CHAPTER 3

SAFETY

FOUR FUNDAMENTAL SAFETY RULES

Safety around firearms is essential. It’s not hard to be safe around firearms; it just takes the knowledge of basic safety rules and a little common sense. There are many variations of safety rules taught by different organizations, but they all encompass the same thoughts and goals. The following rules are commonly called the Four Fundamental Safety Rules.

1. Treat Every Weapon as if It Were Loaded

This rule is sometimes overzealously and incorrectly taught as “load every firearm.” This is not what it means. This rule means that even if you believe the firearm is unloaded, always act as if it is loaded.

Firearms are designed to be loaded with ammunition, just like a car is designed to have gasoline in its tank. Whenever you handle a firearm, you should automatically check to see if it is loaded. It is generally not possible to tell if a weapon is loaded just by looking at it. If you always treat a firearm as if it were loaded, you will always treat it with the respect it demands, which leads right into the second rule:

2. Never Point a Weapon at Anything You Do Not Intend to Shoot

Firearms are tools, and like any tool they have a purpose. A firearm’s purpose is to punch holes in things. You would never use a saw on something you did not want to cut, or hit something with a hammer that you did not wish to break. It is the same with a firearm. If you always treat a firearm as if it were loaded, you will always keep it pointed in a safe direction, so that if it were to negligently discharge, the round would impact on a safe area.

3. Keep Your Weapon’s Safety On until You Are Ready to Fire

If your firearm is equipped with an external safety device, never disengage it until you are ready to cause it to discharge a bullet. There have been many instances where people have disengaged safety devices while their firearm was in the holster and then proceeded to shoot themselves while drawing it from the holster. Do not turn off a safety device until the firearm is actually pointed at the target.

It is also best to think of your gun’s safety switch as a safety enhancement and not the primary safety provider. Never rely on a safety to protect you from careless handling. A mechanical safety could malfunction. If you have ever had a light bulb blow out, a tire go flat, or an appliance break you know that nothing we build is perfect and things do wear out.

4. Keep Your Finger Straight and Off the Trigger until You Intend to Fire

The placing of your finger on the trigger should be the very last action you take before firing your handgun. Your finger should never be on the actual trigger unless you are engaged in the process of sending a round downrange.

Keep your finger off the trigger. Photo by Oleg Volk.

As soon as you are done firing, your finger should be immediately taken off the trigger and laid along the frame of the firearm. This helps ensure that a bullet is not discharged accidentally. Humans have a flinch response that causes them to clench their hands when startled. If your finger were on the trigger while you were walking with a firearm and you tripped, you would instinctively pull the trigger. With your finger outside the trigger guard and alongside the frame of the weapon, this will not happen.

It is also important to know that there are other rules common to firearm usage, and even specific to various shooting disciplines. You may even create your own rules as you see fit. Anything that makes you act more safely with a firearm is acceptable. Nothing will completely reduce accidents; however, these four rules will greatly increase your safety while you are using your firearms.

IGNORANCE/CARELESSNESS

Ignorance and carelessness are the two main causes of handgun accidents. Both can be avoided. Neither have a place around firearms.

Ignorance is a lack of knowledge. No one should operate a firearm without knowing the basic safety rules or how to operate that specific gun. No moral judgment is affixed to the ignorance of a person when it applies to firearms. Firearm usage must be learned. But no matter whom the person is they should not be allowed unsupervised access to a firearm until they have proven themselves knowledgeable in the safe use of the firearm.

Carelessness is when someone knows the safety rules, but fails to follow them. Firearms do not discharge themselves. If everyone followed basic safety rules, handgun accidents would not happen. Carelessness is the cause of most negligent discharges by experienced gun users. Carelessness does not have to happen. No matter how long you have used firearms or how much you know, you must always respect them as the powerful tool that they are.

UNSAFE ACTS ON PUBLIC RANGES

Something that I have noticed when dealing with firearm enthusiasts are how, as a group, they are much more safety conscious than many other groups of people. If you are on a public (or private) range and you inadvertently break a safety rule, someone will probably politely remind you of your breach of protocol. I have never known this to be done impolitely, even though depending on the danger posed to others it may be done with differing levels of firmness or urgency. This correction is done because it only takes a second for a negligent discharge to cause a life altering injury.

