A Four Rules Reminder

... or, Why the Best Safety is in your Head.

I had a simple little reminder today of why we always, always, follow The Four Rules. Fortunately, there was no ND.

After work, I was changing to go run some errands at the house (since I still haven't been able to get moved in), and went to switch pistols. See, when I'm at work, I wear a suit. But I take the jacket off for most of the day, so I carry my Kel-Tec P3AT in a Crossbreed MicroClip tuckable holster, with my shirt tucked in over it. Virtually unnoticeable, but readily accessible. When I'm not at work, I carry my Taurus PT-145 in a Crossbreed SuperTuck Deluxe. But, I store it in an Uncle Mike's IWB holster. The Uncle Mike's is smaller, and fits in the drawer by my bed, which the Crossbreed doesn't. The Uncle Mike's is easier to put on or take off quickly. If I go on a rescue call in the middle of the night, I can just slip it on, where the Crossbreed takes a little more effort.

Well, I was changing pistols, and I noticed something. When I pulled the Taurus out of the Uncle Mike's holster to slip it in the Crossbreed, I realized the safety was off. Now, out of habit - which I cultivated intentionally - I look at the safety every time the gun is taken out of a holster. I can only assume that it got frobbed somehow in the process of putting it in the Uncle Mike's the night before, or I just missed that it was off.

Now, had I been relying on the safety to keep the gun from firing, there might have been a serious tragedy. But, I know that mechanical safeties can fail, or be manipulated unintentionally, so I also always, always, follow The Four Rules:

Rule 1: The gun is ALWAYS loaded! - In this case, I knew it was loaded anyway.

Rule 2: Never point the gun at anything you do not want to destroy or kill. - It was pointed at the wall, which, while not something I really want to destroy or damage, is repairable. Beyond that wall of the apartment is the brick outside wall and solid earth up to about shoulder level - definitely a safe backstop.

Rule 3: Keep your finger away from the trigger until you are ready to fire. - As always when I'm handling a gun, but not ready or planning to fire it, my trigger finger was indexed along the frame below the slide, and the other fingers were around the grip, giving me a secure hold on the weapon.

Rule 4: Be sure of your target, what is near your target, and what is BEHIND your target. - Since I wasn't planning on firing, this one is not applicable - but see my explanation above on Rule 2. I knew what I was using as a backstop if it did fire, and I knew what was behind it.

It always pays to stop and review The Four Rules occasionally. This time, I got a surprising but harmless reminder of why they exist. Next time, it could be an ND, but if I follow the Rules, it won't be a tragedy.

This should NEVER happen

Hunter's bullet kills Ferrum student.

One Ferrum College student was killed and another injured about 4 p.m. Tuesday by a hunter who apparently mistook them for deer, authorities said.

Three students were collecting frogs for a biology class along a Franklin County-owned trail about a mile west of campus when one of them, a female, was fatally shot in the chest and another, a male, was shot in the hand, a college spokeswoman said.

[ . . . ]

Kimberly Boudinot said over the phone from her home in Irvington, near the Chesapeake Bay, that her stepson Regis Boudinot, 20, a junior at the college, was shot in the hand. She said a bullet had struck the female student, and then entered Regis' right arm before exiting through his hand.

Rule 4: Be sure of your target, what is near your target, and what is BEHIND your target.

It is every hunter's responsibility to make POSITIVE target identification before firing. It doesn't matter if someone is wearing a high-visibility color or not, YOU must make absolutely sure your target is what you think it is before you pull the trigger - no one else can do it for you. That bullet can never be taken back once it is fired, and a life ended by your failure can never be restored. It will weigh on you for the rest of your life.

Be careful, and be responsible out there folks. Hunters are not the only ones in the woods in hunting season.

Negligent, or accidental?

A little thought exercise, from a story in the Roanoke Times today: "Salem man wounds hunting partner":

A man closes the action on his double-barrel shotgun, and it discharges. The pellets ricochet off a nearby truck and strike his friend in the face and chest.

The way the story is written, the discharge appears to have been the result of a malfunction, not a Rule 3 violation (assuming the paper got the facts right - always a big caveat with the MSM). He (supposedly) knew it was loaded, so there was no Rule 1 violation, and he wasn't actually preparing to fire, so Rule 4 didn't really apply.

I find myself somewhat torn on this one. There was a Rule 2 violation (because there was a truck in front of the muzzle). Metal objects, like vehicles, can cause ricochets. On the other hand, maybe he didn't see it through some trees, or something. Maybe the geography meant the truck was the safest direction to point the gun (though it would be better to leave the action open until reaching a better location in that case).

