So how does one handle guns?Originally Posted by Tamara
So how does one handle guns?
Like deadly weapons that can and do blow holes in stuff at which they are pointing.
ie. with care, respect, and caution, and even then don't point them at things you can't afford to blow holes in.
Don't Rule 2 and Rule 3 cover that?
Rule 2 and 3 are the "How" for Rule 1's "Why".
If we treat unloaded guns the same as loaded guns, why is Rule #1 even necessary?
You asked a good question before:How many people here do their dry-fire practice against a backstop into which they would feel unsafe discharging a loaded firearm?
To put one in the correct mindset vs. the "It's empty so I don't need to follow the rules of safe gun handling".
People with that mindset tend to ignore all 4 rules, and then lie when called out on it.
It is a sad irony that the people most likely to retain and observe the rules are the ones less in need to. The folks who coon-finger guns at the local Big Box FFL are the ones who need to debate this subject.
My theory is that Rule 1 is all you really need. If the gun is loaded, I don't point it at people and I keep my finger off the trigger.
As someone who has spent a lot of time with institutional gun handlers - I'm am tired of two standards for guns - those loaded and those unloaded. The fact that all guns are always loaded also requires that they be cleared every time a new person touches them.
If I were to change anything about Cooper's 4 Rules, it would be Rule 3. Something like - "Keep the finger in register until the decision to shoot is made and the shooting process is complete."
Last edited by John Hearne; 03-26-2014 at 12:03 PM.
Is that not, in essence, a more verbose restatement of Rule 1?
/threadFirst......The NRA stuff is the things that make me insane.
The four rules as presented at the beginning of the thread work well if taught in context, applied across the board without exceptions, and heavily enforced. In the organizations where this is the case, it shows. In those places and with individuals who are "too good", big boys, "evolved", special, advanced, "sportsman", and a host of others then you will see major issues........and of course the rules that are not properly taught or enforced are to blame. Personally, I am fairly disgusted with how I have seen safety taught and treated in a lot of places......and in places that should know better. Like many things, I am done trying to change the world. I will work with what I can control and that is our training program, and those programs and people that we interact with. In those cases, the 4 rules are taught in context, heavily enforced, and given the proper level of attention that they deserve. When I see safety briefs that consist of "everybody know the rules, okay let's go", "big boys rules" (which really pisses me off based on where that came from and it was presented in a FAR different context), or a diatribe on why the instructor is so smart that the Gunsite/Cooper 4 rules are stupid, or that they don't apply to whatever is being done. A current trend is the whole "real world" training where it is mega awesome to be rolling like real operators and disregarding everything to show how awesome the program is.
The facts are simple. We are humans and make mistakes. Those rules have a lot of overlap and fail safe's in them to avoid people being injured. When you start doing things to eliminate the fail safe's, you end up with people getting hurt or killed. It is always amazing to me that we have something that we know absolutely works to eliminate a ton of potential risk to life, limb, and property....yet people fight it, because 4 simple rules are too hard to follow..
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