Rule 1 is properly stated, "All guns are always loaded", and we'll see Jeff Cooper's explanation later.
In any case, our group of instructors (we teach monthly NRA Basic Handgun classes) find the Rule to be helpful and quite well understood by the complete beginners in our classes. Of course since we're all NRA certified instructors and we're teaching the NRA syllabus, we focus on the NRA three rules. But since we're all Gunsite alumnae, we bring up Jeff Cooper's Rule 1, "All guns are always loaded." This is how we explain it:
- If you hand me a gun, don't bother telling me it's not loaded. Because Rule 1 applies, I won't believe you and will personally verify/clear the gun.
- If I criticize you for pointing a gun at me, my spouse, my cat, or anyone/anything else I value, don't bother trying to excuse yourself by telling me that it's not loaded.
- If your gun fires when you didn't intend it to, don't bother trying to explain yourself by saying anything like, "I didn't think it was loaded." You should have understood that under Rule 1 since it is a gun it is loaded, and you should have conducted yourself accordingly.
Remember that the Four Rules describe an appropriate
mindset and
attitude for safely handling a loaded gun, as well as specific ways of acting. Rule 1,
especially, is about
mindset and
attitude. If you accept Rule 1, as stated, and burn it into your consciousness in that form, you can not hold a gun in your hands, believe it to be unloaded and wind up doing something dumb with a gun that is actually loaded.
It doesn't matter that Rule 1 might not actually always be true. That's not the point of Rule 1. The purpose of Rule 1, as stated above, is to define for you your state of mind whenever you have a gun in your hand and thus define how you behave with a gun in your hand.
If someone fires a gun unintentionally, he apparently didn't think it was loaded; but since the gun fired, he was wrong. Anyone one who uses a gun for practical applications, such as hunting or self defense, needs to be able to handle a loaded gun properly.
Whenever I take a gun in hand, I know it is loaded and conduct myself accordingly.
Let's see what Jeff Cooper had to say.
- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, Vol. 6 (1998), No. 2, pg. 8.
ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED
The only exception to this occurs when one has a weapon in his hands and he has personally unloaded it for checking. As soon as he puts it down, Rule 1 applies again.
- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, vol.9 (2001), No. 6, pg. 29:
...We think that "treat all guns as if they were loaded" implies with the "as if" qualification a dangerous choice of assumptions...
- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, vol.11 (2003), No. 13, pg. 64:
...A major point of issue is Rule 1, "All guns are always loaded." There are people who insist that we cannot use this because it is not precisely true. Some guns are sometimes unloaded. These folks maintain that the rule should read that one should always treat all guns as if they were loaded. The trouble here is the "as if," which leads to the notion that the instrument at hand may actually not be loaded....
Then as As John Schaefer, another student of Col. Cooper,
puts it:
All firearms are loaded. - There are no exceptions. Don't pretend that this is true. Know that it is and handle all firearms accordingly. Do not believe it when someone says: "It isn't loaded."
And at that same link, Mr Schaefer quotes John Farnam in part as follows:
...The correct philosophical approach to serious firearms training is the "the condition doesn't matter" method. This was first articulated by Uncle Jeff in his four rules, but all four can all be rolled together in the universal admonition "DON'T DO STUPID THINGS WITH GUNS!" The "hot range" concept logically flows from this philosophical conclusion. Now, we handle all guns correctly, all the time. We don't have to "pretend" they're loaded. They ARE loaded, continuously, and all students need to become accustomed to it....
A short time ago I received the following (quoted in part) in an email from another Gunsite alumnus:
Negligent discharges that result in injury are the result of 1. IGNORANCE, and/or 2. COMPLACENCY and/or 3. HABIT that is inappropriate to changed conditions.
Proper training with the universal rules can only address #1 and #3.
...The great deficiency of much NRA civilian training ... is that muzzle and trigger discipline are not rigorously enforced except when on the range when the line is hot and sometimes not even then. Change the conditions to carrying a loaded gun at all times and adverse results are predictable.
EXAMPLE #1: Trap and skeet shooters often rest muzzles on their toes and point them at each other. They have almost no accidents on the range because guns are unloaded until just before they shoot. ...CHANGE CONDITIONS to a duck blind with loaded guns and the results are predictable....
One thing that Jeff Cooper said ... made a big impression on me. It is seldom repeated. To address complacency he said that every morning when he picks up his gun he says to himself "somewhere today someone is going to have an accident with a gun - not me, not today".
The current Four Rules grew up on a hot range where it is customary to indeed go about with one's gun(s) loaded and where people are trained who will indeed be going around with loaded guns out in the world and about their normal business.
Gunsite is a hot range. The pistol in your holster, or the rifle or shotgun slung over your shoulder, is expected to be always loaded. So this is posted on every range at Gunsite:
Let's all remember that real life in the real world is a hot range.
Warp said:
It's a bullet point list of rules, not an NRA First Steps course.
If you just read off the 4 rules to a total newbie and then say okay, you're good to go...you're in no position to be dealing with gun newbies
An excellent and important point. When we teach our classes we don't just tell the students the Rules. We discuss them and expand upon them. Then the short, easily remembered bullet point statements of the Rules will trigger the memories of those discussions.
Gun safety is not just a matter of rules. It's a matter of mindset, attitude and habits. When taught properly, the short, easily remembered bullet point statements of the Rules become associated with and reinforce the proper mindset, attitude and habits.