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For those of you lucky enough to witness my tirade when I see poor muzzle discipline, then congratulations. You know how important it is and this real-world example will prove why.
This past weekend after a long weekend of training at the Navy Base, I had a student experience an Accidental Discharge (AD), not to be confused with Negligent Discharge (ND), which most stories sadly fall into. Due to his training and muzzle discipline, the bullet safely went downrange. I would be safe to say that it was a quality firearm (AR) I would have in my array (some may say differently) and the student followed the normal safety procedures (manual safety on, finger off the trigger, muzzle discipline) as he performed a reloading operation. As he struck the base of the magazine to verify proper seating, the firearm fired. An incident which called for a cease-fire.
I've heard about this happening in rare cases, but never experienced it firsthand. Time for a great learning opportunity for everyone. We all gathered around to find that a squashed blown primer traveling around in the trigger mechanism. To make a long story short, the primer prevented the hammer from falling prior to his reload, and upon his option for a reload and striking the bottom of the magazine, knocked the primer loose allowing the hammer to fall and fire. We returned the firearm back to normal duty condition and training commenced.
What did we learn here? First, there is no such thing as safe guns, only safe operators. Next, there is such a thing as AD. Some are never fully explained. This also makes us revisit ND and the donkey who didn't follow the basic rules of firearm safety. Also, firearms need to be inspected before every use and that they are functioning as expected. Trigger mechanisms should be inspected by a certified armorer occasionally. Lastly, the importance of muzzle discipline needs to be embedded in our memory, just like all the other things we teach.
You must be aware of your muzzle direction at all times!