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There seems to be an unwritten law that legacy media types who write about firearms must meet one qualification: knowing little or nothing about firearms. This is not surprising; most elected representatives who advocate for gun control laws don’t know anything about firearms, either, leading to utter stupidity like the 1994 “Assault Weapons” ban, which made American communities safe from criminals and gang members making bayonet charges.

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Yes, really. One of the banned features in that law was bayonet lugs. Oh, the same rifles were available after the 1994 law took effect as before; they just lacked flash hiders and bayonet lugs.

Now, I told you that so I could tell you this: Some more modern semi-automatic pistols have a feature called a magazine disconnect. This is a gizmo inside the gun that prevents firing the piece when the magazine has been removed, even if there is a live round in the chamber. Other semi-auto pieces lack this feature, leading to this hyperventilation.

Since 2000, at least 277 people have been killed in gun accidents in which the shooter believed the weapon was unloaded because the magazine had been dislodged or removed, an NBC News investigation found. That total — based on federal data collected from states, as well as media reports, lawsuits and public records — is likely a significant undercount since many states only recently began reporting their data, and information on the cases may be incomplete. NBC News found 41 cases that weren’t captured in the data. 

In 2021, the most recent year of federal data available, at least 42 people died in such accidents. 

Now, I will not downplay the tragic nature of anyone being killed or injured in an accidental shooting. But there is a lot here that the NBC News investigation just doesn’t take into account.

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First, these features are found on semi-auto pistols. Not on revolvers. Not on any semi-auto rifle or shotgun that I’m aware of. Not on any pump shotgun, lever action, or bolt-action rifle. Not on any single shot or double rifle or shotgun. And the lack of such a magazine disconnect in a semi-auto handgun is not a failure or manufacturing defect, any more than it is on any of the other types of firearms named herein.

Second, none of these accidents would have occurred had the elementary rules of safe gun handling been observed, paramount among them: “Never point a gun at a person unless you intend to shoot him.” The lack of a magazine disconnect and the failure of the person handling the firearm to properly clear the weapon does not amount to a flaw on the part of the gun’s design.

Then there’s this line:

And when accidents do occur, a federal law shields gunmakers from liability if the gun was used unlawfully.

This is a perfectly ridiculous misinterpretation. The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act does not “shield gunmakers from liability if the gun was used unlawfully.” Firearms are subject to the same legal liability as any other product if there is a manufacturing flaw or defect; the Act shields gunmakers from being held liable only for criminal use of their products, not “when accidents do occur.”

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This, folks, is journalistic malfeasance.

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People handling firearms of any type would do well to observe Colonel Jeff Cooper’s rules of gun safety:

Rule I: All guns are always loaded.

Rule II: Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.

Rule III: Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.

Rule IV: Be sure of your target.

And as my father hammered into my head from a very young age, “The only safety you can always count on is the one between your ears.”

A magazine disconnect, or the lack thereof, is no substitute for employing a few active brain cells in safe gun handling.