firing a handgun in your house

[Punisher]

i was at enck's gun barn the other day and one of the guys in there was telling my buddy how important it is to make sure a gun is unloaded before you attempt to take it apart or clean it - he said "the first time your gun goes off in your house when your not expecting it, it'll sound like a small nuclear explosion.". I was going to ask him if he knows from experience, but thought better of it, lol. but it got me to thinking -

could you be charged with any kind of crime if that happened? and also,
has it ever happened to any of you?

i know that the longer you handle firearms, the more of a chance of an accident happening. (not a point to argue, just probability mathematics). so, anyone wanna share their stories or thoughts?

[D-FENS]

You can shoot inside of your own home but you can get into trouble if there's a local ordinance against the discharge of weapons. You could also get disturbing the peace if you have neighbors close-by that call the police.

In my place, my landlord has in the lease that there can be no discharge of a firearm. Apparently (of course I asked )they had a cop in one of their units that accidentally discharged his firearm several times.

/Never happened to me. I rack the slide 3-4 times and visually check before and after. I won't say it never will.

[Punisher]

they had a cop in one of their units that accidentally discharged his firearm several times.

that's just wonderful - i mean once, i can understand, but SEVERAL times?!?!?!

[thirtyonebravo]

I can personally attest to the sound being *extremely* loud inside a barracks room, amplified more by the walls and such. I wasn't the offender, but was in the room in close proximity.

It was more a sudden shock at first, than painfully loud, then shortly after I had a little ringing in my ears for a little bit too, but it passed.

But yeah as stated, I can't imagine you'd be charged with anything beyond any kind of ordinance about discharging a firearm. (assuming you didn't hit anything outside your home, and assuming you're not a renter hehe.) Assuming it was just one shot though too, I doubt it would get noticed outside the house (and another set of walls to another house).

[dnar]

they had a cop in one of their units that accidentally discharged his firearm several times.

Gee wizzy! How does one accidentally discharge a firearm several times, and a police officer too! He should be ashamed of himself, ha ha. Well I'm sure he had his reasons.

rand

[MarcS]

You can shoot inside of your own home but you can get into trouble if there's a local ordinance against the discharge of weapons. You could also get disturbing the peace if you have neighbors close-by that call the police.

The local ordnance is the only thing they can get you on. In my area, the local ordnance is only against firing on or across roads.

As to disturbing the peace, there is no such law in this state...i suppose they could charge you with a violation of a local noise ordnance.

Regardless, a single muffled gunshot is not likely to attract attention and the statement: "sir, i don't know what your talking about" and "no sir, you may not come in" pretty much solves any potential problems with the police.

If the bullet exited your house and struck someone or something, now you might have problems, but the chances are pretty slim.

Anyway, gunshots indoors are loud and the concussion causes permanent hearing damage.

[rich]

WE were up at a buddies hunting cabin cleaning it out before hunting season and came up with the idea of shooting in the cabin to see just how load it is. We wrapped an old mattress around 2 bags of sand and propped it up against the wall with 3 old wooden doors behind it. We had three guns to choose from a Sig 9mm a 1911 45 and a smith 357mag, why we choose the smith with full magnum hunting loads I'll never know but I would almost say if someone broke into my home I would rather beat him senseless with the gun than shoot them. Our ears rang for 2 days.

[RandomTask]

The first time I used my Remington Power Hammer (uses .22 loads to drive nails into cement walls) in my house, I was affraid my house would get surrounded by squad cars.

[RocketFoot]

I used to know a NFA guy that had a Mac-10 and decided to buy a German "Grease Gun" Well, he was not familiar with the open bolt design and ended up popping one through his kitchen floor! I didn't witness it, but I heard about it...he said it was louder than hell!

[RoyJackson]

I had an ND decocking a 1911 inside.
Scared the bejesus out of the dog! I was just stunned (duhhh!)
Can't say it was that loud though, but I may have been in a slight case of shock.

That's the last time I decocked a 1911 inside.