Wow. A general reply.
Thank you all for your responses.
I am amazed that anybody thinks this was taken lightly. Oddly, despite the disparaging comments regarding it being a "learning experience", everyone, first and foremost myself, went on to say SOMETHING about it needing to be a learning experience, or there needing to be more firearms education (a learning experience). So we are all agreed that it is, and should be, a learning experience. I hardly mean that in the sense of a light lunch and a PowerPoint presentation in the tea room of a local restaurant! I mean it needs to teach us (our family and YOU AND YOURS) the importance, as someone said, of 100% safety 100% of the time.
In reviewing all that has been said, there is one thing that I think
has been grossly overlooked. It is this:
If you think this cannot happen to you, you are wrong.
I did not post this experience because I was looking to be flamed, because I thought it was an interesting way to spend fifteen minutes on the computer, or because I thought it unimportant. I posted it because it is essential that every single gun owner realize the awful truth that no matter how responsible a person you are (and despite some obvious reservations on that point from some folks, I really am) you can fail. Fail to attend for a split second behind the wheel of a car and you can die, or you can kill someone else. Fail to attend for a split second with a firearm and you can die, or you can kill someone else.
No one is immune from making mistakes, no one is immune from distraction and no one is immune from a ND. BTW, for what it is worth, you WILL note that I have referred to it as an ND from the beginning, not an AD. It was a negligent discharge. Period. But if you think it can never happen to you, you are fooling yourself. If you think your mind is so trained that you can never ever ever make a mistake with a firearm, you are fooling yourself. Machines can be programmed to do what they are supposed to do every single time, but we are not machines. It is a humbling and fearful thing to be human instead, but it is the only thing we can be. That is NOT AN EXCUSE. God in Heaven, how ANYBODY on this forum got the idea that I was making any excuses, I DO NOT KNOW.
I am still trying to decide if I erred in sharing this with this group. Perhaps not: there are a few who have said they have learned from it (there's that "learning experience" thing again) and if so, and if it makes everybody stop and check just ONE more time, then I'm glad. On the other hand, I think it's a mistake to admit mistakes in a group in which some simply must rip others to shreds. It happens over and over on this set of forums. Somebody makes a too-general statement, and bam, their credentials and character are confetti. Somebody has hideous spelling and immature writing skills, and same thing occurs. Somebody is stupid enough to share a frightening and dangerous error in the hope that others may learn from that mistake and all they are credited for is knowing how to use a computer and being an irresponsible idiot.
I'll be lurking for awhile at the very least. People who want to continue to shred my character and trumpet my lack of responsibility may do so without my participation. If the purpose of these forums is to pick apart other people, to suggest "punishment" as though its members were judge and jury, then it's not where I need to be anyhow. The moderators may do as they please with this thread, I don't much care.
Merry Christmas, ho ho ho.
Springmom