XD Talk

tjak83 · 01-31-2012, 06:12 AM

On January 30, 2012 I had a negligent discharge of my firearm. Negligent meaning it was totally my fault. The gun functioned exactly as it was supposed to. Accidental insinuates a malfunction or something going wrong with the gun that wasn’t supposed to happen. This was not the case. I’ve had my Springfield Armory XD 9 Sub Compact since Christmas. I’ve been around guns all my life, though not many handguns. The safety principles are the same though. Here’s what happened:

My wife was upstairs with my 2 year old daughter. My daughter was sick and was just put down for a nap. I had a few minutes alone so I took my xd from its holster and was going to proceed with a field strip and reassembly. I had done this numerous times since I got the gun. (To disassemble the xd, make sure it’s unloaded, pull the slide back and engage the slide stop lever, rotate the take down lever clockwise to the vertical position, release the slide stop lever and ease the slide forward, engage the trigger and release, pull the slide off toward the front of the pistol. From there, you take out the spring and the barrel.) I failed to do the most critical part of this procedure. I was complacent, I was careless, I was not paying attention, whatever you want to say, I DID NOT CLEAR MY WEAPON. I sat down on my couch, pulled my xd from its holster, pulled back the slide and engaged the slide stop lever, rotated the take down lever, released the slide (chambering a round), pulled the trigger, and fired off a 115 grain jacketed hollow point into the wall in my living room.

No words can describe how I felt. My first clear thought was of my neighbor, who lives next door and his house is about 20 feet from mine. My ears were ringing, I stood up, the shell did not eject completely because I had begun field stripping the weapon. I walked over to the trash can and ejected the spent casing and two more unfired rounds when I realized I had not ejected the magazine before disassembly. I went and knocked on my neighbors’ door and he had no idea that it had even happened. There was no exit hole from my house.

What do I take away from this? I’m taking away a powder burn on half of my left forearm. I am totally humbled and ashamed of the way I had grown complacent and careless with safety because I thought I had things under control. I’ve only had about 20 hours to mill over how incredibly stupid I was but this is going to be with me forever.

On the bright side (if there is a bright side to this) nobody was injured, aside from my powder burn which I take as a small reminder. Also, this is going to make me so much more vigilant about gun safety. I now have a plan detailing when and where I will field strip my weapons. As bad as this negligent discharge was, it could have been worse. Having had it is going to make me a better gun owner because now I know for sure that it can happen to me, I am not immune to stupid. If I allow myself to get complacent again, it will happen again, and this time it may not be my wall that stops the bullet. I’m definitely not preaching here, this is more a reminder for me than for anything else. I just thought since I actually typed it out I’d put it out there and maybe it would make someone else think twice before pulling the trigger.

Be safe.

**SonOfOdin** · 01-31-2012, 06:15 AM

Everyone has at least one. The feeling of stupidity does fade though.

DjHardcore · 01-31-2012, 06:18 AM

Ouch... Glad that no one got hurt...

highoctane39 · 01-31-2012, 06:21 AM

None of us are immune and this is a good reminder. Glad everyone is ok. Don't beat your self up over it. Lesson learned. Thanks for posting we all need a reminder