Firearm can’t discharge itself

A firearm regardless of make, model, type or calibre can only be discharged by squeezing the trigger by human intervention or in the extremely rare event that the weapon is dropped on a hard surface and the impact is severe enough to cause the weapon to be discharged.

This however, I have never come across in my more than 70 years in handling firearms.

Having started my shooting career way back in 1930 at the age of seven, being trained in the use of military firearms during my term of service in the TRNVR by British Navy instructors during World War 2 and being an honorary life Member of the South Trinidad Rifle Association who served on the management committee for 20 years, I think it is fair to say that I have become somewhat of an expert on firearms.

I was also responsible for the reactivation of the Forest Reserve Rifle Range which, had been closed down in 1970 as a result of the black power revolt and which was put back into service in late 1974 after being refurbished and brought up to international standards.

I also formulated the STRA firearm training programme which I introduced to the members of the association as well as members of the public in early 1991 and which was approved by the Commissioner of Police as a Certified Firearm Training Institution at which time, I and three other senior members of the STRA were approved as Certified Firearm Instructors, a service which is still in operation and which has trained hundreds of firearm users to date.

During my lifetime I have owned a variety of makes and models of firearms ranging from small bore (.22) pistols and rifles through the range of .32, .38, .357 Magnum, 9MM and .762 (Winchester. 308) and have had the occasion to use a UZI 9mm in the fully automatic mode. During my shooting career I have never even come close to shooting anyone accidentally or otherwise and have never had the experience of witnessing a firearm accidentally discharging itself.

During my many years at the Forest Reserve Range, there have been many members of the Police Service in attendance during our shooting events and I regret to say that most or nearly all of them showed a lack of basic training in the use and handling of firearms and most of them had to be given on the spot training in the safe use of firearms.