Discharge on dropping

If the kid pulled the trigger - then the argument is over.
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+1. There seem to be two versions circulating regarding what happened:
  1. He dropped it and it spontaneously fired.
  2. He dropped it, then tried to pick it up, and it fired.
My hunch is that #2 occurred and the trigger was pulled. Most folks who aren't familiar with firearms instinctively hold the trigger when they pick up a handgun.

Even if the gun is an older, unsafe design, it usually must be dropped "just so" in order to spontaneously fire.
 
The only gun I know of to be inherently likely to fire if dropped is the old over-under 2barrel derringer with the exposed hammer.
Seems that the center of gravity of that style gun is such that it will frequently land on the hammer area when dropped.

I'm not familiar with the 1911's propensity to fire when dropped...
 
The 80s have an extra mechanism to freeze up the firing pin separately from the hammer. It also slightly hoses the trigger feel. The 70s and prior freeze the hammer but leave the firing pin free-floating. The 80s are "safest" except that if you drop a $30 Ti firing pin in a 70 (or it ships that way, like the new Ruger does!) the 70 completely catches up in terms of safety.
 
Let's not forget who the real criminal here is...the adult who stores a firearm where a child can have access to it, and failing to properly supervise the child.
 
shootniron said:
I did not say that ALL of them will, but I know SOME of them will. And, as many 1911's as have been produced, I can assure you that there are plenty of them that will suffer an ID if it hits right. Now, is it not prudent to treat them like they will, when we don't know which will and which won't.
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Nonsense.

Removing from the equation those 1911s that either have a firing pin block or use a titanium firing pin, that leaves several million "conventional" 1911s out there. I won't argue that an inertia discharge isn't possible. But I will argue that it can occur only if the pistol is dropped directly on the muzzle, and the odds against that occurring are astronomical. Given that there are several million of these ticking time bombs out there, if they were "prone to" inertia discharge as you suggest, why aren't we reading daily reports of how many went off?

Let's not confuse the issue. You said "inertia discharge." That's not caused by dropping it on the hammer and knocking the hammer off the sear (and defeating the thumb safety). An inertia discharge is when the impact cause the firing pin to slam forward with sufficient energy to ignite the primer. No other kind of drop fire qualifies as an "inertia" discharge.
 
Good God. From the most recent article linked:

Classes resumed but counselors were brought in for students who staff who needed them.
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I'm going to assume this was written by another so-called journalist who failed remedial English in high school, and that it should say "Classes resumed but counselors were brought in for students and staff who needed them."

And if that's what it mean to say, why doesn't this school employ adults as teachers? Has Texas become so populated with wimps that teachers need counseling because a kid broke the rules and brought a gun to school, and it went off?

Good grief.
 
Don't forget mini-uzi's knack for dumping the whole mag when dropped down a set of stairs.

I saw it on the documentary "True Lies" :D
 
Which is more likely, that the gun discharged from probably a 2 foot fall or the 6 year old who decided to bring a gun to school had his finger on the trigger? This is pretty much a no brainer.

The big idiot assumed the kid either wouldn't find the gun or wouldn't mess with it and never taught the kid anything at all about gun safety so the little idiot found it and thought it would be cool to bring it to school and show his friends. He then, of course, held it with his finger on the trigger as most ignorant people do.
 
According to this article from KPRC Houston, police said the gun "was a .38-caliber -- a gun small enough to fit into a child's pocket."

The most likely thing would seem to be that the kid went to pick it up and pulled the trigger, but none of the reports I found said that was what happened; they all say some version of "...it fell and went off."

And this sort of story is rarely followed up in a way that might answer the question.
 
OP,
I once had a customer who dropped a .22 pistol which discharged and he was hit in the leg. I don't know the brand of the pistol or any other details.
 
I once dropped an Iver Johnson .22lr revolver and It went off hitting me in the shoe. The bullet going straight between myBig toe and the # 2 toe, leaving behind a burn and a cut. Nothing bad. But sure scared the daylights out of me.
 
From the consistency of the reporting the kid could have had a dang mini-gun!

It's 1000000:1 that the gun fired when the trigger was pulled.
 
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