http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyfu1Afkw7o#t=69
I teach a lot of newbies how to shoot a gun. So should you. Taking a noob to the gun range is the best – if not the only – way to “convert” an anti. Once they get to grips, literally, with the idea that guns aren’t inherently dangerous, they can begin to understand why their fellow Americans cherish their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Of course, gun are dangerous. What would be the point if they weren’t? And they’re most dangerous in the hands of a newbie. To defend yourself against getting shot by an anti – the most ironic fate I can imagine – you need to avoid confusing them. And I’m here to say four safety rules is three too many . . .
In the video above, Hipster Chick (HC) struggles to remember the four gun safety rules she supposedly learned the previous week. “The gun is always loaded,” she begins. She remembers the importance of trigger finger discipline. And . . . that’s it. fxhummel1 prompts the next one: “always be sure of your target and what’s behind it.” The other woman in the vid provides the fourth: “Don’t let your muzzle cross anything you’re not willing to destroy.”
Oh dear.
First of all, people best remember things in threes (e.g., in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost). Second, people best remember things that are easy to remember (i.e., phrases using rhymes or short words or phrases with clear meanings). Hence HC’s ability remember “the gun is always loaded.” Hence her inability to remember only two of the four safety rules, and “don’t let your muzzle cross anything you’re not willing to destroy.”
Which is THE gun safety rule. If your newbie obeys this rule you will not be shot. Nor, it should be said, will anyone else. OK, the gun novice needs to know that a safe-seeming direction may not be safe (“always know your target and what’s beyond it”). But they’re not out plinking in the woods by their lonesome. They’re with you at a gun range or safe shooting area.
I can’t stress this enough. The ONLY rule that a newbie really, truly, deeply and completely needs to know for their initial training is the muzzle crossing thing. Yes but – using the words “muzzles” and “destruction” ain’t gonna cut it with someone who barely knows what a gun’s “muzzle” is and thinks of “shooting” things rather than “destroying” them. And doesn’t want to “destroy” anything. (Yet.)
You need to tell them “always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.”
Before I take a new shooter to the range, I lay it out: “There’s one rule you need to know to be safe with a gun. Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction. Do not aim it at yourself, me or anyone else. If you point the gun in a safe direction, nothing bad can happen. Do you understand?” I make sure they do.
I repeat the rule before I get the gun out. When I do: “This gun is pointed in a safe direction: downrange. You must keep this gun pointed in a safe direction at all times. No matter what. Do you understand?” THEN I tell them to keep their finger off the go-pedal “until I tell you to put your finger on the trigger.”
I ask the newb to repeat the One Safety Rule to Rule Them All before they hold the gun. I put the firearm in their hand facing downrange (obvs.) “Keep your finger off the trigger until I tell you. Is the gun pointed in a safe direction? Will you keep the gun pointed in a safe direction? No matter what?”
And then I begin the lesson, including fxhummel1’s most excellent instruction on an aggressive, recoil-taming stance. Assuming the novice shooter observes muzzle discipline, I stress trigger discipline. If the student violates muzzle discipline at any point, I jump in (sometimes literally) and correct them, taking a break from training to do so.
If you and your student leave their first range session with the same number of holes you came in with, the instruction was a success. If they’ve learned the importance of muzzle discipline they will know enough gun safety not to do something stupid and they’ll know that shooting a gun can be safe. Which is an enormous first step towards acquiring an appreciation of firearms freedom.
Also a very good discussion on a couple videos, including Attorney Chuck Michel on NRANews.
http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=893875
Successful self-defense is 90% mental and 50% skill.
And 2% butterscotch ripple.
Can we report the LAPD/Torrance cops, or do those who present a “clear and present danger” have to reside in Illinois?
I have a pair of 12’s, often carried together. Might be thee finest defensive revolver ever. Reliability is almost a moot point with a quality, duty-size auto. Less so with the more compact pistols becoming all the rage. Thus, 6 hot .38s is relatively equal to 7 hot 9s in a Kahr, Shield, Nano, etc. In IWB carry, I can access the revolver faster. It points more instinctively than all BUT a 1911A1 in my hands. I can carry two or 3 loaders, stacked, in the same space as a single-column staggered stick mag. They take but about ONE-second longer than the mag reload, albeit having to do more of them, LOL. I could go on, but you get the point…….
I’ll pour one out for the loss of Dirk’s comments…
At a minimum you need to teach 2: Safe direction & finger off trigger. People are so used to wrapping their hand around an object they’re holding, they need to understand to fight against that learned behavior when holding a gun.
