Like I said, the devil will be in the details. On the conventional Army side of the house, leadership's fear of troops weapons handling skills is not without merit. In 2008 I was working a special project in MND-B Headquarters. Fourth ID was the battle space owner. In their first 6 months on the ground, the number of negligent discharges had already exceeded 140.

Do you think that negligent discharges are more likely with long guns or with holstered/concealed sidearms?

Do you think those that choose to carry POW's on-site are more or less likely to responsibly handle their firearms than the entire group as a whole?

:munchin

An ND is 1000% more likely when a 'clearing barrel' is introduced into the equation.

Rule #1 Treat all guns as if they are loaded (Keep all working firearms loaded unless cleaning or inspecting - solves 99.9% of all AD/ND)

In the military (as I remember) there is only a negligible difference between long and short. As above, introduce a designated clearing barrel outside a headquarters entrance and expect one ND per week as people clear an otherwise unchambered weapon.

People who carry loaded (i.e., chambered) weapons rarely have an ND. It's those other guys who as someone else mentioned are not trained well enough to be trusted.

Back to talking about senior officers again. :D

Watched a soldier have an ND with a SAW one sunny afternoon....

As others have stated. Introducing the clearing barrel generates NDs.

Or the ones so well trained that they become complacent. On Oki our guys (95% straight from Viet Nam with 3 PHs) had to pass the barrel several times a day. Every so often someone would get the order of operation wrong and run the bolt (M-14) before removing the mag. Bang!

Pat

I think an ND is more likely with people who are not accustomed to handling, loading, moving about with, and unloading firearms be they long or short.

However, complacency kills and injures too. SF is not immune to the ND. However, it is much rarer.

geeez, no love for the officers around here :D
well, not without good reasons though


This
I can name every supposedly brother and sisters in arms who freaked out after they found out my marksmanship mastery and enthusiasm, and went full blown passive aggressive behind my back

I've personally known four general officers and have driven around maybe upwards of 50 or more when I was a young SP4 and driver for the command staff of the Pershing Missile Brigade in Germany. I only know of one that carried his issued Colt Officers Model 1911 (Locked & Loaded) everyday and everywhere he could. All the rest relied on people like me to protect them. Also, only one of three O-6 Colonels that I worked with carried daily (a small .38 revolver.)

Looking back on my 21-years I still have a lot of respect for those two.

The General also required that whether we carried concealed (permitted by Uncle Sam) or open that we were locked and loaded. That wasn't so hard for MPs assigned to his detail but for us 11Bs it was TTBOMK against Army Regulations.

As was noted in the OP the Army or military as a whole has had the authority to issue every soldier, sailors, Marine and airmen a permit to carry loaded weapons in the official capacity of their duties. I'd say the more than 50 'others' would never allow that outside of their own protective details.

SF as a whole was more grown up about it but there was always big Army and Post Commander directives that nurtured responsibility. If you can't trust a guy on the qualification range how can you put your trust in him to go to war?

I agree that most flag officers are closet Dems with few rare exceptions.

When I was but a brand new SF captain, we had a SGM (who later became a BN CSM) who, by the time he left my company, had 4 negligent discharges. I experienced one personally when we were all in SFAUCC. We were loading pistol mags while another group shot. Next thing you know, "bang!". We all look behind us, and their is our company SGM f_cking with his pistol. A previous one he had was in JRTC; luckily it was a blank fire discharge with an M-4. The company supply NCO was there to witness that one. I don't know how this very senior NCO kept getting a pistol assigned.

I always thought, and was told, that an ND in SF would get ya booted out. I never seen one while I was there but my Chief said he had a good friend of his booted right after Desert Storm because of an ND.

I seen a whole lot of them in Iraq, but always with regulars, no SOF although I'm sure it happens.

We had a company SGM ND his pistol at a clearing barrel twice in a row in Iraq. Like, literally BAM!.....BAM!

He later went on to be the Group CSM in a couple of years. So, yeah, it happens...

In Hati (circa '94) a SEAL Leutnant (that's an O-3 right) walks up to the clearing barrel outside the JSOC HQ Port-a-Let (Prince) draws M9 from holster, pulls slide, drops mag, pulls trigger - bang! Says WTF it was unloaded...gets on plane next day bye bye.

Same week, 10th Mt. Div. private - PFC - SP4- don't matter walks up to PX clearing barrel (sand filled #10 can hanging on wall outside) pulls charging handle, points M16 at can pulls trigger - bang! Drops magazine, pulls trigger - bang! Says WTF! Next day gets on plane says bye bye.

I know of one SF guy (NCO) in training had AD on live fire movement range... packed his shit and next day wasn't on an A-Team... don't know if he stayed in SF or just kept a low profile in SWCS afterwards. Fasted way off a team when I was in was for your gun to go boom when it wasn't supposed to. We didn't - wouldn't - tolerate it. So the rumors are true. Your gun goes boom when it wasn't supposed too...just pack your bags.

hahaha....and I remember the young 18B who "generated" a set of orders PCS'ing him to 4th AD. :D