Footage shows terrifying near-miss as man almost shoots himself by accident at firing range

A man is lucky to be alive after a bullet narrowly missed his head in a gun range accident.

A video shared on X this week has been sending shivers down the spine of social media users.

For anyone who legally owns a gun, gun safety is paramount.

That includes the proper way to handle a gun and being prepared when handling it.

A viral video, that has been viewed more than 1.6 million times shows the moment a man almost shoots himself in the head.

While wearing noise cancelling earphones and aiming his gun down range, the man is seen firing his gun once. However, it appears to go off another time as he loses the grip on the firearm.

The gun spins in his hands before firing a second bullet inches above his head.

The video has also spread to other social media websites like Reddit where the man was fiercely criticized for his limp grip on the firearm.

“You’re not supposed to be death gripping it but maybe hold a little better than that?!” one amazed user wrote.

“Seriously, how do you hold something so deadly with such a limp wrist. My first time, I was so nervous that I milked the hell out of it. everything was going hard left,” wrote another.

“For real! The first time I shot a gun, I was surprised at how strong the kickback actually was, but I was prepared enough to still hold the gun mostly steady. Did I hit the target? Absolutely not. But it didn’t fly back at my face. And I have little bird wrists.

Morbid Knowledge/X

“Ffs I didn’t even see the second shot at first. How does that even happen? I hope they took the gun from him immediately.”

One user attempted to give an explanation as to why there was a second shot in the video and what the novice marksman could have done wrong.

“My guess is the recoil from the first shot pushed it back and he was startled, realizing how loose his grip was, he tensed up and squeezed it a second time,” the user wrote.

“I've heard that anytime someone is a novice to shooting, loading one round at a time in the beginning is good practice."

Morbidknowledge/X.

Other commentators insisted the man should have been better prepared for the recoil and those running the range should have expressed how important it is to grip the pistol correctly.

You live and you learn as they say...the man is certainly lucky to be able to learn from this near-fatal mistake.