I remember the first time someone asked me what the rules for firearm safety were.
The truth is that I had never been explicitly taught them. But I figured out at least two of them right away.
I told the guy (at what had to be less than 11 yrs old mind you) “ummm, don’t point it at anybody and don’t touch the trigger”.
I knew that just by the fun plinking and camping trips that I had been on with my family as a young boy.
But it’s important to not only KNOW, but make an absolute COMMITMENT to making the official firearm rules LIFESTYLE rules that you never violate.
Otherwise you could seriously injure yourself or someone else. In today’s video, you’re going to see how this goes wrong.
THIS Is Why Firearms Safety Rules Exist (WARNING: Graphic content)
What rules did this man violate?
He pointed the gun at his hand and he had his finger on the trigger.
Let’s quickly review the 4 fundamental firearm safety rules:
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 until your sights are on the target.
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.
For sure, this man violated rule #2 and #3.
If you commit these four firearm safety rules to memory, it’s almost impossible to hurt yourself or someone else when handling a firearm.
The Two GOLDEN Rules of Firearms Safety
To quote the great Tom Givens, “Those four rules are basically it. They cover just about everything we can do with a firearm.
If it’s a gun it’s loaded unless you personally have cleared it and it is still in your control. Keep up with where the gun is pointed at all times. If you no longer need it out, put it in the holster. Keep your finger in register well away from the trigger until you bring the gun to bear on a target. Know what you’re shooting at, what’s around it, and what’s behind. Now, can we make this even simpler? Actually we could. There are two safety checks that all by themselves will prevent most problems.
These two are:
1. Muzzle Discipline
2. Trigger Finger Discipline.
Muzzle discipline: the firearm should always be pointed in the safest direction. That is, even if the weapon fired there would be no personal injury to anyone and only minimal property damage.
Trigger finger discipline: the modern handgun generally will not fire unless the trigger is depressed. Keeping your finger in register at all times when you are not actually firing will prevent almost all negligent discharges. If these two safety checks are in place, no one will be inadvertently shot.
Make The Firearm Safety Rules a Part of Your Lifestyle
Every time you touch a gun. Every time you show someone a gun. Every time you talk about guns with kids or friends. Keep these rules in mind.
Everyone should learn them. Everyone should know them. Everyone should follow them, all the time.
As a NRA Certified Range Safety Officer for my local range, I agree 1000% with all above and would add one more thing…. ALWAYS PAY ATTENTION – that is, to what you are doing and also to your surroundings.
I’m very sorry, but I’m not sure these rules would help. I follow these rules, I teach them to my children. But the guy in the video can’t seem to figure out why his obviously loaded weapon will not fire. Instead of dropping a magazine or checking the breech, he purposely stuck his hand in front of the muzzle and pulled the trigger to determine if anything was coming out. I’m shocked he didn’t look in the muzzle when he pulled the trigger to watch the bullet move.
These are very important rules. I’m printing a copy to have on hand for the family. The video above? Some people can not be taught.
Ouch !! bet he wont do that again he should have unloaded the gun first.
omg, such an easy thing that could have been avoided.
In all my years being around firearms… and having been a certified pistol instructor for 12+ years.. I am astounded that the person BEHIND this poor fool.. who LOOKED like an instructor or range officer- DIDN’T say, “DUDE..WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?..Do you WANT to blow your own hand off!?? I have only seen a couple of things approaching this level of sheer stupidity in my life- and those involved ‘inexperienced fools’ walking over to me while I was taking someone through a class outdoors- ‘showing off’ because they had a BIG-BAD RUGER 44mag revolver ( which while saying, ‘hey…what are you guys shootin?’ ) while waving the magnum around WITH their finger on the trigger! Both times, I quickly pointed to my ‘INSTRUCTOR PATCH’ on my hat and said, “If you point that thing at us one more time- I’ll take it away and shove it up your arse!
Enough said…
P>S> I meant a certified Instructor for 27 years.
You never put your hand or any part of your body in front of the weapon, you never point the weapon at anything that you are not going to shot, you always secure you’re surrounding areas of where you are shooting, never let a child hold your weapon. Teach your children gun safety at a young age so that they know not to hurt themselves or anyone else. And always assume that the weapon is loaded! When working on the weapon always unload the ammo, make sure that the chamber is empty! Never look down the barrel of the weapon! There’s cleaning tools to make sure that the barrel is clear of debris. Always keep your firearms away from children! Lock all your weapons up. Never think that the weapon is safe to handle until you know what you are doing and even then you have to be careful not to accidentally discharge the weapon keep the safety on and the chamber empty. I really can’t say enough about being safe while handling a fire arm!
As Ron White said “you can’t fix stupid”. That says it all.
My question is “What was that Range Officer thinking while he was watching this guy shoot himself in the hand?”
Huh… That little clip there is proof there are people out there that maybe shouldn’t own a gun. I know, I know, it’s in the second amendment that they have a right to one…BUT….that idiot is going to hurt someone else, maybe even kill someone. Then what’s the excuse? Everyone that isn’t a felon has the same rights…to own a gun, vote. Oops, there we go again. Proof not all people are smart enough for either … OBAMA … Clinton
Man, I bet that hurt! It’s really hard to have much sympathy for people like that. I’ve seen his counterparts at the range from time to time, and they scare the devil out of me. A word to the range master usually solves the problem. Unfortunately, he becomes one of the gun shot victim statistics that the anti-gun crowd uses against us, just like the twenty-something gang-bangers that they include in their “children gunshot victims”
The fool is lucky he didn’t point it to his ear to see if he could hear the laser go on. I watch “Air Disasters” and one program revealed an entire flight crew, distracted by a non-functioning indicator light, pile up an entire passenger aircraft. I’ve forgotten the syndrome it’s called, it was something like, attention distraction syndrome, they all focused on and took turns tapping the bulb to see if it would go on while forgetting their function of flying the plane and it killed a bunch of people for a burned out dash lamp. There’s another unwritten gun rule…do not attempt to repair ANYTHING on loaded firearms!
Actually , he broke all four! Two very obviously, two others were a little more subjective.
That video made me cringe the first time he put his hand in front of the barrel.
Wow, stupid struck again…..
Both of these guys DESPARETLEY need safety training! Did the range person hand him a loaded gun? Obviously . Why ? He obviously didn’t know this guy was a firearms nimrod and should have ASSUMED that he was!!
Reminds me of an officer in my unit telling us how he shot himself in the foot when drawing his issue sidearm (1911) and then admitted that he shot himself in the foot again showing how he did it the first time !!
“ya can’t fix stupid”
kinda flunked that IQ test score: -0
I wonder if he was trying to determine if laser was working?
WHATEVER, still STUPID!
Idiot is the best I can render for that person. He broke at least 2 gun handling rules. No finger on trigger, and do not cover the barrel with any part of your body, or some one else’s. He should have unloaded the weapon first, as we all know. I have to wonder why the guy with him did not stop him. The cause of the LASER failure, probably a dead, or weak battery, or some other circuit failure. Unload it first, then check it out. Very painful way to learn serious weapon handling rules.
he was tryin to see if/why his laser was workin or not. regardless if it was or it wasn’t, his pistol sure was!
heeeeerrrreee’sss your sign!
I have just one question for this guy AND the what appears to be an instructor standing next to him…..What the HELL is wrong with you?
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