Oregon Shooter

How many times have you read or heard the Four Rules of Firearms Safety?
1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger 'till your sights are on the target.
4. Identify your target, and what is behind it.

If you are like me, probably a thousand times. You can recite them from memory. You preach them to new gun owners and those you bring to the range before letting them shoot your guns.

You may struggle with the exact wording as I have, because in reality we KNOW not all guns are loaded, etc., but to keep the matter simple and repeatable, the sentences chosen do the job well don't they? They are solid rules that have stood the test for time for good reason.

So we've all heard them before, but how often do we violate them even with this knowledge in place?

Never you say? Yeah right!

At least one is violated every now and then if you are like me and carry a gun concealed on a daily basis. There is not a method available to my knowledge that will allow you to carry a gun that the muzzle will not "cover" somebody at some point in time, given enough time.

Strong side carry will cause the muzzle to cover your leg at some point during the day. Shoulder carry harnesses point the muzzle at everyone around you. Even an ankle rig will cover someone eventually when you are climbing stairs or on the second story of a building.

Yes, scandalous as it may sound, we violate at least one of these rules on a regular bases. This does not mean we are careless or dangerous really, its just a fact of life with a gun.

The important part to remember is that while a violation of one rule may not result in an negligent discharge of the gun, multiple violations at the same time will most likely result in tragedy.

So how does one get to the point that they can ignore two or more of these basic safety rules? Complacency! It is our nature to forget the threat of a dangerous situation when we are exposed to it over and over again.

You see it in Police Officers car cams all the time. They are making a "routine" stop and things go South because they let their guard down for just an instant.

We drive 2000lb+ vehicles at very fast speeds all the time, but it only takes a bit of complacency or distraction to cause great damage with a car.

Reminders:

I have worked as an Industrial Electrician since 1990 with voltages up to 120,000VAC (Volts Alternating Current) and while there is nothing to fear about working with such with proper training and knowledge of the risks, I have seen many co-workers shocked by the more common voltages of 120VAC and 480VAC in that same time period.

When you are working on an outlet in your house there is a good chance that you will survive a mistake. When you are dealing with 120,000VAC there is little chance you will survive.

I was fortunate to have a mishap early in my career as an Apprentice. It was a deadly mistake that had it not been for proper procedure would have killed me.

I was asked to put a set of 200AMP fuses (6" dia x 18" long) back into a 4160VAC controller that was (unknown to me) still energized. Because procedure was to use a grounding stick to bleed off any residual voltage, I'm alive today to tell you about it. When I touched the grounding stick to the fuse holder, I was immediately engulfed in a fire ball 5ft in diameter. I was lucky in that only the hair on the back of my neck was singed.

Here's the point though... I almost did not use the stick because it required me to dig up a buried grounding wire to connect to and I almost said "eh, its not energized" and just pushed the fuses in by hand. PROCEDURE SAVED MY LIFE!

That's how we protect ourselves from ourselves, proper procedures! By occasionally counting the cost. By taking a second to remember the danger that is lurking whenever dangerous items like cars, guns, explosives, electricity, etc. are being used.

Procedure allows us to handle dangerous tasks repetitively even to the point of boredom in a safe manor. Procedures that DO NOT ASSUME are the safeguards that we need to keep in place at all times.

One more example and I'll wrap this up.

My co-worker recently shot himself in the leg with A Glock G21 chambered in .45ACP. He has been around guns all his life, is an avid hunter, and a safe Electrician.

He did not have proper procedures in place for clearing his gun though and paid the price.

The x-ray on the left is what a 230gr hardball will do to your Tibia at close range. The one on the right is what will set metal detectors off at airports for the rest of his life. Being able to say "I have a Titanium rod in my leg" is not as cool as you might think.

So what happened?

Well, he had cleaned the gun the week before and noticed that the recoil guide rod (plastic) was chipped on the end and that the recoil spring was no longer captured. See this illustration if you don't know what this is.

He decided he was going to order one online and was not sure which one he needed so he went and got the gun from his closet, began to field strip it while still paying attention to the computer screen and BANG!

His Poor Procedure:
1. Open slide & check that chamber is empty.
2. Drop slide and fire to allow slide removal
3. BANG!

He missed that his mag was still in the gun and that he chambered a round when he dropped the slide. He also broke rule #2 & #4 when he had the gun pointed at his leg when he dropped the hammer (ok, striker) to field strip the gun.

Proper Procedure:
1. Remove Mag.
2. Lock slide open
3. Inspect visually and using your finger, touch inside the mag well & chamber
4. Drop slide & hammer down in a SAFE direction

Some people think that inserting a finger into a mag well you just emptied is overkill but it allows our brains to catch up to our actions when we are on autopilot, which is when most accidents happen.

It would have saved him the pain and agony that came afterwards and it might save you too if you use proper procedures, an here is the key... AT ALL TIMES!

-Stay Safe