Shooters, as a rule, are very polite people. They deal with people in the manner that they want to be treated. So please take any safety advice to heart. On the other side, if you see an unsafe act on a range and calmly and politely call attention to it, fellow shooters will almost always take your warning to heart. It is pretty embarrassing to a shooter to be called out, but any true firearm aficionado will respect the concern, especially if done in a professional manner

It should be remembered that not every person with a firearm is a shooter, just like not every person with a piano is a concert pianist. If you are on a range and see an unsafe act, and for any reason feel like you cannot or should not correct it, then you should just leave the range until the knucklehead is finished (it shouldn’t take long; they tend to shoot a box or two of bullets just as fast as they can, and rarely take the time to pick up their trash).

ACCIDENTS HAPPEN AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM

Without attempting to scare anyone, I must state that nothing will ever eliminate handgun accidents. Recreational firearm usage is one of the safest sports, and following the fundamental rules and using common sense will reduce accidents to negligible levels. However, if you deal with firearms long enough, it is possible that you will be in the vicinity of a negligent discharge.

Do not be shocked if this happens at some point when you are on a firing range. If you are shooting at a range and a negligent discharge occurs, follow these simple steps. Take your finger off the trigger, yell cease-fire, keep your firearm pointed in a safe direction, and ensure you and everyone else are okay. As with all aspects of gun use, control the situation, don’t let it control you.

STORAGE

It is your responsibility to store your firearms where they are not accessible to unauthorized persons. No one who is not properly trained should ever be allowed unsupervised access to a gun. This does not necessarily mean that everyone with access to a gun needs a formal course or supervision from a certified instructor. But it does mean that you are responsible for your guns, and must not allow anyone to have access to your firearms without you ensuring that they understand gun safety.

You can go out to the range with your spouse or your children and show them the safe way to operate your firearm. It is your job to ensure that people using your gun are supervised and they are safe.

Handguns should be stored unloaded and separate from ammunition. In our home we have a gun safe in one room, and in another we store a lockable wooden ammo crate that holds our ammunition. The keys are in separate locations to keep interested parties from opening both at the same time. For the sake of your guns, handguns should be stored in a cool, dry place. This prevents rust or corrosion.

You must be aware that you are responsible for your firearms, even if they are stored. This is both a legal and a moral responsibility. You may be charged criminally if minors gain access to your firearms.

With this in mind, your individual situation will dictate the level of security you invest in your firearm storage. A person living alone does not have the same set of concerns as a person living in a house full of people. When I was fresh out of the Marines and living alone on a large farm, I kept guns all over the house. I may or may not have even had a few duct-taped under tables and in plastic bags in the toilet tank. Of course, now that I have young children who visit my home, I cannot live this way anymore, so I must secure my handguns.

STORAGE DEVICES

Examples of common storage devices.

There are many different firearm storage devices such as:

• Cabinets

• Safes

• Hard cases

• Gun rugs

• Strong boxes

• Trigger Guards

• Cable Locks

• Internal locks within the firearms themselves

SOME COMMON STORAGE DEVICES

These devices are used to deny access to unauthorized individuals. They do not always prevent theft; sometimes they only make theft more difficult. You must also remember that mechanical devices such as trigger locks or cables are subject to failure. They are also not meant to keep a self-defense firearm ready for use and should never be placed on a loaded weapon!

HOME-DEFENSE GUNS

A general rule is that any firearm not in use should be securely stored. However, common sense infers that we never know when and where you may be in a self-defense shooting.

If I had prior knowledge someone was going attempt to kill me I would make darn sure I showed up late to the appointment. If you feel the need of a self-defense firearm, it can always be thought of as “in-use,” because you can never know when an attack might occur. For my personal situation, I have a revolver as well as a 12-gauge shotgun that are considered home-defense firearms. Everything else is unloaded and stored away from its ammunition.

If you choose to keep a loaded home defense firearm, you must ask yourself, “Does the convenience of a loaded gun outweigh the danger of having it around?” If a gun is kept loaded in the home, it is the responsibility of the owner to make it inaccessible to unauthorized individuals. Remember, safety first, and every gun should be treated as if it is loaded. Again, never place a trigger lock or other device on a loaded self-defense gun; it’s unsafe and may cause the firearm to discharge when you try to take it off.

KIDS AND GUNS

As a firearm instructor, you might not believe how many times I hear from people that they would like to own a gun, but their spouse will not allow it because they have kids in the house. On a grand scale, I understand this feeling. However, when emotion is taken out of the discussion and the facts are examined, it’s less reasonable.

