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Fundamental Gun Handling Videos, Part III: Safe Gun Handling

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JTH:
The problem with this new video/article is that the people who need it either won't watch it, or don't realize that they do it so they'll watch it, nod, and won't change a thing.  :(

But I wrote it anyway, in the hope that it might help.  Or at least make some people think a bit.

Fundamental Gun Handling Videos: Part III, Safe Gun Handling

As the article says, when I first started recording video, I ended up with about 30 minutes worth of stuff, which I chopped and chopped and edited and chopped---and it was still almost 20 minutes long.  There were just SO MANY THINGS that we see all the time at the range, at matches, in gun stores, in discussions with people (when they talk about their gun handling choices and decisions)---so many cases where people completely break not only one, but several of the rules of safe gun handling---without noticing.

Probably the most obvious are people who wander around (and perform actions on their gun) with their finger on the trigger.  But equally as obvious are the people who don't seem to understand that where ever the muzzle is pointing is a potential issue if it isn't a safe direction. 

"But it's EMPTY!"

I don't care.  Don't point it at me.  (And that "It's empty!" refrain, by the way, is something often heard right before someone shoots something or someone they didn't mean to shoot.)  Amazing how many people come up with excuses for unsafe gun handling, as if there is anything that excuses it?

In my video, I didn't even mention things like "it is stupid to not wear eye and ear protection" or "don't point the gun at yourself while holstering" and many other things---because then the video would have been an hour long.

Like everyone knows, I'm a fan of competition shooting---and in this case, the reason is that if you aren't safe with handguns, you get feedback Right Now Immediately Stop That Don't Ever Do It Again.

Which apparently, many people need.

JTH:
I am bitterly amused by the fact that after several days the other two threads in this series had several hundred views and some discussion--and this one has only 35. 

The problem with teaching "safe gun handling" is that almost everyone already thinks they are being safe, and so they don't NEED any help.  And yet....

...go to any indoor range for an hour and you'll be swept by others multiple times.  (Just watch from behind the line.  You'll be terrified, and probably STILL get swept at least once.)  Go to any outdoor range and watch people turn around with guns, handle guns while people are in front of them, have their fingers on the trigger when their guns are pointed in all sorts of directions as they work with the gun...

Keeping the finger off the trigger and having muzzle awareness/control are two things that MOST gun owners need to work on, and yet, everyone thinks their gun handling safety practice is just fine.

And it isn't.

Everyone thinks that this thread is about someone else.  It isn't.  It is about how YOU are handling guns, and the excuses you make to yourself.

(As of yesterday about mid-day, this thread had been viewed less than 20 times.  The post on the blog had been read less than 10.  And less than four people had viewed the actual video.)

abbafandr:
Actually 5.  I had my wife watch it with me. FWIW.
Let's not get started on eye protection >:D

JTH:

--- Quote from: abbafandr on February 06, 2015, 11:18:54 AM ---Actually 5.  I had my wife watch it with me. FWIW.
--- End quote ---

Yay!  :)


--- Quote ---eye protection >:D

--- End quote ---

NO KIDDING.

(That, by the way, is part of a story from last year's IDPA classifier at ENGC wherein a firearms instructor came up to us asking some questions, and when asked to wear eye protection as there was shooting going on, retorted "I'm not on the line!"  He then went to a different bay to "instruct" a student, and we later saw him standing at that student's 2 o'clock position still not wearing eye protection as the student was shooting.  Yes, he was downrange of the student.  Not wearing eye protection.)

I personally like not being blind.

farmerbob:
I viewed the video yesterday, another well done video. :D

I think the key is to make the 4 safety rules a habit by exercising them every time you touch a gun, if someone does something unsafe they may repeat the action thus making a dangerous act a habit leading to disasters results.

Eye protection is very important. A few years ago I was shooting some older 9mm ammo in a old Taurus PT 99 pistol, I had a stove pipe jam which peppered around my safety glasses with something like hot powder, I could have been in very serious trouble if it wasn't for wearing eye protection.

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