I'm going ask a dumb question:Can handguns actually fire without the trigger...

[CC27]

Mon Jun 15, 2015, 02:47 PM
GreatGazoo (1,035 posts)

I'm going ask a dumb question: Can handguns actually fire without the trigger being pulled?


I see news stories all the time that say "the gun went off" or something similar that leaves any human activity out of the act of firing the gun. So how common is it for a gun to just fire at a random time ? Is there any kind of temperature change, like leaving your gun in the sun or in a hot car that will make it fire? or anything else ?

Dear God. Don't call them DUmmies for nothing.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172169017

[jukin]

Looks like this DUchebag could be a "journalist" for the AP, NYT, or WAPO.

[thundley4]

[Duke Nukum]

I think he's expressing the same point Limbaugh started to make when the left started attacking SUV, which is that the news reports were always, A SUV did this...A SUV crashed into that...acting as if the SUV's had no driver.

[GOBUCKS]

how common is it for a gun to just fire at a random time ?

Well, it's very common, and usually when it happens the gun erupts in fully-automatic mode.

That SUV reference was interesting. It reminded me of thirty years or so ago when any reference on TV news to a handgun always called the weapon a "Saturday Night Special".

Then the news started calling hollow-points "dum-dum" bullets, a term I'd never heard before the press started using it.

Then of course we had the notorious "cop killer" bullets, and the undetectable plastic Glock pistols.

And now we're under siege by assault weapons since repukes repealed the lifesaving "Assault Weapon Ban" that the Hildebeast vows to reinstate.

[67 Rover]

Well, it's very common, and usually when it happens the gun erupts in fully-automatic mode.

That SUV reference was interesting. It reminded me of thirty years or so ago when any reference on TV news to a handgun always called the weapon a "Saturday Night Special".

Then the news started calling hollow-points "dum-dum" bullets, a term I'd never heard before the press started using it.

Then of course we had the notorious "cop killer" bullets, and the undetectable plastic Glock pistols.

And now we're under siege by assault weapons since repukes repealed the lifesaving "Assault Weapon Ban" that the Hildebeast vows to reinstate.

My M1A does slam fire on occasion but other than that no guns do not fire without pulling the trigger and in the case of Massachusetts compliant guns that requires 10lb pull in double action and 5lb in single.

[freedumb2003b]

Mon Jun 15, 2015, 02:47 PM
GreatGazoo (1,035 posts)

I'm going ask a dumb question: Can handguns actually fire without the trigger being pulled?

You betcherass, gazoo!!  In fact, even if you lock them up, they will jump in your bed when you are asleep and shoot you in the ass just for fun.

They are in league with evil SUVs!

[ChuckJ]

I knew one gun that would go all crazy on the second Wednesday of the month. He'd run all over the place just shooting things up. I finally had to be sure that on the second Wednesday of the month to lock him in a specially made concrete box. It worked well until a full moon fell on the second Wednesday. Somehow the power of the full moon allowed him to break free from his concrete prison AND powered him with 47 rounds of secret supersonic machine shotgun shells. He destroyed the house on that rampage so we had to melt him down.

[GOBUCKS]

My M1A does slam fire on occasion but other than that no guns do not fire without pulling the trigger and in the case of Massachusetts compliant guns that requires 10lb pull in double action and 5lb in single.

I have a Model 61 Winchester .22 that my dad bought new for me when I was 11. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

I discovered you could hold the trigger back and it would keep firing as long as you kept pumping it.

My dad said he'd take it away from me if I fired it that way again, so that was that. His rule was that every shot has to count.

I think they changed the design later to add a trigger disconnector for safety, so it couldn't do that. But it was cool when I was 11.

It never went berserk and started firing on its own.

[dutch508]

misfires do happen. 99.5% of the time it's operator error.

[FiddyBeowulf]

I have a Model 61 Winchester .22 that my dad bought new for me when I was 11. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

I discovered you could hold the trigger back and it would keep firing as long as you kept pumping it.

My dad said he'd take it away from me if I fired it that way again, so that was that. His rule was that every shot has to count.

I think they changed the design later to add a trigger disconnector for safety, so it couldn't do that. But it was cool when I was 11.

It never went berserk and started firing on its own.

You can get some pump action shotguns to do that too.


As far a gun "just going off"? No, some form of physical force is required.

[JohnnyReb]

You can get some pump action shotguns to do that too.
As far a gun "just going off"? No, some form of physical force is required.

I have a rusty old J.C. Higgins pump that will do that. I got it in a trade 50 years ago and couldn't DUmp it off on someone else....but I've killed more doves with that old gun than any high dollar gun I've ever owned.

[67 Rover]

I have a Model 61 Winchester .22 that my dad bought new for me when I was 11. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

I discovered you could hold the trigger back and it would keep firing as long as you kept pumping it.

My dad said he'd take it away from me if I fired it that way again, so that was that. His rule was that every shot has to count.

I think they changed the design later to add a trigger disconnector for safety, so it couldn't do that. But it was cool when I was 11.

It never went berserk and started firing on its own.

The new M1A's come with a warning label about slam fire because of the "floating firing pin" but it is exacerbated when you also lighten the trigger beyond the original National Match setup. 

At Camp Perry I saw more than a few slam fires and learned some new choice words to go along with it.

[Karin]

crazy on the second Wednesday of the month. He'd run

ChuckJ, I don't think the gun was a He. 

[BlueStateSaint]

I knew one gun that would go all crazy on the second Wednesday of the month. He'd run all over the place just shooting things up. I finally had to be sure that on the second Wednesday of the month to lock him in a specially made concrete box. It worked well until a full moon fell on the second Wednesday. Somehow the power of the full moon allowed him to break free from his concrete prison AND powered him with 47 rounds of secret supersonic machine shotgun shells. He destroyed the house on that rampage so we had to melt him down.

It was a Norinco, right?

[Big Dog]

You can get some pump action shotguns to do that too.


As far a gun "just going off"? No, some form of physical force is required.

The Winchester Model 1897 shotgun will slam fire. 

[Big Dog]

ChuckJ, I don't think the gun was a He.

High five for that, Karin!

"My Ex-Wife, the Gun", from the producers of "My Mother, the Car".

[ChuckJ]

ChuckJ, I don't think the gun was a He.

Maybe it was just gender identifying as a he.

[ADsOutburst]

When I first saw the thread title "Re: I'm going ask a dumb question:Can handguns actually fire without the trigger...", I wondered if it was about DUmmies thinking of sneaky ways around the 2nd amendment.

[obumazombie]

Aside from cookoffs which are nearly unheard of, no.
But at least according to libs, guns kill.