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One of the most common criticisms of the Sten, especially the models before the Mk V, was its propensity for negligent or accidental discharges. I have read numerous accounts of the Sten wounding or killing British troops during the war. As a person who has carried loaded pistols, rifles, shotguns and submachine guns for most of his adult life, I can say that most of those incidents could have been avoided. The problem was, and still is, that soldiers and law-enforcement officers get complacent. They get sloppy about the principle of always treating each weapon as loaded and dangerous. The Sten’s tendency to go off if the cocking handle jarred out of the safety slot or the stock was given a hard bump when the bolt was forward was well known. Troops usually made the conscious choice to keep the Sten with a magazine in place, based on the assumption that they might need it quickly. It might, then, be argued that more troops were saved by having their Sten ready when an enemy was suddenly encountered than were injured by accident. The Sten was more dangerous to its users than most infantry weapons, but all weapons are dangerous.
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