Ricochets can be hard to anticipate, and even harder to predict, especially when you're not expecting the gun to fire in the first place. Inanimate objects, if you know no one is behind them, are often considered a "safe direction," especially if you don't particularly care about the object and don't expect a discharge.

So what say you, dear readers - negligent, or accidental?

What was Rule 2 again?

I've never had a high opinion of the French military (something about WWII and a house of cards), but this is utter stupidity.

A quick summary: In what appears to have been a simulation/demonstration of a terrorist situation during "open barracks day," where "a crowd of hundreds of visitors [were] watching parachute commandos simulate an assault to free hostages," a soldier in the crowd, playing the part of a terrorist, opened fire on the crowd. This was part of the simulation, and he was using blanks. He then reloaded and fired again, only this time, his second magazine was loaded with live rounds. At least 17 people were injured, including 5 children. At this point they are claiming this was accidental.

There are several points of stupidity here.

1. I don't know how it works in the military (especially the French military), but if I know I'm going to be firing blanks into a crowd, I'm not going to be using any magazine I haven't loaded myself. I want to visually ensure that every single round that goes in those magazines is really, truly, a blank. Then I'm going to mark those magazines in a very distinct, very obvious, and very noticeable way. Something on the order of day-glow orange tape around the entire body of the magazine.

2. When I reload, I'm going to take a moment to look at that fresh magazine. Is it completely wrapped in that same day-glow orange tape? If not, it doesn't get used. If it is, I'm going to look at the first round, which should be visible at the top of the magazine. I'm going to verify it really is a blank by looking at it.* I'm going to look at it twice. If there is any doubt whatsoever that it really is a blank, the magazine doesn't get used. Period.
*(This is assuming that there is a visible difference for blanks that will work with the weapon in question. I've never actually seen one, but not having some visible indication strikes me as incredibly stupid. More so than this particular situation.)

3. I'm not going to be so stupid as to actually point the muzzle of my weapon at any person. Remember Rule 2??!! (Left side of the page, at the top. Read it again. Refresh it in your memory.) Even blanks can kill, in the right circumstances. Remember Brandon Lee? You usually don't realize the right circumstances exist until it's too late. Do you want to kill that child? No? THEN DON'T POINT YOUR GUN AT HIM!!!!!!

I can understand that in military training firing blanks at another soldier may be an acceptable risk. The risk of death or injury from a blank (or an unnoticed live round) is actually pretty low, and the benefits (i.e. training someone to react correctly when someone else is shooting at them) may be worth the risk. But this should never, ever, happen at a simple demonstration, and especially not by firing blanks at civilians or observers. Primary responsibility lies with the soldier who pulled the trigger, but this was a failure at all levels involved in planning and executing this demonstration.

Fortunately, no one was killed by this idiocy.

A Tragedy, and a Lesson

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A 4-year-old girl shot herself in the chest Monday after snatching her grandmother's handgun from the woman's purse while riding in a shopping cart at a Sam's Club store, authorities said.

Full story here.

Thankfully, the child survived. It could have been much worse. As much as I hate to speak ill of someone who has undergone such a horrible experience, this incident illustrates two important points that must be made for safety's sake.

The grandmother in this case was negligent, and her granddaughter was hurt because of it. I'm sorry if that comes off as insensitive, but it's the truth. She left a loaded gun in easy reach of a 4 year old child.

1) There are several flaws with off-body (i.e. in a purse, jacket, etc.) carry. One of which is that if the bag is out of your reach, then the gun is out of your control. If a thief snatches it from the shopping cart, he has your gun, and you're left defenseless. If you set it down and forget to take it with you when you leave, you're defenseless and your gun is probably lost forever. If your 4 year old looks through it while your back is turned, tragedy will follow.

2) Don't ever assume that just because a gun is hidden, a child won't find it. This is true at home as well as in your purse. Secure means locked up, or in your possession and under your immediate control. Ladies, if you leave your purse with a 4 year old, they will eventually decide to look through it. The purse is where mommy keeps all the neat stuff, and the money she uses to buy toys. If you carry your gun there, they will play with it, and they will get hurt.

IT'S ALWAYS LOADED!!!

I keep reading stories about people being injured from negligent discharges, and they always have one thing in common: failure to follow the four rules of gun safety. (Look to the left. There they are.) Most important is Rule 1: IT'S ALWAYS LOADED!!!!

People who forget Rule 1 tend to stop following the other rules because "it's not loaded." When that happens, people get shot. It's not accidental, it's negligent. Someone has neglected to follow the rules of gun safety. It's no one's fault but the person handling the gun.

If disassembling your gun is required to clean it, remember Rule 1, and remember the other rules as well. Many guns require that you pull the trigger as part of disassembling them. If this is the case, don't rely on the fact that you checked it just a minute ago and it wasn't loaded, or you didn't reload it after using it. Check it immediately before pulling the trigger. Don't just take a quick look. Take a long look. Think to yourself "magazine empty or removed - check; chamber empty - check." Then, and only then, point the weapon in a safe direction and then pull the trigger.