I agree that the other 2 rules are critical to gun owners, but less so for newbies you’re taking to the range.
Nice article, and you address an important topic. I’ve been through this several times, and begin with the four rules as is common. Personally, I’ve found that people get the “keep it pointed in a safe direction” rule intuitively. May just be the newbies I’ve taken to the range. But when each one picked up a gun for the first time, the finger went straight to the trigger. At which time I called a stop, and harped on that, with constant attention to that when on the range.
I was watching world war Z with my younger daughter and her friend [who I introduced to shooting. Bonus: the friend’s mom went one day, too, and is now taking the NRA basic pistol and personal protection course]. Remember the scene in which the virologist fell while getting off the plane and shot himself dead? Both the girls said, “keep your booger hook off the bang switch, fool!” Gratification. Much gratification.
Edit: see similar thoughts have popped up while I was writing that.
So lets all send them a note to let them know what we think of their lawsuit. Action speaks louder than posts here on TTAG
http://www.tacticalrifles.net/index.php?main_page=contact_us
I just purchased one used in 9mm. I haven’t fired it yet, and I’m concerned of it firing both barrels at once.
So who’s going to drop the dime on Rahm Emmanuel?
If I can only have one rule it would be All guns are always loaded. I have been shooting, transporting and cleaning guns for 55 years and have seen more than one accidental discharge from assuming a gun is unloaded. If someone checks a gun and hands it to me I recheck it. When I clean a gun I still treat it as if loaded even when it is broken down.
From 1/20/14 The Dallas Morning News.
Steve Fromholz was killed last month in a hunting accident. “Ariste says Fromholz, who lives in the area, and his girlfriend were going to hunt feral hogs. A rifle was in a case but unzipped at the bottom. The gun was being transferred from one vehicle to another.
Ariste says Fromholz grabbed the handle, the gun partly fell, hit the ground and discharged.
never mind…meant to be in mainline
The gun is full.
No trigger pull.
Your target: mind it
And what’s behind it.
Haiku-per
Gun always loaded
Point safe; finger off trigger
Target and beyond
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPKmkv4K8mU
I get what Robert is pointing out and want to echo a couple others-
The simpler and more “positive” Ie DO THIS, as opposed to DONT DO THIS, the better.
Three things seem to be about as much as most people can remember,
is what you hear in USN training, in corporate sales, and it seems to be true at the range-
Muzzle SAFE
Trigger SAFE
Background SAFE
So my way of remembering #1 is thats always how it is-
its an existential view of all guns, not somnething I have to remind myself of, situationally-
but how “they always are loaded”
handing at the gun show, at counter of LGS, taking out of home safe, putting in the car, taking out of the case, at the range, in between while on the lane counter, taking home, cleaning at the kitchen table…etc.
Any and all guns, paintball, bb, handgun, shotgun, etc. THEY ARE ALWAYS LOADED.
As far as verbal recall, I wouldn’t trust some adult to read aloud See Spot Run who was unable to remember the 4 rules. My 7 yr old cousin memorized them after being told once. It isn’t that hard. So my conclusion must be either incredible stupidity, or incredible not caring. Either one, I don’t want to be around.
As far as physically keeping the discipline, in traditional booth style, or bench shooting, easy enough to always point guns downrange. But I find you have to tell them down range, and explain that doesn’t mean at the ground, or up high, but forward.
In any other shooting enviroment, I find people, even though they know the rules, easily muzzle sweep people. Learning to rack a slide, etc. But trigger discipline is easy enough to practice and even get to the point of doing it by second nature.
It is really the first rule in general (treat every gun as if it is loaded) that, since it implies an attitude not an action, I find least relevant for a newbie…more relevant when, e.g., going to clean a gun and remembering to clear it safely.
And at the range, knowing what is beyond one’s target, while still a good idea, is largely irrelevant. But hunting? I almost would say that is the first rule while hunting
Mexicans show los Americanos the way. We should be ashamed of ourselves. They will have another revolucion before we have our second.
With your time split among…. Not between. Between is two. Grammar Nazi.
What America needs now more than ever is ….more Americans as defined above.
Great post and thanks for sharing.
Well done, OneIfByLand. And thanks for the trip down the memory lane of New York State politics. I remember the Credo, especially “I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole.”
Reading it still makes me shake my head, because it conflicts so strongly with the ethos of the Liberal Party of New York and meshes so closely with the policy statement of what became the Conservative Party of New York.
OneIfByLand, thank you for sharing your family’s story. Glad to have you be a part of our community!
I love lamp.
