I pulled myself off of the range today

One of my friends once told me "No one is safer with a gun than I am. Not even a cop." Two years later, he shot himself in the foot at MCRD San Diego. Safe? He was in the barrics!

I tend to get annoying to the people I go shooting with because of my safety habits. Simple as this: Gun is in the closet. Pick up gun, remove clip, check clip, place empty clip in shooting bag. Pull slide, check chamber, release slide. Place in shooting bag. Grab ammo, go to car, drive to range. Open shooting bag, pick up gun, check chamber, place in holster, grab ammo and clips, go to table. Load clips, check chamber, lock slide open, insert clip. Shoot to heart's content, then reverse order.

My friends tend to get mad at me because I "Check [my] gun too darn much!" Picked up a friend's gun one time, asked, "Is it loaded?" "No." Pointed down range, pulled trigger, shot fired, shell ejected. So I'm careful. Anyone who can't understand that shouldn't be shooting with me. And now most don't. *shrugs* Traded safety for friends?
 
To add to chiram's post, when ever handgun is out of my hand, mag is removed, slide is all the way back, chamber checked, gun pointed down range, on case, no extra targets, ammo, or jackets on the side of case, with revolvers, cylinder is swung out, and pointed down range. Learned this from a frined's dad a long time ago, always point a loaded gun in a "safe" direction, every gun is to be considered loaded even if you have just checked it.
 
just another .02 chime in
all guns are loaded all the time
every time I pick up a firearm
I check the chamber
this was drilled into all of us
during my naval service
check the chamber and the mag well
visually and manually. (little finger of
left hand through ejection port into
chamber and fingers up into magwell)
 
Checking for safety is just plain common sense. If you are not 100% sure, check. It takes a second and no one really complains (at least in my experience, many appreciate it). The interval or when a person should check is up to the person holding the gun. I am sure many here have seen many things we would not comfortable with at the range and some of us speak up, and some of us roll our eyes and say to ourselves...NEWBIE.

There is a point where the safety issue become a neurotic issue rather than plain out common sense. It is like drinking and driving. If you drink, don't drive. It's just common sense. If you drink, then drive and then sit there and worry about it, then you got other issues to deal with.

When my wife and I come home from the range, we clean our guns. All the guns to be cleaned are checked and cleared then taken to the "cleaning table" where we sit across from each other and clean our guns. We both know that none of the guns are loaded, and we leave all the ammo in our range bag. During this time, I am not overly freaked out about an AD. All the guns are either broken down and/or open with solvent all over them. Many time muzzle are pointed at me and many times muzzle are pointed at my wife. It's not intentional muzzle sweeping, we are just cleaning. As I have stated, the ammo is in another room, in the bag, and all guns that are to be cleaned are cleared. This is the only time, I don't have a problem w/ a muzzle sweeping me. Once all the cleaning is done and everything is packed up and the guns leave the "cleaning table", we go back to condition RED and all safety rules apply. Other people do things their way. I may not like it, but then they might not like the way I do things.
 
Ninjato, I believe you are comparing apples to oranges, at a range, where somebody else has handled your weapon, and it has been out of your control, bad things can happen. I am not familiar with the handgun, but I assume the slide or release could have hit something on the table, and been placed into battery, and while reaching for something else, he could have hit the trigger, improbable yes, impossible maybe not.

You seem to think only "eastern martial arts", are legitimate, you chastised me for messing around, during a training session, for not concentrating perhaps, I don't know. Boxing, wrestling, and small arms are legit martial arts, in my opinion, martial arts, aren't a religion to me or a lifestyle, they are forms of combat, all deserve concentration, and focus. This guy seems to have lost focus, and left. He might consider his small arms skills as important as you consider some of your skill sets. So your analogy of being swept, by somebody you trust is not quite the same. If you do not care about cleaning weapons across from each other that is fine, I wouldn't clean a weapon like that. The fact of who unloaded what weapon, and when more than 1 person is involved, the chance of an AD increases.
 
We've all had moments like this,

that's why we follow basic gun safety. I have a lot of guns, and I keep some of them loaded. Therefore, I assume that all of them are loaded all of the time.

As for the other rules, they only work if you follow them all the time. This problem was carelessness (something we've all done, so I'm not giving anyone a hard time), is that all the gun rules in the world won't prevent carelessness, and as humans, we are going to be careless from time-to-time.

