Clint Smith on the 4 rules

Great video. And he's mostly right. But I will ask this.

Could someone explain, step by step, how to disassemble a Glock pistol, with the 4 rules remaining true the entire time.

Ragnar Danneskjold said:

Great video. And he's mostly right. But I will ask this.

Could someone explain, step by step, how to disassemble a Glock pistol, with the 4 rules remaining true the entire time.

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That or draw from an IWB holster without flagging yourself at all(even just a graze). I think the 4 rules a great, the issue is when people say you can NEVER EVER EVER break them, and then they go and add a bunch of exceptions.

It usually takes a violation of two or more rules to come to grief. For example, you may "sweep" yourself or othere when unholstering, but if you keep your finger off the trigger until the sights are on the target and intend to shoot, no harm is done. When dry-firing that Glock to strip it, even if you somehow managed to have a ND, if you had it pointed in a safe direction and at something expendable, no lasting harm is done.

The Lone Haranguer said:

It usually takes a violation of two or more rules to come to grief. For example, you may "sweep" yourself or othere when unholstering, but if you keep your finger off the trigger until the sights are on the target and intend to shoot, no harm is done. When dry-firing that Glock to strip it, even if you somehow managed to have a ND, if you had it pointed in a safe direction and at something expendable, no lasting harm is done.

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This is how I have always treated them. But the "they can never be broken" crowd, drive me nuts.

The Lone Haranguer has it right. You have multiple layers of safety procedures. Being human, we are all likely to violate at least one, but by having the other rules to back them up, we can still avoid tragedy.

You still treat the firearm as if it's loaded.

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Re-watch the video. He does not say "treat all guns as if they are loaded". He says "All guns are always loaded", which is how a lot of people around here say it as well.

I am perfectly fine with treating a gun that I don't know is unloaded as if it is still loaded. That's good safety. But I think in facts, not dogma. Reality cannot be subverted or denied. A is A. An unloaded gun is an unloaded gun.

I'm not attacking the idea of the 4 rules or gun safety. I am pointing out that stating the 4 rules are always true is factually incorrect.

It isn't so much about whether or not they're loaded, or even real (i.e. RedGuns, etc) it IS about training. If you get sloppy and careless in training and practice, you will be sloppy and careless when the gun is hot. That's why he says he won't even point a fake gun at someone and won't allow it to happen to him. It's about repetitive training.

I once read somewhere it goes like this:

Amateurs practice until they get it right, professionals train until they can't get it wrong.

Yeah, to answer your question, it does bother me. Words mean things. I do get bothered when people deliberately state things that are not correct.

There is no doubt about the wisdom of the four rules but I also question how we reconcile that with the benefits of F on F training with airsoft or simunitions. It seems there are some benefits to that type of training same as that of fake knives and such.
Also agree on the point made that it almost always requires failure of two of the rules to become catastrophic.

I am not "willing" to destroy anything in my house. A safe direction is relitive.

Great video, he puts it perfectly. Hope to be able to visit Thunder Ranch some time

They are redundant for a reason, and real life combat may well prove them difficult if not impossible to follow, but the idea is to make them the top priority. Clint Smith has also done demnstrations of how to do things like emergency one handed drawing from IWB while on your back and emergency one-handled racking and reloading all WITHOUT FLAGGING YOURSELF. If you feel that drawing from IWB is impossible without flagging yourself, I would recommend that you do it in a mirror to see how you are doing it. I can absolutely draw from my Crossbreed Supertuck without pointing at my butt.

Under stress you will do what you were trained to do.You cannot deviate.Safe direction and fingers off the trigger would stop all stupid discharges.Even though you know the gun is unloaded,treat it as if it is loaded.If you cannot live by these simple rules,you will fail at some point.

Could someone explain, step by step, how to disassemble a Glock pistol, with the 4 rules remaining true the entire time.

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It is called making sure the gun is unloaded.

Then making sure again.

The 'four rules' are not intended to apply to every thing you have to do with a gun, like stripping it down.

They are simple rules when you are engaged in using the gun for what it was designed for.
Not for when you are forced to take it apart for maintenance.

And if you have to 'fire' the gun to take it down, you make sure it is unloaded, then point in in a safe direction.

Once it has been disassembled it is not longer functional.

You can even look down the barrel without danger.

Do you really think he's claiming that all guns are factually loaded? It's a matter of semantics. Quite obviously he's not claiming that his solid plastic training guns are actually loaded. Nor his unloaded firearms. But they are always treated as if they are loaded...

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Oh no, they are always loaded according to Jeff Cooper. Cooper in his arrogance actually poo-pooed those of us that added until you have proven they are not, claiming that it watered down the original strength of the rule or some such nonsense. Well, OK Jeff, I guess you can never clean your guns, as you would never disassemble a loaded gun would you? You can't have it both ways. As was said, words mean things.

mljdeckard said:

They are redundant for a reason, and real life combat may well prove them difficult if not impossible to follow, but the idea is to make them the top priority. Clint Smith has also done demnstrations of how to do things like emergency one handed drawing from IWB while on your back and emergency one-handled racking and reloading all WITHOUT FLAGGING YOURSELF. If you feel that drawing from IWB is impossible without flagging yourself, I would recommend that you do it in a mirror to see how you are doing it. I can absolutely draw from my Crossbreed Supertuck without pointing at my butt.

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I highly doubt that there isn't some point of your draw, where if your weapon discharged you wouldn't even graze yourself, I know it is a silly point to argue, but making rules with preplanned exceptions is silly.

I like this guy quite a bit.

I've heard the name, knew he was a shooting instructor, but that was it.

He's got a great speaking style. I'm gonna take most of that to heart and start preaching it as well. It's always the "unloaded" gun that you've got to watch out for.

robMaine said:

That or draw from an IWB holster without flagging yourself at all(even just a graze). I think the 4 rules a great, the issue is when people say you can NEVER EVER EVER break them, and then they go and add a bunch of exceptions.

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Never is a very long time, but it is just an instant in eternity!

Oh no, they are always loaded according to Jeff Cooper. Cooper in his arrogance actually poo-pooed those of us that added until you have proven they are not, claiming that it watered down the original strength of the rule or some such nonsense. Well, OK Jeff, I guess you can never clean your guns, as you would never disassemble a loaded gun would you? You can't have it both ways. As was said, words mean things.

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Indeed. The four rules are a good starting place, but they really are just a framework from which to work based on common sense. You can't say "all guns are always loaded" and stick to it without violating that rule on many occasions.

Besides, as another person said - I like to deal in FACTS and reality. "Treat every gun as if it is loaded until you have personally verified otherwise." is good safe gun handling. "All guns are always loaded" is not only patently false, it also goes down a line of thinking that I find absolutely unacceptable: that it is ok to lie to people (or yourself) as long as the lie generates an outcome you want.