1. (Mentioned in the article) ensure that no one is downrange (”in the room”, said the article, but that’s a bit excessive). Just make sure the business end will ALWAYS be pointed away from them, and preferable at the floor or an effective backstop.
2. Do not touch the trigger. Period.
3. For a semiautomatic, drop the magazine, then work the slide. If there is a round stuck in the chamber that will not eject, operate the slide release. This will permit the slide to be removed— away from the firing mechanism— and also permit dismounting the barrel (which includes the chamber) from the slide.
4. You will now be able to see a stuck round in the chamber, and there will be nothing capable of causing the weapon to fire. Even so, practice safety rule #1 and do not point the business end at anything you really like, such as a person.
5. In most cases you may now safely extract the round by hand. Worst case you may have to poke it out from the muzzle end, say with a cleaning rod.
As to the second half of your request for information:
I have had TWO unintended discharges. Both occurred because (in one case) I assumed that the person who handed it to me had cleared it, or (in the other case) that the safety was in the correct position. Both occurred when I pulled the trigger. Because of my adherence to the other rules of safe firearms handling, the bullets went into the ground or in the direction of our targets.
Please don’t hesitate to question us FR gun folks further. We are all willing and able to give assistance. Safe gun handling is the responsibility of every individual who wishes to exercise his God-given, Constitutionally-protected rights.
I have had two similar to that. Both were in safe directions, but were surprises to say the least (first was on the line of “you dumbass”)
First was a very customized cowboy action lever gun. I assumed (horrid evil word!) this particular rifle had a “half cock” safety system and when I went to half cock it and released, BANG...
Second was a squib/jam on one of my Browning HPs with a cast bullet round. The way it lodged made the slide difficult to actuate (again, in safe direction) and I was sweaty to boot. As I pulled the slide back it slipped free, drove in the round and apparently slam fired it. Had some pretty good hand sting from the slide biting me on that too.
Oh, one of my coworkers had a brush with death with a state highway Dept employee. The guy found a semi auto in a paper bag along the road and came over randomly pointing it at people and things. Coworker said be careful, that might be loaded so the guy drops the magazine and proceeds to go through the motion of pointing it at his own head and pulling the trigger.
Our guy snatches it out of his hand in mid arc and jacks the live round out of the chamber. The state guy just about shit himself. THERE ARE PEOPLE THAT STUPID!
One of my striker-fired pistols require the trigger to be pulled in order to remove the slide. I first move the slide back a little, pull the slide release buttons down and then I have to pull the trigger to release the slide. So far, I’ve never had a jammed cartridge, but would you recommend putting something in front of the primer, just in case? I’m pretty sure the firing pin won’t reach the primer with the slide back, but I don’t know. I’d think this is a time to err on the side of caution.
I did have a slide on a different pistol get stuck on a FTE due to an extractor problem, as I found out later. I was a little nervous because I hadn’t been counting rounds and I didn’t know if there was one in the chamber. In that case, a little hard rapping, with the barrel pointed downrange, jarred the case loose enough to free the slide. It wasn’t loaded, but sometimes you just don’t know.