Firearm Safety is a Verb

Firearm Safety is a Verb

After shooting from my mid-teen years to the current time, I had developed my own idea of safety rules that I had assumed were good enough.  Even taking the Texas Hunter Safety class in High School did little to further my ideas about how to safely use, transport, and store a firearm.  (As a sidebar I took Hunter Safety in 1979 while I was in high school.  We were encouraged to bring a gun for show and tell.  This class took place IN the high school!  I also recall that many of us had gun racks in our truck’s rear windows, with a shotgun or rifle displayed.  I recall another time once school principal came on the overhead speaker, “Gentlemen, deer season is over, please leave your rifles at home now”.  Oh the good old days.)

I didn’t shoot much as a kid with my Dad, and received little instruction from him while growing up.  In my early 20’s we were out in the country and I was shooting at some cans.  He walked up to watch.  After shooting a couple I brought the rifle’s muzzle up and it nearly reached ninety degrees straight up when he shoved the barrel back down and sternly said “keep your rifle pointed downrange!”  Admittedly I was offended that he would be so bold as to correct me as I had been shooting several years by then, and had done just fine thank you.

Similarly the same thing happened to me at a skeet shoot I was at a couple of years later.  An “old guy” fussed at me because I was not intentionally keeping my muzzle pointed in a safe direction.  Even though we were on the range and I was on my station, he admonished me as I turned to look back and the muzzle started to follow. 

Both my Dad and this gentleman knew what I had not yet learned.  Safety is a VERB.  When handling firearms you have to intentionally and actively be safe.

Another time, just a few years ago, I was taking the qualifying test for my concealed handgun license.  The range officer stopped me and asked me to put my index finger in the register position, (off the trigger and alongside the frame), as we weren’t ready to shoot.  He then later had to tell me to stop pointing my pistol at my feet.  He was actively keeping all of us safe.  It was his primary mission.  He knew that safety is a verb.

A year or so ago I was on a range taking a basic pistol course, and the instructor started us from the very beginning.  Our pistols were in their cases lying on the ground.  He walked up asked me to open the case.  I did and he told me to pick the pistol up.  The pistol was secured in the foam inside the case.  So I did the easiest thing, I reached into the trigger guard with my index finger and started to pull.  “STOP!” he yelled.  I had committed offense number one.  Never lift the weapon by sticking your finger inside the trigger guard next to the “launch button” as he called it.  I knew the pistol was unloaded and safe, but he didn’t.  He was actively practicing safety while teaching good habits.  He knows that safety is a verb.

Just last week my son Walter and I were setting up a fun photo with me and my AR-15.  I had made sure the rifle was unloaded and there was no magazine in it.  He was going to take a photo from near the front of my rifle.  I pulled back the bolt and locked it in the open position.  I then closed the dust cover that disguises the fact that the bolt is locked back.  I wanted a magazine in the well and pulled out an empty one and walked into the room where Walter was setting up the photo.  I said, “the gun is empty and here is an empty mag”, and I let him inspect the magazine.  He looked at me and then at the rifle, “Is the bolt locked back?”  He couldn’t tell since the dust cover was closed.  I was so proud.  HE was actively being safe.  I pointed the muzzle in a safe direction and let the bolt slam forward.  I then pulled back the bolt and locked it into the rear position.  I showed him “clear”, he nodded, and I closed the dust cover and we started taking photos, safely.

Practicing firearm safety is work.  It is a verb and must be done actively.  Every moment you have to purposefully, intentionally, and actively know the condition of your firearm, where it is pointing, where your finger is in relation to the trigger, and how it affects others.  Safety has to be taken to the extreme all of the time, every time.  Like others through the years who have taught me, safety must be taught firmly.  One should not take admonishment personally and we should give it freely.  Safety must be the primary goal!