[AnAmericanMother]

I also smell a rat.

There's a grip safety AND a thumb safety. The grip safety, IIRC, is plastic or aluminum. I don't see how the MRI could simultaneously release the grip AND the thumb safety, AND cause the firing pin to move forward. All these moving parts are in different places and move in different directions . . . .

My guess is that either he had the hammer down on a round (very unsafe and unnecessary) and the hammer struck the primer when the pistol hit the wall of the MRI, or he just had an AD while fumbling with his pistol and is blaming it on the MRI.

I don't have my 1911A1 on me, so I don't remember if it has a hammer block like my Sig or my little Walther. But I think having the hammer down would bypass it even if it did have one.

[murrie]

This is not the fault of the officer. I have worked
in MRI environments-it is the technicians/nurses responsibility to deal with “prepping” the patient. Then
again, it could be that the tech was intimidated by the
big, bad gun that they weren’t sure what to do.

I don’t care how many safeties, ect are on a gun. When you have a gun vs an mri the mri will win everytime. Guns were not designed to withstand an mri environment.

[P8riot]

1911s don’t have hammer blocks. Some, like this one, have firing pin blocks that don’t allow the pin to travel unless they are moved out of the way by the action of the grip safety (none of mine do and I have over two dozen 1911s). After reading the story it appears that the magnetic field actuated the firing pin block and allowed the firing pin to set off the round, either through the action of the magnetic field or the impact of the weapon against the tube.

[brityank]

IF you’d bother to read the story at the link, you’d find 1) all safeties were engaged, 2) the muzzle connected with the wall of the magnet, causing 3) the free-floating firing-pin to strike the round in the cocked-and-locked chamber. You guys disappoint me.

[Manly Warrior]

I believe that a 1991A1 is a series 80 action, with a firing pin safety that only releases the FP when the trigger is pressed fully rearwards.

I doubt even if the hammer notch failed when it struck the MRI machine that a round would discharge-again, the trigger would have to be pressed and the grip safety would have to have been released as well.....

I am betting on some spontaneous ignition of the primer via static or other EM energy source....

Any CE/ME/EEs out there with some insight on this circumstance?

Does lead styphnate (priming compound) combine under strong EM fields and detonate?

God Bless