A firearm is a tool. A tool that can be a joy to practice with, but one who's original purpose
should never be forgotten. Put bluntly, firearms started out as a tool meant to kill other living things. All
firearms retain that ability and there is inherent danger in their misuse. Nothing that we can control hurts the public
image of firearms owners more than demonstrated unsafe firearms handling.
Years ago, the father of modern shooting,
Jeff Cooper outlined four redundant rules of gun safety. Redundant means that the rules overlap, if you break one the
rest will prevent a firearms accident from being a tragedy. If you follow them diligently you will probably never have
a firearms mishap. Or, if you do, the damage will be minimal.
Rule
#1 All guns are always loaded.
Always assume, and treat any gun as if loaded, especially if you have not
personally cleared it. This prevents the very common “I thought it was unloaded” mistakes.
Rule #2 Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
If
you aren’t willing to break or kill it, don’t point a gun at it. So called “muzzle sweeps” are
simply unacceptable. Naturally sometimes a holstered gun might point at someone or some part of your body, or someone
might walk in front of a gun on a table. But guns almost never go off unless someone is handling them.
Rule #3 Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
This is a basic firearms manipulation. You should never be walking around with your finger on the trigger, gun on
safe, unloaded or not. The last thing you do before you pull the trigger, is put your finger on the trigger.
Rule #4 Identify your target, and what is behind it.
Many
people have been killed or injured because a shooter wasn’t sure of their target. That’s why we wear hunter’s
orange. If you’re hunting, make sure you see a deer. At the range, make sure you’re looking at a target
with a good backstop, and at home make sure the guy coming through the window in the middle of the night isn’t your
son or daughter sneaking back in the house.
That being said I have seen firearms accidents happen for three main
reasons.
Lack of respect for weapons and ignorance of the four rules (I'm
a man I know how to handle a gun it's on the Y chromosome... BOOM!) Never mind
that they haven't handled a gun since their mom sold their red rider at a yard sale after they left for college.
Lack of familiarity with a firearm or nervousness (how do you get this
loaded magazine out? Hmm do I hit this switch...BOOM!) I advocate a lot of in the house,
unloaded practice with a firearm and a complete disassembly and maintenance cycle before you ever put the first round in at
the range.
Complacency. This is the one that gets long time shooters you've
been handling guns for years, you've put three thousand rounds though this one running around in matches etc etc (Hey
Bob, you how are things going at work, Fine Steve we just got the new BOOM!). This
one has happened to me, luckily I only violated one of the rules and the round went harmlessly in to the berm.
Anyway,
if you respect firearms, understand how they work and don't become complacent it is possible to violate ONE of the rules
at a time. But it's only a good idea if you get some kind of experience/training benefit from it. I used to run around
the woods getting paid to point weapons at people and pretend to kill them. Now I might dry fire at the TV, or practice clearing
the house with some one hiding from me, or test a new scope on a traffic sign at the end of the street. But you can
bet the farm that I checked the chamber multiple times before doing so.
On a final note, I seriously recommend
the use of hearing and eye protection while shooting. Shooting without using ear protection will eventually destroy
your hearing, forever. And no matter what, sometimes things (rocks or bullet fragments) bounce back at you. It
only has to happen once before you are condemned to dressing up as a pirate every Halloween from now on.
Be safe
People.
