The Four Rules
We are living in troubled times, and across America many people who have never considered owning a gun are now either shopping or have recently purchased their first firearm.
Of course, the single most important part of gun ownership isn’t what brand you chose, what type or caliber it is… no, the one thing that must come before all else for the gun owner is safety.
Let’s take a look at the “Four Rules Of Gun Safety”.
RULE I: All guns are always loaded
RULE II: Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy
RULE III: Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target
RULE IV: Be sure of your target
Now, let’s take this step by step and look at each of these rules in real life examples.
RULE I: All guns are always loaded
A couple of years ago, a co-worker of mine was showing me his “desk gun” (our workplace has a “carry them if you’ve got them” policy), a gun he keeps in a safe bolted to the bottom of his desk (similar to the one I have bolted to the bottom of my desk).
He popped the magazine and press-checked (I wasn’t really watching, to be honest) and handed it to me while pointing it in an entirely safe direction saying “It’s unloaded.”
I did what I always do when handed a semi-automatic handgun, I stuck a finger into the magazine well to make sure it was empty, then I placed my finger well away from the trigger guard and racked the slide to make SURE it’s clear.
Magazine well is empty!
A .45 ACP round went flying across his office.
His jaw hit the floor and he said “bu… bu… but I CLEARED that gun.” I’ve never seen him look so embarrassed, he’s a guy who’s always talking up weapons safety.
You just never know
You just never know, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS check to make sure a gun is unloaded when somebody hands it to you. Always!
Before I come out all “holier than thou” about it, let me tell you an incident I personally had.
A few years ago I was shooting a Glock 17 at the range. When I was done, I removed the magazine, racked the slide and checked the chamber. I was the only person who was handling the gun, and I KNOW I cleared it.
I got home to clean the gun, and as is my habit I checked to see the mag well was empty, racked the slide and out popped a round of 9mm FMJ.
You could have knocked me over with a feather. To this day I am 100 percent sure I cleared that gun… but, obviously, I didn’t because nobody else touched that gun but me.
I remember wrong.
Empty Chamber!
RULE II: Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy
Of all the rules I see broken by people, this one is by far and away the number one problem. As I wrote about in this article about firearms safety at local gun shops, people commonly “sweep” the barrels of firearms right through other people. Rather than repeat the whole story, please just click on the link above and check it out.
RULE III: Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target
This one seems obvious, but once you know this you will never view Hollywood movies and TV shows the same way again. There are some shows that do a good job (NCIS for example), but frankly most shows have people running around all over the place with their fingers on the triggers.
Why?
They are prop guns. Except for the scenes where they actually shoot, non-firing prop guns are used. Most film directors apparently know squat about guns. Just get in the habit of always laying your trigger finger down the side of the gun so that your finger is parallel the barrel. Only move it when it’s time to fire.
Proper way to hold gun when not shooting
RULE IV: Be sure of your target
This one comes up a lot with hunters, even experienced hunters (perhaps even moreso with landowner experienced hunters), you have to be sure of your target.
This not only means be sure that what you are shooting is exactly what you want to shoot, but it also means knowing what’s BEHIND your target and where a ricocheted round will end up.
Here in Missouri, every hunting season, it seems like one or two people end up getting shot because the hunter “didn’t think there was anybody back there”. Unfortunately, a typical (and STUPID) tactic some people use to hunt deer is to “drive them out of draws” with friends and family members. This is a REALLY good way to kill friends and family members. Don’t do this.
Here’s a link to a an article about a local grandfather who shot his grandson accidentally this year, and who now has been charged with second degree involuntary manslaughter. I personally know/knew both the shooter and the victim, Very, very sad.
More ways to do dumb with guns
Additionally, another stupid (and VERY illegal) way to hunt that breaks rule IV is road hunting. Basically, this involves driving up and down country roads in your truck until you see a deer, then stopping, rolling down your window and shooting it from your truck.
You then drive out there, throw the animal in the back, tag it and take it to process it. One of the MANY problems with doing this is the hunter has no idea what’s behind the deer. In Missouri where we live, you can use high-power rifles to hunt, and it takes a LONG distance for a .30-06, .308 or .243 round to be spent of energy.
I’m very much a live and let live kind of person, but there are a few things that I will “Drop A Dime” to the authorities on. Besides DUI, near the top of that list is road hunting. That crap is dangerous to innocent people, I’ve had a windows shot out of my vehicle (through-and-through) by a road hunter, had I been in it I would have been dead.
Gun Safety Rules: The Bottom Line
Follow these rules and your chances of being the victim of, or causing, a tragic firearms accident go WAY down. Pay attention to rule II, that’s the one most likely to happen A LOT.
NOTE: The gun pictured here is Spice’s concealed carry handgun, a Ruger LC9s. Hers is the model with a safety and magazine lock-out. She likes having a safety, although she knows not to trust it, and always follow the four rules.
“Guns grow bullets”. Sowing the seeds for a potential disaster as both you, your friend and many other firearm users could attest to if they were as forthcoming as yourself and assuming that they survived the experience!. So the moral of the story is, always follow the above advice.
Regards
Apparently guns do grow bullets. I will swear on a stack of bibles, my mother’s grave and the Chicago Bears that I had cleared that Glock at the range. I REMEMBER doing it. Nobody else touched the gun. It’s a half-mile drive from range to home. No down time, probably 15 minutes elapsed. Despite KNOWING I had cleared the gun, that I had checked the chamber… it had a round in it, which means my memory is just flat wrong. That moment when that round flew out onto the counter… I can still remember the sick feeling in my stomach. Fortunately I was following the rules, so there wasn’t a negligent discharge and my wife’s counter is bullet-hole free. Still… scary stuff…
RULE IV should read: “Be sure of your target and what’s behind it.” Bullets sometimes travel completely through the target and hit other things behind it.
Good post. Rule 3 is really hard for new shooters because the gun is designed to feel right with your finger on the trigger. You have to learn and stay conscious of keeping your finger off the trigger when the whole feel of it in your hand is leading you to your finger on the trigger.
Truth. We are also all used to seeing really, really bad gun safety habits from Hollywood, and that doesn’t help either.
Several decades ago my neighbor was showing me his semi-automatic pistol. He was a World War II vet, and a Navy Seal before there were Navy Seals. He worked underwater demolition on D-Day (Rest in Peace my friend). With the magazine in place, he pulled back the slide and checked the chamber. Then handed it to me. I quietly informed him that he had loaded the pistol and then handed it to me, as I emptied the chamber.
The point being, it is too easy to be complacent. Stay vigilant. It only takes one mistake.