What would you do in this situation?

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SteelyNirvana

SteelyNirvana

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Heres the situation:Im clean my Mossberg 500 at my g/f's house. I have it completely field striped and set-up on a card table half-way in a doorway to a bedroom and the other half in the dinning-room.I'm sitting in the bedroom.My g'f's father's brother walks in and sits down in the dinning-room.At this time I've picked the gun to examine the inside of the receiver before I blast it out with gun scrubber.Now remember the gun is completely field strip except the the magazine tube still attached to the reciver.When I picked up the gun I had the magazine tube pointed in his direction and he calls me out on it”WATCH WHERE YOU POINTING GUNS,YOU DON'T POINT GUNS AT PEOPLE”at this time I sharply reply “Ray,this is the magazine tube,the gun is completely field striped the gun is completely down”.His reply was “It doesn't matter”.Now my old man drilled firearms safety into me beginning when I was four years old and I always follow the two most golden rules 1)Always treat a firearm as it is loaded 2)Never point a firearm at anything you don't intend to destroy .Now,who do you think who was in the wrong?.If I had had just started cleaning the shot gun and the barrel was still attached and it was pointing in his direction I'd say he have all right and reason to call me out on it.But all parts were disassembled and laying to the side.My g/f says not to fret it and he was just wanting to be a big shot and thats when she also added she's never felt threatened when I've taken my guns out here at the house and looked at/admired them.I know a lot of long time shooters,LEO's and military folks visit this forum,so whats your opinion on this,'cause its kinda bugging me thinking I may have done something unsafe.
 
A lot of people are extremely strict when it comes to 'don't point your gun at anything you don't want to destroy'. I guess they don't CC in multistory buildings - your gun is probably aimed at some secretary's head while you're up there. They object to horizontal shoulder holsters on the same principle.

Seems like he was going overboard. I don't really care if people in gun stores point an empty gun from the rack in my general direction. As for a field-stripped gun, I see no danger from it. Some folks are Barney Fifes when it comes to the four rules - some of those folk are also 'grammar police'.
 
Why not ask him to think about it, and come back some time, when he has.
 
His house, his rules. Follow them.

That being said, I'm not particularly concerned about muzzle control of a field stripped weapon with no muzzle. Though I suppose you could put an eye out with a wayward mag tube. Perhaps he's not terribly firearms literate?
 
The g/f's brother is just being a jerk. How do you inspect a firearm to make sure there are no obstructions in the bore? You look down the barrel, after making sure it's unloaded and the action is open. There are many routine maintenance and inspection tasks that require "breaking" rule #1 and #2, but only after you have ensured the firearm is not loaded.

Rule #1. Always treat every firearm as if it's loaded, until you have physically determined otherwise. Most people forget about that last part.

Rule #2. Never point a firearm at anything you're not willing to destroy. Again, how do you inspect the bore for obstructions? This is an important safety procedure in and of itself before taking a firearm that has been stored out to shoot. I always check the bores on my pistols and rifles if they've been stored for any amount of time. In one case, a scorpion crawled into the barrel of a 12 gauge that the owner then fired without checking. KABOOM!

There's the real world, and then there's people who look for any excuse to make an ass of themselves. You didn't paint him with the muzzle of a weapon that he couldn't tell was unloaded, you pointed a disassembled action in his direction. GREAT big difference. Be a bigger man than he is and let it go, just understand that the guy is an asshat and hope he grows up.
 
Sounds like he doesn't have a clue about guns. Teach him why you were right, or just ignore him and know he's ignorant.
 
"It's a part, not a firearm."
But BATFE states that the receiver is the firearm, and according to the story, receiver and mag tube were pointed in this chappie's direction.:D

'Ray' wouldn't happen to have a last name of Schmuckatelli, would he?
 
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A range acquaintance told a story how he and his wife were shooting alone on part of the local range. The wife kept shooting and he had his pistol detail stripped. She went downrange to check or change a target and he was working on the disassembled pistol. Some wannabe range nazi walked over from a separate part of the range to berate him for handling a gun while his wife was downrange...
 
I'm with El Tejon. Rules for handling weapons don't usually apply to 'parts of weapons'.

I could see using caution when handling, say, an AR upper, but it's really to keep good habits.

I'm finishing up a seasonal job at a national retail chain. Part of the job is to barcode scan the entire store once a week, early every sunday morning. The scanners we use are like star-trek phazers. As I use it, I find myself keeping the booger-hook off the bang-switch, watching the muzzle, lining it up with the label before I touch the trigger, and not flinging laser beams where I'm not trying to scan. The other guys who aren't necessarily gun guys, don't bother, but joking, a couple of weeks ago, I told them I was OCD about it and they were all driving me insane walking around with fingers on the trigger, and sometimes sweeping beams on the floor for fun. I admitted I was insane, but they said it all actually makes sense, and now they all make an effort to keep the booger hook off the bang switch. (They could be talking smack behind my back, I don't know.)
 
