Gun safety is pretty easy if you always remember it and follow the four cardinal rules. Ignoring these rules and exhibiting careless behavior can have tragic consequences.
Cardinal Gun Rules
With the addition of millions of new gun owners in this country over the past couple of months, it is time to revisit a quick lesson in gun safety. Gun safety is not just for the new gun owners out there. Gun safety is for everyone! Carelessness gets people killed. The man in this video is lucky he didn’t kill himself or someone else. Instead, he lost a finger because of his negligence.
Everything about the surveillance video here screams that the police officer shopping for a gun is not paying attention to any of the four cardinal rules of gun safety. To recap, the rules are:
- Treat every gun as if it is loaded.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until you have made a conscious decision to fire.
- Do not point the muzzle of the gun at anything you are not willing to destroy.
- Know your target and what is beyond your target.
For Further Consideration
We will take that little safety recap one step further and discuss how to avoid a negligent discharge. First, never let someone hand you a firearm with the action closed. When someone tries to give you a gun, make him or her open the action first. To make sure a firearm is completely safe, remove the source of ammunition. In most cases, that means taking out the magazine. With a revolver, dump any rounds out of the cylinder. Then, visually and physically (stick your finger in there) inspect the magazine well and chamber to ensure there are no rounds anywhere inside. And even after you have done ALL of that, keep the gun pointed in a safe direction and keep your finger off the trigger.
Gun safety is pretty easy if you always remember it.
