I shot my gun in my sleep last night

K

kershaws

Inactive
I usually keep a Mossberg 590a1 by the bedside but have had it taken apart for the past week so i've been keeping a Ruger Mark IV .22 (My only handgun at the moment) on the bed next to me, round in the chamber/safety on.
Today at around 2am I woke up to what sounded like a balloon popping in front of my face, I'm laying on my side and I realize my handgun is in my hand pointing straight down on the bed towards the ground, barrel snuggled right up against my gut. I was in disbelief that I just managed to fire my own gun in my sleep, but behold I found the empty casing by my head, 1 round missing from the magazine and the air smelled of gunpowder.
I never would have thought this would happen but it did, and if that barrel was tilted a few degrees towards me there may be a chance I wouldn't be typing this right now. ND/AD can happen to ANYONE

I would like this to be a lesson to all, to all those who sleep with firearms by them, rethink your options, I suggest instead taking extra safety measures for your home that would delay/deter entrance from an intruder while taking extra measures with your firearms, do NOT sleep with your airweight under your pillow.

Note: Only damage was a hole in my mattress, the round did not make it to my tile floor. (I sleep on two mattresses on top of eachother on a wooden frame)
 
That's a bit scary. I don't understand putting a loaded handgun on the bed next to you.

The closest a loaded gun was ever kept next to me was in a holster and in the nightstand drawer. I wanted to at least be starting to wake up before the gun was in my hand. With kids, I now have a lock mechanism to get through as well.

If you have a holster you'd be in much better shape. If you want it close perhaps on a belt that is slung over the bedpost or hanging on the wall if no bedpost.

Glad you made it through without a scratch.
 
My loaded handgun

lives in a gun vault on the shelf of my nightstand. The time needed to unlock the vault and get the gun is minimal and it will pose no danger while awaiting the time of need...
 
I don't think this warning applies to very many people. I've been shooting handguns for almost fifty years and training people on them so they can get CC permits for about twenty-five. You're the first person I've heard about who takes a gun to bed with themselves. You're just asking for trouble doing something this irresponsible. Sorry, but that's what it is. Put it somewhere nearby. You don't need it in bed.
 
I don't live in a great neighborhood, but I would never take a loaded gun to bed with me, the closest it gets is in the night stand drawer, which I can't quite get to from repose, I have never done anything in my sleep, much less, get up, get my handgun out of the nightstand, take if OFF safe and fire it.
 
Suggest you seek professional help. If you are performing complex actions in your sleep, you need help. LOTS of it.
 
For some reason this thread made me think of that time back in 1975 when I foolishly referred to my M-16 as a "gun".

I spent an hour on the parade field with my rifle in my right hand and my crotch in my left, screaming at the top of my lungs "THIS IS MY RIFLE, THIS IS MY GUN. THIS IS FOR FIGHTING, THIS IS FOR FUN." Nothing like Basic Training.

Sorry, back to the OP. Sounds like it's a good thing that you sleep alone, and also that that isn't likely to change soon. Sleeping with a loaded weapon in your bed or under your pillow is a very simple recipe for disaster.
 
There's more to this than firearm safety. You picked up a firearm in your sleep and pulled he trigger. That's scary! Untill you find out why you did this perhaps you shouldn't keep a firearm next to your bed. There is no telling where the next bullet is going to end up.
 
Long ago, Jeff Cooper pointed out that if anybody in the household is a sleepwalker, there should not be a loaded gun in the household.

I do not know what treatment might be available now. I was fortunate to outgrow sleepwalking in adolescence. But my parents had some interesting stories.
 
That's pretty scary, glad you were not hurt. As others have said, I suppose now is the time to reassess where and how you store your defense weapons.

People have been known to do some quite interesting and complex things while sleeping, including committing homicide. Here is a whole Wikipedia article about "homicidal sleepwalking".
 
People sometimes do strange things in their sleep !! Including things like jumping through closed windows !! I've seen videos of things done while asleep !
Causes ? The one I know of is an allergic reaction. Stress can also be a problem. Get some medical help. I strongly suggest finding a cause ! Not just taking a pill for the symptoms !
In the meantime get the gun out of the bedroom and means to make access more complex !
 
FWIW, I don't leave a round chambered in mine.
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This. And it's very close but not in my bed. I understand readiness, but if I don't have enough warning time from the alarm and the dog to even grab my glasses and rack the slide, I figure I'm a goner already. Reality must be given its part in whatever self-protection fantasies you contrive.
 
do NOT sleep with your airweight under your pillow.
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I will not, nor have I ever. Even when I was going through my paranoid phase after my last deployment. I assumed almost anyone who reasons through this thought would realize that a ND is a possibility from thrashing about in your sleep, and decide against it. Nightstand drawer, or in a holster on the nightstand for me.
 
FWIW, I don't leave a round chambered in mine.
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I don't think that would make any difference. Sleeping people can do some pretty complex things asleep. My wife got out of bed, got scissors and I work up with her cutting the hose on a CPAP machine. She didn't know she did it and still doesn't know why she did it. I don't know how she found the scissors. She does other strange things and has no memory of them.

I would seek professional help before something bad happens.
 
That's terrifying.

As others have said, I don't keep a round in the chamber, and it's not somewhere I can reach without at least standing up.

Safety first.
 
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