He didn't know the gun was loaded?

The four rifle range safety rules are:1.  Treat every weapon as if it were loaded.
2.  Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you intend to fire. 3.  Never point your weapon at anything you don’t intend to shoot.
4.  Keep your weapon on safe until you intend to fire.

via Marine Corps Times...

A Marine colonel who was removed from his post last month after accidentally firing his handgun into the floor of his office was testing the weapon’s trigger, not realizing the gun was loaded, a command investigation revealed.

Read the entire article here.

Ordinarily this would have been reflected on a slightly adverse OER, but with the SECNAV and the President being so anti-gun this got pushed right up into a, if not career ender then at least an advancement stopper.

But what has me (once again) shouting at the moon is "HE DIDN'T KNOW THE GUN WAS LOADED"???????

That's some LCPL shit.

But his actions after the incident are noteworthy.

He did the hard thing after his fuck up.  He manned up.  He took responsibility instead of trying to cover up the incident (perhaps he had no choice due to staff being present but still he could have tried).

Question.  Are we once again in a zero defect Marine Corps?  Can you have a sparkling record and have it all ruined by one "oh shit" moment?