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Friday 15 - What Non-Shooters Need to Know About Guns

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What Non-Shooters Need to Know about Guns

In life I have found that just because I don't want to deal with something doesn't mean I don't have to deal with it.  I don't want to do dishes, or laundry, or mow the lawn, but I have to do all those things any way.

There are other things I don't want to have to deal with ever and I actively work to avoid them.  Things like changing a tire on the side of the road.  Not only unpleasant, but also possibly dangerous.  None-the-less, I may have to deal with a roadside flat and as result, I have prepared myself with the knowledge and the tools to change a tire if I need to.

In the same vain, I think that responsible adults should prepare to deal with similar situations that may arise regardless of their distaste for the activity.

So it is with guns.

There are things that everyone who is old enough should be educated in.

What you can expect from today's episode:
  • What to do if You find a Gun
  • Rules for Safe Gun Handling
  • How To Unload a Gun and Verify it is Unloaded
  • Guns Don't Operate on Their Own
  • Guns Don't Always Work
    • Rules for Safe Gun Handling
    • Keep your finger someplace other than the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
    • Keep the gun pointed in a relatively safe direction whenever possible.
    • Keep in mind that you are in control of a deadly weapon and if you use it with malice or negligence you can hurt or kill yourself or someone else.

      • These rules will keep you in pretty good shape anytime you need to handle a gun, even if you don’t want to.  In addition, I teach two other rules as well and they are particularly helpful in the scenario I laid out above.

      • Minimize administrative gun handling.
      • No one person has the authority to declare a gun unloaded.
        • Here is the bottom line when it comes to gun safety rules for the non-shooter:
        • Know the rules.
        • Use them EVERY TIME you handle a gun.
        • If you do, you will keep yourself and those around you relatively safe. How?  Here is how:
        • If your finger is off the trigger the gun is very unlikely to fire because it is usually fingers that fire guns.  They don’t go off by themselves.
        • If you keep the gun pointed in a relatively safe direction if the gun some how fires there will be relatively little consequence.
        • If you remember that you are in control of a deadly weapon, if you are not sure what to do you will get someone that knows what to do to help you.
        • If you minimize the handling of the gun you greatly reduce the risk that there can be any kind of an accident.
        • If you need to handle the gun and unload it and you verify with someone else that the gun is unloaded, again you reduce the risks greatly.

          • I think it is pretty clear how important it is to know the rules of gun safety.  Even if you don’t use guns regularly, you could find yourself in a situation where you need to deal with a firearm.  A general understanding of gun safety rules can go a long ways toward keeping you safe.

          What you should do next:

          Consider that I may not have written this blog post for you.  SHARE IT.  Share it with your shooting friends and those people in your life that are responsible and that you love even if they aren’t a shooter.  Just go up to the white bar at the top of your browser, select the text, copy it and then paste it into an email, text message or post on your favorite social media platform.  Help spread the word!

          Subscribe to the Friday 15 list so that you can download the skill checklist for non-shooters.

          Have your loved ones listen to this episode of the SSA Podcast.  You are subscribed aren’t you?

          Take a look at these books and dvd’s regarding workplace violence.  They will have important tips that can help you survive even if you don’t have a gun.

          Thanks for taking the time to consider what I have to say!

          -= Paul Carlson =-

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