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This happened last Saturday. At the time it was just two boys home alone with a shotgun and one boy was killed.

Now it is the shot gun was dropped and it went off shooting the guns owner in the chest.

So would this be the gun being held straight barrel up and dropping it on its stock end and it discharging at a slight angle now facing the boy who dropped it.

Seems it would be hard for a gun to fall that far if being held by a young boy.

More likely a gun would fall over or be dropped so it was parallel with the floor and thus hard to hit someone in the chest unless they were laying on the floor.

I seem to doubt all these accidental discharges where there are no witnesses other than the other person who survived.

But I know nothing about shotguns discharging when dropped.

Always a terrible shame.

That gun will be tested ad nauseum. If it does not easily do what it is alleged to have done, then there is going to be a bad day for someone when the Grand Jury gets done with them.

RJ

johnson0317 wrote:That gun will be tested ad nauseum. If it does not easily do what it is alleged to have done, then there is going to be a bad day for someone when the Grand Jury gets done with them.

RJ

Fatal "dropped gun" discharges are possible though remotely so, and always suspect.

I'll be looking for a more likely explanation of events in this case to emerge from the investigation.

A good old fashioned back room "interrogation" will get to the bottom of this situation lickety-split.

Terrible tragedy.

Unfortunately, unless that shotgun has been modified or is a zillion years old and in crappy shape, the "I dropped it" line isn't going to hold up. Guns don't go off when they are dropped. The surviving child will be scarred for life over this. Lord help them.

Yeah sounds fishy to me though being 13 years olds the gun could certainly have dropped far enough.
I'd be more likely to believe the kids were fighting over it a little and the friend accidentally triggered it.

One of my wife’s uncle’s was taking a .410 shotgun down from a rack over his front door. He dropped it onto the floor butt first. The gun went off shooting him under his chin. He died instantly. Could have happened. Just sayin…

Commander Cody wrote:One of my wife’s uncle’s was taking a .410 shotgun down from a rack over his front door. He dropped it onto the floor butt first. The gun went off shooting him under his chin. He died instantly. Could have happened. Just sayin…

Why are 1911's carried "cocked and locked"?

I've heard that many shotguns are not drop safe, so be careful.

Many shotguns are made with floating firing pins. When they are loaded with a round in the chamber, they are well known for going off from being dropped or even hitting a bump in the road while driving. Quite a few police cars had small sun roofs added this way, which is why police officers now carry the gun with a magazine loaded and no round in the chamber.

1911's do not have this reputation, but have been known to go off if dropped just right. That was one of the reasons Colt added the firing pin lock, resulting in the series 80 design type. Most 1911 fans did not see the need and resented the trigger interference it caused, so it was not popular in sales.

srothstein wrote:Many shotguns are made with floating firing pins. When they are loaded with a round in the chamber, they are well known for going off from being dropped or even hitting a bump in the road while driving. Quite a few police cars had small sun roofs added this way, which is why police officers now carry the gun with a magazine loaded and no round in the chamber.

1911's do not have this reputation, but have been known to go off if dropped just right. That was one of the reasons Colt added the firing pin lock, resulting in the series 80 design type. Most 1911 fans did not see the need and resented the trigger interference it caused, so it was not popular in sales.

I stand corrected. Thanks for the info and the extremely important safety tip.

Any advice on which model shotties that might be less prone to this malady?

Sorry, the only shotguns I am really familiar with are all riot guns. Almost all of them were reported to have this problem. All of them were also pump guns, so it might be something in that design though I don't really see how the action design would make that much of a difference (well for a pump or a semi-auto. A break open like a single shot or over/under would obviously be very different).

Seems to me, from what I remember, that hammerless break-open shotguns cock either on opening or closing, but are indeed cocked when you close them back up...and with a round in the chamber, MAYBE if it hit right, it could go off. I remember having an old H&R 20 gauge single shot when I was a kid, but it had a hammer and a "half-cocked" notch or safety catch...I know I dropped it while it was loaded a couple of times and it never went off, but that was on dirt or grass, or mud, and not a hard floor in a house. I was given that shotgun when I was a younger teenager, maybe 14...and I went all over the brush country where we lived with it, shooting rabbits, and quail and dove during the seasons, (and rattlesnakes, too)...but I never "played" with that shotgun. I learned gun safety from my Dad at an even younger age (thank you Dad) and I have done the same with my own children in regards to gun safety. Sad business, indeed.
No one wins on this one, at all.

This is why I don't keep a shell in the chamber of my shotguns unless I'm walking a field, about to say 'pull', or hear some suspicious sounds at night.

I'll have to examine the action of mine the next time I take it out. It's a Remington 1100... does anybody happen to know off the top of their head if it's drop-safe?