If you're teaching gun safety, and have to use a real gun to do so, don't do it with a loaded gun, and always follow the rules.

If you follow these four rules all the time, you will never shoot anyone. Unless you mean to.

Pilot's Gun Fired in Cockpit

I know, I know, this happened a few weeks ago. I've been watching the news for more information since it happened, since the official line is always "We can't say anything until the investigation is done." I like to make sure that my opinions are as well informed as I can make them. Well, the investigation isn't done yet, but I've learned enough by now to have formed an opinion. However Michael Bane says it better than I can in his blog. Here are some excerpts:

First, a picture of the "safety" system the pilots are required to use.
From Michael Bane:

All true...my understanding is that the gun chosen for the pilots is the double-action-only version using H-K's LEM (Law Enforcement Module) system to lighten the DA pull. Here's the H-K catalog page.

What do we know about double-action only guns, whether they be semiautos or revolvers? Well, the first thing we know is that if you pull the trigger, the gun will go bang. The longer DA stroke guarantees that there has to be a deliberate pull of the trigger for the gun to fire.

Here's an important question...does it take a deliberate finger to pull a trigger? Ummmm, no...the trigger doesn't know or care what pulls it. You can pull a trigger with a pencil, a tree branch or the snagged tail of your shirt. People who carry pocket pistols not in a pocket holster have pulled the trigger with their pocket change. And consider the word "deliberate." A finger on the trigger can unintentionally fire a gun, say if the person whose finger is on the trigger is jossled or bumped, or if they have to grab with their weak hand, which can sometimes cause a sympathetic clinching of hand on the gun. Or let's say your finger is on the trigger when you attempt to reholster the gun...it'll go bang every time...probably the most common neglient discharge in the world.

That trigger thing is why we have moved to holsters for concealed carry and competition that fully cover the trigger guard, blocking access to the trigger. The harder it is to get to the trigger accidentally, the less likely the gun is going to go bang when we don't want it to.

What's another thing we've learned from the last 30 years of practical pistol shooting and the revolution in civilian training about gun safety? An important thing is to minimize the Futz Factor, loosely defined as "Every time you handle the gun, it has the opportunity to go off; reduce the times you handle the loaded gun, and you reduce the opportunities for a negligent discharge."

And:

This from the Crime Files News, one of the few tiny bits of information to leak out no damning the pilot or the gun:

The insane procedures required by the TSA demands that our pilots to lock and then un-lock their .40 side arms was and is a solid recipe for disaster. Did the TSA deliberately create this bizarre and unconventional Rube Goldberg firearm retention system hoping for this result? The sordid history of the FAA and TSA’s total resistance to the concept of arming pilots to protect Americans is in itself a scandal.

Putting a gun into a holster and then threading a padlock through the trigger and trigger-guard is required every time the pilots enter or leave the cockpit.

And, the most important point:

Let's talk about that holster now. Why do we cover the trigger guard? To keep something hard from coming in contact with the trigger. What would we call a holster that has a hole cut in it to allow a person to place a hard object that can potentially come in contact with the trigger of a gun that has no additional manual safety? Unsafe...or more appropriately, stupid.

Very very stupid.

And what would you think if a requirement of your job was to constantly remove such a holster and then place the hard steel bar of a lock through the holster and trigger guard, then remove the lock and redeploy the holster when you came back? Personally, I'd be pretty worried — as a firearms professional, I'd find this system guaranteed to fail. Sooner or later, it goes bang.

And it did.

For the full post, go to http://michaelbane.blogspot.com/2008/03/tsa-stupidity-puts-pilots-at-risk.html

While I do not believe the conspiracy theories that the TSA designed the rules hoping for something like this (because they've been opposed to the FFDO program from the beginning), the rules do seem to do everything possible to maximize the "futz factor" pointed out in Mr. Bane's article.

I can only add two things to his well written piece.

1) Trigger locks are inherently unsafe. They violate two of the cardinal rules of gun safety: Rule 1 - The gun is ALWAYS loaded; and Rule 3 - Keep your finger (or anything else) AWAY from the trigger until you are ready to fire.

2) Something I have believed for many years - Every gun should have a safety! Even with the (understandable under the circumstances) mistakes the pilot had to have made, a safety could have prevented this. Being double-action-only does not make a gun immune from accidental trigger pulls, or snags, or foreign objects making their way into the trigger guard! It only means that the gun will not fire unless the trigger is pulled. The gun does not care who or what pulls the trigger, if the trigger is pulled it will go bang!