CCW Safe is proud to present the Back to Basics video series with Jeff Gonzales of Trident Concepts. This series focuses on the fundamentals and basics of concealed carry.

In Episode Four Jeff goes over the dangers of negligent discharges and things to do in order to avoid them.

Transcript:

Jeff Gonzales: Hi, I’m Jeff Gonzales, President of Trident Concepts. I’m here for Back to Basics With CCWC. Today, we’re going to be talking about negligent discharges. What is a negligent discharge? Well, negligence, as defined, is when something happens when it’s inappropriate or it wasn’t supposed to happen and it’s a result of your actions or your inactions. Then negligent discharge means that a firearm will fire when it is inappropriate or when it’s not supposed to fire.

Now, it’s not firing through the spirit world, it’s firing because of human interaction, intervention. What are some of the things that we can do to avoid negligent discharges? First, we need to talk about where did they happen? The vast majority of them happened in the homes. The vast majority of them happen as a result of adults carelessly handling them. There is too many of them that are happening as a result of children gaining access to firearms. We need to make sure that, number one, we are properly secure in the firearms so that we deny unauthorized access.

The next thing that we need to do is anytime we’re handling the firearms, we need to always follow the firearm safety rules. If you’re not familiar with those safety rules, you need to definitely research them and you need to abide by them every time you’re handling firearms. No exceptions. Now, one of the other reasons for the negligent discharges is because the firearm owner does not know their firearm very well.

One of the things that you can do is to learn your firearm, read the manual, understand how your firearm works, what the buttons and the levers and all the features are, how they work on your firearm. If you understand how they work, you’re going to be more familiar. Because one of the things that we’ll see is as somebody who’s trying to figure something out, they might be trying to pay attention to what they’re doing, but they’re not paying attention to firearm safety. That’s key, pay attention to firearm safety, know the firearm, that’s going to also greatly reduce the chance of you having a negligent discharge.

Now, when all else fails, ask for help. If you’re not sure how your firearm works, or if you’re just a little, not quite comfortable with the operation of your firearm, then seek some guidance, don’t be afraid to ask for help because the worst thing that you do is not ask for help and have a negligent discharge. Let’s talk about what are some of the results. Well, there’s a high probability that the negligent discharge will not result in any personal injury, property damage. That’s still bad. We don’t want that.

The last thing we want is to be saddled with the fact that we cause personal injury to ourselves or an innocent bystander. Then, of course, at the far extreme of that is that we caused the untimely death of somebody due to our negligence. Think about that when you’re considering asking for help and why you might not want to ask for help, it’s not worth it.

It’s much better to just swallow your pride, acknowledge that, Hey, this is no, I’m learning. It’s okay for me not to have all the answers. It’s okay for me to seek out information and find people that you trust, that you’re comfortable with, and ask them. I’d love to hear any questions or comments or things that you’ve done to help mitigate the chances of you having a negligent discharge in your own home. Until then, I’m Jeff Gonzales. Take care and stay safe.