My attempt at preventing my carelessness from causing an accident is to be absolutely consistent in what I do. In my house, certain guns stay loaded for HD and other guns are NEVER loaded. While I treat them all as if they're loaded, I never get into a "did I unload the SKS or not" thing. It's always unloaded when I'm not shooting it.

As for the range, I try to follow the same routine. All guns pointed downrange, all the time. no loaded gun unless it's in my hand and ready to fire etc. . . it has become like second nature.

I'm not perfect and I have certainly been careless with my guns, but following basic gun safety rules and staying consistent with what I do helps mitigate my imperfection.
 
In response to the post that started the thread.

Anytime that something unsafe happens, it is good to stop for a moment and look at the situation, considering all of the events. It may or may not require leaving the range, but you do what is right for you. If you felt it neccessary, then I commend you for your safety conciousness.
For me, it would definitely require a moment to calm and collect myself, and maybe go back over the rules of safe firearms handling (kept in my guncase with other paperwork involving my firearms). We all need refreshers from time to time.
As long as you learn from it and do your damnedest not to do it again, it will be okay. :)

BTW, I would only be scared if you were NOT concerned about it.
 
Thorzaine.......whilest the clerk was probably being overly anal about you pointing a stripped lower (if I correctly read your post) and pulling the trigger, then yea, he was being kinda..........that said.......I woulda hollared at you for a different reason. Dropping the hammer when the slide isn't present is likely to crack the frame on the lower, as its most likely made of aluminum....

That said, I do not have kids, and I have my gun for protection in my nightstand, tis always loaded unless being transported to the range.
 
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In a semi-local pawn shop

In a pawn shop near my town, in another military town of Jacksonville, NC, I was looking at their collection of pistols. The guy behind the counter set up all of the guns, EVERY one pointing right at me. I almost had a cow. I had to quickly step out of the way to look at them. When I puth them back, I turned them away from me. I think my buddy flagged himself, though, I pointed it out to him and he said that they weren't loaded. I do not like to get into arguments with him, because he never listens to me, I could be 100% right and he 100%wrong, as was the case with our discussion of caliber vs. mm but he still wouldn't listen. but I believe that if you don't give a weapon respect when it isn't loaded (and you know it) that is the first compromise, with every compromise leads to more and more compromise, and next thing you are flagging EVERYONE with a known loaded weapon.

USMC range safety rules:
treat every weapon as if it were loaded.
do not point the weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot.
keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you are ready to fire.
keep the weapon on safe until you intend to fire.

If you do all 4, nothing un-intentional will get shot.

it wasn's supposed to be this long.
 
you want to talk about 'lack of range safety'? ohhh man. this kid i took to the range, was putting my walther p22 back in the box so we could head to the pistol range (was on the .22lr range at the time), and this fly was buzzing his head so he starts swatting at it, with the p22 still in his hand!

i was speechless. and he caught himself, "hey, i'm holding a pistol in my hand waving it around, arent i?" i'm like 'uhhh, yeah, you wanna stop?'

oh and this other time, another shooter tried running downrange while it was still hot. a few minutes later, he tried picking up a pistol to load up while the range was cold.
 
Mjrw

Well, that was one way to handle the situation. Personally, I believe in ending a training session on a positive note. A mental lapse like that could have been corrected and perhaps you could have left the range feeling a little less down. If we aren't talking about a single mental lapse, and we just aren't with it that day, then I would agree that leaving the range would be a good idea.

Years ago outside of Las Vegas west of town on Red Rock Rd., it was common to drive out, park and go shooting in the Desert. Well, one day a fellow drove up with his wife and tried to coax her into shooting his '06. She didn't want to, but at last relented and decided to give it a try. I was standing behind the "firing line" on her right, and her husband was behind her. She aimed the rifle to shoot, but suddenly lowered the rifle, and with the safety off and her finger still on the trigger, turned clear around (to her right) to address her husband and said, "I can't." I'll never forget that '06 pointed right at me. Neither one of them had a clue. I was much younger in the mid 60's, and said nothing. One of the closest calls I ever had--- and I'd just returned from Viet Nam having served with the 1st Inf. Div.
 
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