Quote Originally Posted by Brainchild69 View Post
You are wrong. I know both of these people very well and I was told exactly what happened. The mag was loaded and inserted, the slide was released, when the pistol was placed one the table POINTED DOWNRANGE, without the trigger being touched it went off repeatedly spinning around firing one round after another. Do not assume that someone was a dumbass and wasn’t following proper safety procedures if you don’t know the whole story. Have you ever been hurt by anything? Would it be correct to assume that you got hurt because you probably were not doing what you were supposed to be doing? There are other reports of the Jennings nine having this type of malfunction.
http://www.firearmsid.com/Recalls/FA_Recalls%202.htm
I await your apologies.
Here's more info on the only listed recall for the Jennings, it was on their .22lr, but shows that it's possible:

JENNINGS FIREARMS
MODEL J-22,
22 LONG RIFLE CALIBER SEMIAUTOMATIC PISTOL
WARNING: These pistols may create an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CONDITION and a POTENTIAL FOR SERIOUS INJURY by firing when dropped.
This model pistol trigger/disconnector bar and sear level may have too small a gap between them such that a sharp movement of the slide rearward could cause the weapon to discharge without the trigger being pulled.
The discharge is created by the moving slide impacting the disconnector and driving the trigger bar/disconnector rearward into the cam lever before it can pivot downward and out of alignment.
Source:
  • AFTE Journal, Winter, 2001; Volume 33, Number 1:48-49
So what happened is probably one of those one in a million long shots that shows what could happen without a properly engineered firearm.

Although I'm not sure an apology is in order. First off the comment wasn't directed towards you, it was towards your friends, but you're acting pretty offended yourself for no particular reason. You should have came in and enlightened us in a positive tone and gave us all the interesting details.

Second, it's a pretty valid assumption. It's very highly unlikely that any firearm would ever "go off by itself" at all. Actual "accidental discharges" not "negligent discharges" happens just a few times a year for all the millions of firearms that are loaded at all. And I'm sure that every time that does legitimately happen where it wasn't negligent with a finger "accidentally" on the trigger, the pistol is being handled which was enough to allow the hammer to fall, thus the rule of always keep it pointed downrange. An event like this, where it's sat down on the table and then goes off has to be incredibly rare, but possible. Combine that with a gun that keeps firing, and this event is essentially such a rare occurrence as to never be considered by anyone with experience.