With so many safety violations in this video, it’s a wonder the only injury was the tip of a finger. One hardly knows where to begin, but the safety violations begin the minute the clerk reaches for the pistol in the display case. Don’t be like these guys.
Safety Violations: Check the Chamber!
Notice that no one looked at the chamber of this gun! No one! Not even when the cop racked the slide did he pay attention to the round going into the chamber. That’s bad. Don’t be bad.
Video Transcript
Welcome to another edition of “Into The Fray.” I’m Kevin Michalowski, editor of Concealed Carry Magazine. Let’s talk about firearms safety.
Now take a look at this video here. In less than a minute, that police officer who’s looking at a backup gun for his on-duty use is gonna shoot his finger off. But, that’s not the only problem with this entire video. Take a close look at what these people are doing here.
Okay, first thing you notice is that the gun shop owner reaches into the case, grabs the pistol by the muzzle and hands it over to the guy out on the other side of the case. Now the police officer — who should know better — immediately grabs the gun and points at the people down at the far end of the counter.
Now the next thing he does really baffles me. He takes a look at the gun. He puts his hand in front of the muzzle several times. And then he wracks the slide and still doesn’t notice that there was a fully charged magazine in that pistol. He puts his hand back in front of the muzzle, points the muzzle downrange at people who are away from him, and then puts his finger on the trigger.
What did he expect to happen?
Of course, the gun got really loud. Of course, he lost a piece of his finger. He’s so very lucky that that round didn’t hit one of the people down at the end of the counter. This is just simple gun safety. I learned it in my hunter education class when I was 12 years old. In that class, if someone tried to hand you a firearm and you did not tell them to please open the action and look inside before they gave you that gun, you were immediately kicked out of the class and you had to take it over. Not just kicked out for the day; not just for the week. You were done forever, and you had to wait for the next class to come around.
So, to make a firearm safe, or to make sure that a firearm is safe, it’s really very simple. What I want you to do is remove the magazine. Remove the source of ammunition and set it aside. Then, keeping the firearm pointed in a safe direction, retract the slide all the way to the rear several times. See if anything falls out, then lock the slide to the rear. If you don’t know how, ask someone. This is a prime example of people at the gun store not knowing or not paying attention to what they’re doing.
Lock the slide to the rear, and then visually and physically inspect the chamber to make sure there’s nothing in there. It takes just a couple seconds but it saves you from shooting off the tip of your finger or accidentally shooting another shopper in the gun store. Don’t just assume that when somebody hands you a gun that gun is unloaded. Assume that it’s loaded until you know for sure it’s not.
I’m Kevin Michalowski, editor of Concealed Carry Magazine. If you like these videos, please share them with all your friends and subscribe to our page. We’ll give you more great information every week.
