Can static electricity cause an accidental discharge?

Question

I live in the southwest where thunder storms are common and practically every time I get out of the car I get shocked. I carry so this worries me a bit. Could this potentially cause an AD?

Also, something else that I've been wondering is what would hypothetically happen if you were stuck by lightning while carrying? Would every single cartridge in the magazine explode?

Answer 1

Not in the sort of amounts a human can generate. Since the primer and case are conductive and in good electrical contact you'd have to get enough energy to heat the whole round to the point where the primer ignites. Now you put it in a gun and the static would first discharge through the gun and wouldn't even come in contact with the cartridge.

But lightning is a different matter. If your gun takes a hit there's enough power in a big lightning strike to turn the whole thing into a flowing ball of gas. If you melt the gun then all bets are off. If you get to that point then I don't think it's worth worrying about the rounds cooking off, the electricity would fry you anyway.

Answer 2

It is very unlikely that the static electricity you could generate using yourself and a carseat would discharge ammunition.


As for the second part of your question. I have never heard of a person getting struck by lightning while carrying a firearm. I can say however, that some large rounds developed for military purposes (I think some 20mm was one of them) had electrical primers that were fired by electric discharge instead of a mechanical strike by a firing pin. So, it is possible for a primer compound to be ignited by electrical current. I'm sure that lightning would definitely have more than plenty voltage and amperage, but you would have bigger things to worry about than sudden discharge of all your ammo.

Answer 3

Accidental discharge due to the static electricity that builds up in your body is extremely unlikely. I would say it is impossible but it seems that nothing is impossible but it can be just so very highly unlikely as to be statistically insignificant. I would put accidental discharge due to static electricity buildup in your body into that category.

Discharge of cartridges in you gun due to a direct lightning strike? Yeah, that could happen. The likelyhood of that happening is orders of magnitude greater than discharge due to static electricity build up in your body. I have no personal knowlege of this ever happening but, given the power of a lightning bolt and the heat generated by it and the number of people who have been struck by lightning, it is not at all impossible that this could have occurred at sometime in the past.

Answer 4

static no .....

lightning....well if your hit by lightning an AD isn't what you would be worrying about would it?