Theo,
Not trying to bust your balls here, but I want to be very, very clear. If you are checking the gun and then dry firing without a safe direction, you are not following the safety rules all the time. You and Dakota both made it plain that you dry fire without having a safe backstop. That means that both of you have developed a physical habit of not following the four rules. Specifically, every time either of you dry fire without a safe backstop, you violate rules two, three, and four.
You put your finger on the trigger when you have not chosen a target. What is a target? A target is the safest place for a bullet to land in your environment. You have not chosen such a spot, even if you have taped a piece of paper to the wall. That's rule two.
You allow the muzzle to point at things you are not willing to destroy. That would be rule three.
And, of course, there is rule four: safe backstop. In Dakota's case, he points the gun at a wall that he knows damn well will not stop a bullet. In your case, you dry fire inside an apartment surrounded by other people, and you have not made the effort to create a safe backstop inside that apartment.
Checking the gun's status and then proceeding to violate rules two, three, and four, is not "following ALL the safety rules all the time." It is breaking ALL the rules, every time you do it. When you do that, you put your entire faith in your personal ability to be absolutely perfect, and gamble other people's lives on the supposition that you will never, ever, ever make a mistake when you check to see that the gun is unloaded. There are four rules for a reason. That reason is: humans make mistakes. The rules are designed to interlock and overlap, so that nobody gets killed when somebody makes a mistake.
I know both of you are good people, and would never intentionally endanger anyone. Yet that is exactly what both of you are doing. Quibbling about how carefully you check the gun, does not change the reality that both of you are regularly, deliberately breaking the other three rules. You just differ in how carefully you do it.
In my house, I do have a sand bucket. It is disguised as an ordinary, somewhat large, houseplant. The houseplant is set inside a very large decorative basket that hides a 5 gallon bucket of sand. That is where I load and unload my gun when I need to handle it. You can set up similar things with a box full of newspapers or phone books. You can set up a book case full of books, and dry fire at the long and of the bookcase. Most handgun bullets will penetrate only a few inches in paper materials. You can invest in a purpose made product, such as the Safe Direction Academy Pad. There are options, no matter where you live.
pax
Not trying to bust your balls here, but I want to be very, very clear. If you are checking the gun and then dry firing without a safe direction, you are not following the safety rules all the time. You and Dakota both made it plain that you dry fire without having a safe backstop. That means that both of you have developed a physical habit of not following the four rules. Specifically, every time either of you dry fire without a safe backstop, you violate rules two, three, and four.
You put your finger on the trigger when you have not chosen a target. What is a target? A target is the safest place for a bullet to land in your environment. You have not chosen such a spot, even if you have taped a piece of paper to the wall. That's rule two.
You allow the muzzle to point at things you are not willing to destroy. That would be rule three.
And, of course, there is rule four: safe backstop. In Dakota's case, he points the gun at a wall that he knows damn well will not stop a bullet. In your case, you dry fire inside an apartment surrounded by other people, and you have not made the effort to create a safe backstop inside that apartment.
Checking the gun's status and then proceeding to violate rules two, three, and four, is not "following ALL the safety rules all the time." It is breaking ALL the rules, every time you do it. When you do that, you put your entire faith in your personal ability to be absolutely perfect, and gamble other people's lives on the supposition that you will never, ever, ever make a mistake when you check to see that the gun is unloaded. There are four rules for a reason. That reason is: humans make mistakes. The rules are designed to interlock and overlap, so that nobody gets killed when somebody makes a mistake.
I know both of you are good people, and would never intentionally endanger anyone. Yet that is exactly what both of you are doing. Quibbling about how carefully you check the gun, does not change the reality that both of you are regularly, deliberately breaking the other three rules. You just differ in how carefully you do it.
In my house, I do have a sand bucket. It is disguised as an ordinary, somewhat large, houseplant. The houseplant is set inside a very large decorative basket that hides a 5 gallon bucket of sand. That is where I load and unload my gun when I need to handle it. You can set up similar things with a box full of newspapers or phone books. You can set up a book case full of books, and dry fire at the long and of the bookcase. Most handgun bullets will penetrate only a few inches in paper materials. You can invest in a purpose made product, such as the Safe Direction Academy Pad. There are options, no matter where you live.
pax