Think the uncle overreacted but I probably would have done a short "sorry", did as you did and explained exactly what was happening and continued cleaning the firearm. Don't think you did anything unsafe, the rules exist to keep accidents from happening. Don't think that was an issue in this incident or clearly was not possible in the condition the firearm was in.
 
After he said "It doesn't matter", I'd have probably blew him off with a "whatever"' and let it go at that.

Either that or beat him senseless with the magazine tube and then said "Hmm, I guess you were right. Guns can be dangerous even when they're in pieces." :D
 
No violation. It's a part, not a firearm.

However, it is his house.
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I agree with the first part and have a question about the second part. Does the Uncle live there or was he visiting his brother. If he doesn't live there it isn't his house. After you explained what happened and he was still being a jerk, I would have ignored him totally or even told him to get a clue and piss-off !! (OK, maybe the piss-off part would be out of line but "get a clue" would be in order) :banghead:
 
I Agree With El Tejon & mljdeckard.But Never Lose The Fear For A Gun,The Bad Habits Is The Same Thing To Accident.When I Start Having Guns,Sometimes I Unloading The Gun (Double Action),Removing The Mag,Pulling The Slide And PRESSING THE TRIGGER.But This Turn In Habit,But What Happen If I Think That I Am Unloding The Gun,When Actually Im Loading??? Don't Think About It...A DISSASTER.The Ego Is Poweful,I LearnTo Think That In A Scale Of 1 to 10,Im In 2 or 3,Because I Have A Lot More For Learn.Understand...:eek: .jejeje...:neener: Really!
 
(They could be talking smack behind my back, I don't know.)
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I'll bet if those lasers were a bit stonger your back would have tracks all over it!:D
 
My sister, who is about as anti gun as it gets got all wound up when I showed her my DISSASEMBLED 9mm pistol, and I picked up the barrel and "pointed it at her". I was shot in the face when I was a kid by a friend playing with his supposedly unloaded BB rifle back when I was 12, and she said, "I would think you would have learned your lesson back then!" I tried to explain to her that it's not even remotely comparable and the barrel was no more dangerous than any small piece of steel pipe, since that's basically what it is! Nope, and she later told me she would be afraid to sleep in my house "In case the gun went off by ITSELF"

For someone who isn't stupid about most things, she's amazingly clueless about guns. I recently mentioned while talking to her on the phone, that I had recently bought 2 new ones, and she went into "OMG, you're gonna kill yourself!!" I asked her how many guns did she think I had when I was cleaning the gun and she freaked out (about 10 years before), and she says, "You mean you had more than that one?". "Yep, how about 14 more!"
I had 4 Dan Wesson Model 15's, a Beretta 950 Jetfire, Beretta 84, Browning BDA .380, FEG P9R, S&W 28, S&W model 59, Taurus PT92, A Ruger Security Six, Walther PPK, and a Colt Diamondback. She went into Chicken Little, the guns are gonna start shooting themselves mode. When I told her I have owned at least 2 handguns since I was 21, she couldn't believe it. People like her seem to think a gun is somehow more than any other machine, that it somehow has some special power to kill people by accident or by itself. This is like thinking your car is going to go out and drive around by itself looking for people to run over. Amazing.
 
I always pay attention to where the muzzle is pointed except when the weapon is stripped from the action in your case. I would definetly agree with him if the weapon was assembled or even partially assembled. But stipped down is another thing.
 
Just want to say thanks to everyone who replied to this,you'all have eased my mind,letting me know I did'nt technically break the golden rules.:)

Thanks,

Brian Craig
 
I break the "laser" rule all the time. Especially when Ive been drinking...


HA, jk. seriously.

I think he was just trying to bust your stones, but not in a joking manner. Let it slide. Ill let you point a field stripped weapon at me anyday :evil:
 
There have been a run of threads like this, and I love them all but it has gotten me thinking. This is why I hate "zero tolerance" policies in general, we see them in schools work places and frankly everywhere. They remove the need to think and frankly I like to think that others with guns are thinking about the responsibilties. While I know that if you followed the 4 rules all the times you would technically have 0 Nd's but I dont know of anyone who has been shot with a stripped down firearm once its fully stripped.
 
First off, it sounds as your g/f's Father's brother was trying to put you down to make himself feel better.
Secondly, if the shotgun is disassembled it is not a shotgun.
Thirdly, with that logic plumbers would be cautious to keep pipes pointed in a safe direction, as that is all a shotgun magazine tube or barrel is.
 
hmmmmm,

Isnt the rule to not cover someone with the muzzle of the gun? If so, tell him the muzzle is in the other room, sitting quietly and if he would like, he can sit in there and watch it... so it doesn't hurt anyone.....

:neener:
 
Some people are incapable of understanding simple concepts no matter how many times or how many ways you explain it. That would be their problem, not mine. I sure wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Does this guy also duck for cover when someone on television points a gun at him? :D
 
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