Don’t Be the One Who Says: ‘That Won’t Happen to Me’

Our normal day-to-day lives are risk-filled adventures that sometimes get out of hand. While we live in a society that provides us protection from much that can harm us, we crafty humans find ways around the protections all the time. Let’s talk about a few examples and what could or should have been done that would have prevented the event.

I was cleaning my gun and it just went off! This is one of the most frequently occurring negligent discharges that often results in serious injuries or even death. As folks become more familiar with their firearms, there seems to be a natural tendency to relax compliance with the Four Fundamental Safety Rules. They are:

1. Treat every gun as if it’s loaded.
2. Never point the muzzle at something you’re not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off of the trigger until ready to shoot.
4. Know your target AND what’s beyond it.

The first step in cleaning a gun should always be to verify that it is unloaded. Too many times, that first step is skipped because gun owners may think, “I know I unloaded it earlier.” We recommend that you unload and verify your gun is unloaded in a different room and leave the ammunition there. This assures you that you, and those around you, will be safe while you’re cleaning. It’s important to realize that a negligent discharge is a threat not just to yourself and those in the immediate vicinity but also those quite a distance away. Modern handgun ammunition can easily penetrate multiple interior walls and common rifle ammunition can travel in excess of three miles at optimum trajectory.

Speaking of checking to make sure a firearm is unloaded, we have experienced situations where customers brought their firearm in for maintenance and state, “Don’t worry, it’s unloaded.” Sometimes customers return a rental firearm that should be unloaded and it isn’t. We ALWAYS personally check every firearm we touch to verify it’s unloaded. That includes those on display that we “know” should not be loaded. It’s especially impressive to us when, after we check it and hand it to a customer, that they, too, personally check it.

Many of us “learned” how to shoot under the direction of a friend or relative in the local forest. While that can be a very rewarding and bonding experience, emphasis on the four safety rules is often neglected. Make sure that anyone teaching you follows those rules and that you yourself know how to check that the firearm is unloaded. You should never trust that someone else has verified if a gun is loaded or not, do it yourself, every time.

Failing to follow those four simple rules results in events we always thought could never happen to us. Don’t be that person! FBN

By Rob Wilson

Rob Wilson is the owner, with his wife, Elise, of  Timberline Firearms & Training in Flagstaff. They offer a full line of firearms, accessories, safes and ammunition along with Liberty Safes. For more information, visit timberlinefirearms.us.