Why safety is important to the gun community as a whole…
When you own a gun, you’re not just buying a device of metal and polymer or wood. You become part of a large community. With that comes a great deal of responsibility. Everything you do or say from that point on reflects and affects this community as a whole.
Therein lies the problem. If a mistake is made, you’re going to be judged by a group of often uninformed individuals with the benefit of hindsight (and often an agenda). I commonly refer to them as “armchair analysts”. The bright side is that it happens with far more than just the firearm community. As a pilot, listening to people talk about airplanes any time there is an accident is enough to make me want to pull out what little hair I have left. I actually heard a news “expert” once say something to the effect of “The pilot didn’t file a flight plan because it was a single engine prop plane.” No, the pilot didn’t file a flight plan because he was flying in VFR conditions and wasn’t legally required to file one in any way, shape or form. It has nothing to do with the kind of plane. Don’t get a military member started on the news coverage of their stuff. You’re going to be there listening to a (very justified) rant for a while. If you’ve listened to the news or happened to accidentally stumble into the putrid quagmire of the comments section of a news site whenever there is a story on guns…well…you have to force yourself to laugh otherwise you’ll either start crying or probably die from an anger induced aneurysm.
Fortunately, it’s actually very easy to avoid becoming the focus of those armchair analysts: don’t make a mistake.
“Oh? Is that all it takes? Thanks, Mr. Noob, that sounds easy! Your insight is inspiring to us all! </sarcasm>”
Yeah, yeah. Easier said than done, right? Actually, no. Believe it or not, this is one of those rare situations in life where it’s easier done than said. You see, there are some rules…
You see that button on my menu that says “Safety Commandments”? It’s the very first button next to “Home”. It is the most important button on my site. If someone visits my site and visits no page beyond that one, I call it a win. Those rules…those commandments…are all you need to avoid an accident. There are only six of them. The first four are the same ones you typically find posted at every gun range and plastered over every NRA training guide. I personally added two more based off of issues I’ve seen pop up on news stories and such.
I can say this without any doubt in my mind: if you follow those rules in their entirety every single time you come near a gun, you will never have a problem. From a statistical standpoint, it falls into the “impossible” category. Again, that’s only if you follow every single one of them at all times with no compromise. If you break or skimp on 1 rule, your chance of having an accident goes up significantly. Break 2 and the chances then doubles. If you’re breaking (or even skimping) on 3 rules or more and it becomes a matter of when you have an accident, not if.
Let me give you an example, by the way, of what I mean by “skimping” on a rule. It’s not so much flat out breaking it, it’s taking a shortcut which, frankly, can be just as bad. Say you’re going through your guns. You pick up your Glock 19, check it for empty then set it down. You then pick up your 1911 and check it for empty. Then you have to go to the bathroom. You come back and pick up your Glock again but you don’t check it for empty. Why? Because you checked it a moment ago and you’re the only one in your house. That’s skimping on a rule. Logically, it should be fine, right? Let me ask you this: have you ever walked into a room but forgotten why you went in there? Have you found your car keys elsewhere in the house even though you could swear you set them down on the table by the door? Your memory is never reliable and should never be treated as such. With that in mind, three scenarios are possible:
- The Glock remains unloaded.
- You loaded the Glock back but forgot because you never load it back until you’re done.
- You never checked it in the first place but you swear you did because you always do.
That means there is a 2 out of 3 chance that gun is going to go “bang” when it should go “click”. Now, ego or pride will convince you that the other two results are impossible. If you have truly never misplaced an item or forgotten to do something, you might have an argument there. Personally, I don’t want to bet my life on a 1 in 3 chance. Those may be great odds in Vegas but not in my house.
During my flight training I was taught that every accident is just the final step in a series of events that started the moment I woke up and that chain could have been stopped at any given moment up until that final step. While there are sometimes exceptions to that in the world of airplanes, I’ve yet to see a situation in firearms where that didn’t hold true. Sometimes you have to set aside ego/pride to do so.
Stan Lee (by way of Ben Parker) said it best: With great power comes great responsibility. Your actions will affect us all just as my actions will affect everyone. It may seem like a waste of time to do something like checking your gun every time you pick it up but the alternative is far worse. We’re in this together so let’s try to help each other out. It’s not as hard as you think.
“Stantheman” by Edward Liu – Stan “The Man” Lee. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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