All 30-year old technology. If they tell us about it, they had it 25-30 years ago.
Look up the secret history of the SR-71 Blackbird. They were flying contemporaneously with the U-2 for years.
Andrea Mitchell: The most unbiased journalist at NBC–evah.
/s
Blues Brothers is one of the all time great movies. Good to see it referenced in a gun blog.
Anyone else notice that their website is copyrighted in 2023?
Okay, I’ll bite. If the people that love smart guns are willing to stand behind them with their lives I’d take a look at them. So this is what I’ll need. You, the lovers and pushers of smart guns, flood a prison with them, complete with smart ammo and whatever else you think will stop criminals. Then you – without any sort of smart gun, protection or whatever else, live in said prison for a month. If you are alive and can still sit without leaning after 30 days – I’ll consider smart guns. Until then.. um, no. Never.
I was talking with someone about the current state of The American Dream, that if you come to the US and are willing to work, then you should receive your due riches for your work. This was on a backdrop of immigrants coming to Florida to pick oranges on an episode of Inside Man, a CNN documentary series.
The point of the show I got is that there are hard working immigrants working many hours a day picking oranges and getting paid $ per pound, and how little government help there is to such a hard worker. It got me thinking, “What about ‘work smarter, not harder’ ?” where we encouraged each other to do a job smarter. Why can’t the immigrant guy doing honest work come up with a machine or method to pick more oranges and do it with less manual labor.
If you want to know where the American Dream is at, it’s not too far from “Work Smarter, Not Harder”. I think left-leaning media happily skips that “Work Smarter…” message in their coverage of those who work, and just zips right to “What can the government do to help people in need”. To them, working harder is all that we should expect from people, because working smarter is launching into a class struggle.
It got me thinking, “What about ‘work smarter, not harder’ ?” where we encouraged each other to do a job smarter. Why can’t the immigrant guy doing honest work come up with a machine or method to pick more oranges and do it with less manual labor.
Read “Centennial” by James A. Michener for a “historical” commentary of migrant ag workers (in Colorado).
Farago, I forgot to mention: “Gu control advocates”?
I combine two rules into one before I let them touch the gun. I stress the same rule as Robert and another one by saying “Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction, no matter if you think it is loaded or unloaded”. There I just got two for one. Next I teach them how to pick up the gun and demonstrate first by showing them how to grip the gun and pick it up off the table or from the holster with my finger on the slide or frame. Then I say keep your finger there until you are on target and ready to shoot and have them shoot. When they are read to holster or put gun back on the table I instruct them to put their finger back along the frame first. Now have I have covered three rules and not had them memorize anything. Instead they have learned that this is just how you handle a gun. Finally after they have been shooting a bit or at the end of the session I just point out that they have been aiming at the target and what was behind it. You should never aim at something that you don’t know what it is or what is behind it. I usually give an example of turkey hunters shooting into a bush at the sound of a turkey and killing a hunter. That has happened around here and gets the point across.
I am demonstrating the four rules and teaching them as we go instead of having them memorize something and trying to follow it. After it is all over I can review the four rules and how they applied and how the person followed them during the shooting session. This has worked much better for me than covering it all up front.
If you have someone who is really nervous about handling a gun you can have them pick up the gun pretend to shoot and put the gun back down with a blue gun first. You can then go to a gun with snap caps next and finally live fire to ease them into it.
Incremental steps are always better than just dumping everything on someone at once. This goes for the four rules and the mechanics of shooting.
The snarky and irreverent tone of the letter insures that if it is read, which it likely won’t be, it will be taken lightly. To an adult, it sounds like the smart a$$ sounding off from the back row of 8th grade detention. I don’t want that letter or Mr. Reed representing my interests in that manner.
So, I’m only a terrorist if I have a 15 round mag? Or a gangbanger? Intent, desire, plans, none of that matters, just a 15 round mag?
Stick with bible thumping, dude.
I can definitely see where this would be useful if you’re having trouble with a particular presentation. But I can also see where it might become a problem if you start getting too focused on watching the wad and less focused on keeping your swing smooth.
I have a Hi-Point 9mm carbine. The gun is seriously fun to shoot. A pain to clean and it rusts like non-other, but a blast to shoot.
Sigh
Look at the evolution of 2D printers. I can remember using one in the 70’s that gave a barely legible copy of a document and a very fuzzy copy of a B&W photo.
Now you can get razor crisp color printouts for less than $100.
There was an outcry against color printers because they made counterfeiting money too easy, while that problem was solved by changing how money was printed, I don’t think the same solution will work with 3D gun parts.