Children can be injured by common house current, but does your spouse say that you must live without electricity? Or, do they insist only on having child locks on the electric outlets? More children are injured in motor vehicle accidents than in firearm-related accidents but most parents probably own at least one car.

It’s a parent’s job to keep his or her children safe, and no one wants to bring something into the home that is dangerous to his or her child. However, while I am 100 percent in agreement with anyone that sees the primary duty of a parent to be their own children’s safety, I must disagree with the blanket thought that just having guns in the home makes the home inherently more dangerous to children than a non-firearm household. With proper education, storage, and supervision, firearms are no more dangerous than any other tool.

I am not in the habit of making broad statements on how others should act. Generally, I teach options and tell the reasons for using each of those options. I prefer to let you decide based upon the application of facts to your personal situation. I can tell you how I deal with the issue of guns in my home with children present and, hopefully, give perspective to other parents who question guns in the home.

When I was growing up, my parents were not anti-gun, but they were anti-me having a gun. There were guns in my home. My dad was a law enforcement officer and, as such, always had at least one handgun in the home. My father subscribed to the “old school” policy on kids and guns. Dad told me, “Boy, I’ve got a gun in that closet, and I better never catch you playing with it, or I’ll make you wish you hadn’t.” Well, being the bright child that I was, I figured that meant he just didn’t want to catch me. As long as I put it back exactly as I found it, I could pose in the mirror in my best gunfighter stance whenever I was alone in the house. Luckily, I never fired the pistol into the mirror or myself. I guess the massive gun handling skills I learned from TV and movies kept me from accidentally firing the gun, but I’d bet it was just dumb luck. As I got older, dad did take me out shooting once or twice. We even went hunting once, but I was never allowed to have my own gun so I always had that curiosity. I think my mom still thinks I wouldn’t be so interested in guns if I got to shoot them more as a kid.

I imagine that, even if there were no guns in my home and if my parents forbid me to even mention guns, I would have found someone to let me see one. (It happened just like that with a motorcycle, but since Mom still doesn’t know about that, we won’t get into details . . .)

In my family, we have a smart and independent four-year-old boy who thinks independently and is not afraid to abandon what he has been told if he thinks he has a better way of doing things.

The first step I have taken to keep him safe is to do my best to stop him from being able to access the firearms if he chooses to disregard my gun rules. This is not foolproof. Kids have an uncanny ability to find what they are looking for. I am sure that at some point in my son’s life, he will find the gun safe keys.

A good second step is to teach the NRA’s “Eddie Eagle” gun safety rules. This strategy is to teach the child what to do if they find a gun. The rules are simple and effective. Eddie Eagle says if the child sees a gun, they should:

• Stop

• Don’t touch

• Leave the area

• Tell an adult

These rules are particularly important, as over 50 percent of American households have firearms in them. If a child is visiting a friend’s house, we do not want him/her to try to tell another child not to play with a gun, as that might result in one child pointing the gun at another. We want any child safely away from any unsecured gun and not to act as if he/she is in charge of it.

In my experience, the last thing to do is take away curiosity. I would suggest going to the range and allowing the child to watch others shoot a pistol. I have had the opportunity to sit with another young child and explain about guns and answer questions. This did not work too well because, even with hearing protection, she thought the handguns were too loud. She did not want to be around them. I have supervised her use of a BB gun. I don’t force the situation, but she understands that if she wants to shoot, she can shoot as long as she asks, and another responsible adult or I supervise her in an appropriate location.

I raise my son in the same manner. I find he likes showing me his BB gun more than he likes actually shooting it.

Obviously, I am the resident gun safety preacher in my family. We have several other curious nieces and nephews. We keep the guns in a locked safe and the ammo locked in a separate room. (This does not include our personal carry firearms; they are kept out of reach and locked up separately from the stored firearms.)

After teaching a child firearm safety rules, particularly what to do if he/she encounters a gun outside the home, the last step might be taking away curiosity by exposing the child to firearms and what they can do and allowing the privilege of ownership of a BB rifle which could only be used with appropriate supervision. As my son grows older, I plan on increasing both education and exposure to firearms, but at this point he can only process the basics. Keep in mind that you do not want to create a situation where guns are a taboo or objects of secret experimentation.

As the parent, you are the best judge of what your child is ready for. This is only a guideline for when your child asks about guns for the first time. Children may act out interests and ask questions—this is your cue to address this issue. You have the responsibility to be a positive role model for your child. My own thought is that if I am unsafe in my attitude toward guns, I can be sure my child will take notice.