One waiting to happen ?

[aintright]

Read RED's post about the accidental discharge reminded me of a gun shop I was in the other day . Me and a guy I work with ate lunch at this little shopping center , there was a gun shop there also .
We decided to go in and take a look at what he had . There was a lot of handguns and some nice rifles of varying taste . My buddy asked about the Weatherby , and the owner got it down and was turning it this way and that , when it slipped out of his hand and dropped on the glass display case with a loud bang and bounce .
He didn't miss a beat , scooped the rifle up and kept rattling on about it's quality and how great the trigger was . Held the rifle over for my friend to take , he didn't reach for it so the guy goes on about the trigger and pulls the trigger snapping the firing pin home , not one time in the few minutes he handled it did he open the bolt to check the chamber .
At this point , I said , guess we better get our butts back to work , and left . We made small talk about it and both agreed we wouldn't be going back .
Kenneth

[Allen]

The owner may have been 1000% confident that the firearm was not loaded. He may have even checked it 5 minutes before you walked in. Regardless though, a buyer/customer likes to be assured that the weapon is in fact not loaded. Sellers can get complacent with the routine of things and that's when accidents can occur.

[aintright]

The owner may have been 1000% confident that the firearm was not loaded. He may have even checked it 5 minutes before you walked in. Regardless though, a buyer/customer likes to be assured that the weapon is in fact not loaded. Sellers can get complacent with the routine of things and that's when accidents can occur.

Yes sir I considered that , but as you stated the average joe likes reassurance , plus dropping the weapon didn't do much to reassure me . When I enter a shop , to do business I have the action open regaurdless what type of weapon it is , just so every body knows it's been checked and can not fire .
Usually gets me a warm greeting instead of a frown and them opening it to check .
Kenneth

[Major Tom]

That must have been a rookie salesman! Every gun shop I've ever been in including big box stores, the salesman ALWAYS opens the action to check for a round before handing it to the customer.

[1563621]

I worked in a gun shop for a few years. Had a smith on staff that had 2 ADs. One was an officers Glock. Didn't clear it, pulled the trigger and actually hit the phone line. Officer was at fault for not clearing it. Left that job shortly after. Store closed about 6 months later.

[dave]

I once received a rifle I purchased in WA. state, shipped all the way to MI. Opened it up and it had a live round in the chamber. Stepped out side and pulled the trigger, bang! Called the shop and told the owner what I thought of them. I'm sure the guy who packed it up had a warm butt after that!

[Sunray]

There's no such thing as an accidental discharge. Those are operator negligence. Kind of surprised the display case glass didn't break though. And the guy's negligent firearms handling. First thing you learn is to open the action.

[Allen]

Slightly off-topic but the section of the county that I live in has a "Mickey Mouse" phone system. It was originally started by and owned by one person who became very wealthy. He had a massive gun collection and got several visits from the BATF I hear. He even owned a tank, an old Sherman I assume. One of the Civil War forts in my area is Fort Morgan which has a nice museum. Back when this wealthy telephone co. man was still living he loaned the museum a beautiful Colt gatlin gun. After it arrived it was set up with a descriptive plaque and barricade rope. One of the museum attendants HAD to play with the thing. He grabbed the handle and moved it. Two rounds fired off before he knew what had happened. Luckily it was pointed upward and there were no injuries except for the ceiling/roof.

https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LEV13BwJdZjJEAl1RXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE0ZDFjMTRyBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjQyNDVfMQRzZWMDcGl2cw--?p=fort+morgan+museum+alabama&fr2=piv-web&fr=yfp-t

[barretcreek]

Our range does a sight in days during hunting season. Couple of guys flew in on their own aircraft, brought several cased rifles. We always do an inspection at the gate.

Guy had two BARs, chambers and magazines loaded. Have had at least one fatality here from a BAR discharging after being dropped or falling over. Would have been interesting if that thing had gone off at altitude.