Preparedness on a Shoestring Part 10: Firearms Safety

Firearms are tools, nothing more or less. They are not magic, nor do they have minds of their own. They are inanimate objects that cannot and will not function in any manner unless operated by someone. A loaded gun will lay on a table for 100 years and do nothing so long as it is not handled. Contrary to reports in the media, guns do not “go off”. They are fired. They might be fired accidentally, but it is the work of human hands. It is not the firearm acting of its own accord.

Now to the rules. Make no mistake, these are hard core, cannot be ignored, rules. They are not suggestions. They exist for your safety and that of others around you. You disregard them only at your and other’s peril. Failure to religiously obey all of these rules can, and probably eventually will, result in injury or death to you or a bystander.

Rule 1: Always treat a firearm as if it is loaded. People harm or kill themselves or others every day with guns they mistakenly think are unloaded. When you pick up a weapon, check it to make sure it is completely empty of bullets. Do the same when you lay it down.

Rule 2: Never ever point a gun at anything you are not willing to shoot. If the trigger is pulled, a bullet will exit the barrel and will hit whatever is in front of that barrel at the time of exit. Neither the gun nor the bullet will care what the target is. Be it a paper target or a person, the bullet will hit it and make a hole. There is no undoing that action.

Rule 3: Do not put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to fire. This takes some practice and the movies don’t help. I was guilty of breaking this rule for a while when I started shooting. I got told off by my Father more times than I care to count. He finally broke me of it by shouting at me to startle me. I fired before I was ready to fire. I never did it again. Avoid this mistake from the beginning. It will eventually come as second nature.

Rule 4: Keep firearms secured and unloaded. Young children are curious and don’t know guns aren’t toys. Keep them unloaded, separate from their ammunition, and locked up in a way that children cannot get to them.

Rule 5: Ready defensive arms must be loaded and handy to be of use. This flies in the face of rule #4. In this case, care must be taken to ensure that they are not accessible to children and people who are unfamiliar with their safe handling. In my case, I keep my carry gun loaded and holstered on my person at all times when I am awake. When my niece and nephew come to visit, I put my pistol in a place that is inaccessible to them, though still loaded, when I go to bed. While a defensive weapon must be loaded to be of use, there is no such thing as being too careful when it comes to children and firearms. This is the only exception to the unloaded and secured rule.

Rule 6: If you have guns and children in the house, you must train your children in firearms safety. This training changes with their age, but should progress from “don’t touch” to safe and responsible use. It varies with each child and parent, but in my opinion, a child of 6-8 years old is mature enough to learn to shoot under CLOSE adult supervision. I don’t mean to hand them a machine gun and say, “have at it”. I mean that at that age they should be able to comprehend the basic safety and marksmanship rules. Take them to a safe range and work closely with them to teach them how to shoot. A single shot .22 rifle is an excellent first firearm for a child. It is controllable by them and can only be loaded with 1 bullet at a time. Walk them through the basic safety and marksmanship rules (in that order) with the rifle unloaded first. An empty casing can be used to protect the firing pin from dry firing and will give a realistic demonstration of ejecting the spent shell and checking the firearm for empty. Dad took a shotgun and watermelon to the range with us the first time he took me. When you shoot a watermelon with a shotgun, it leaves a lasting impression in a child’s mind of what kind of damage a gun can do. They think it’s cool until you ask them what would happen if that was a person. Then they get real sober faced and grasp the message.

Rule 7: Only shoot firearms that are in good condition and only use ammunition of the right caliber or gauge. There are a couple of exceptions, but generally a gun is only designed to shoot one caliber or gauge of ammunition. Do not ever, never ever, try to shoot ammunition in a gun other than the ammo that the gun is designed for. All kinds of bad things can happen and most of them involve the gun flying apart like a hand grenade. I have had this very thing happen to me, though I was shooting the proper ammo in the gun. I had the misfortune of owning a gun with a factory defect I did not know about. I was lucky (more like I had God watching out for me), but still have the scar on my hand and can still count where every one of the 28 stitches were that closed the wound. I would rather not have such a thing happen to anyone else.

If a gun ever fails to operate properly, stop using it immediately. If it fails to fire, keep it pointed at the target for 5 minutes before unloading to make sure you will not have a delayed fire. Then keep it pointed down range and unload it. Take it to a licensed gunsmith for repair. Do not try to shoot it again until a gunsmith has checked it out.

Rule 8: Maintain your firearms. Clean your firearms after every shooting session and periodically when they are in storage. Be certain to remove all dust, dirt, rust, gunk, and grime from them. Fully remove lead and powder fouling from the barrel. All metal parts should shine when you are done cleaning them unless they have been specifically treated with a non-shiny coating (Parkerizing or powder coating). Very lightly oil all metal surfaces, bearing surfaces (slide rails), and all moving parts. Wipe them down with a non-shedding cloth after oiling. The goal is a protective coating. Excessive oil can cause a firearm to malfunction during use.

Rule 9: Store firearms separately from their ammunition. Ideally, ammo will be stored in a different room from firearms. At the very least, do not store ammo in a way that you can lay a hand on both at the same time (don’t store ammo in the same box as the gun).

Rule 10: When shooting, be sure of your target and what is beyond it. At all times, take your time and obey all the rules religiously. Be exceedingly careful always and firearms can be a lot of fun.

Be safe and have fun!