A safety reminder.

[ZeSpectre]

A thread on another site was discussing someone who had gone to a gunstore and asked to see a gun and when the employee pulled out the gun and racked the slide to check it they got the unpleasant surprise of having a live round pop out.

I thought this was an excellent reminder that we must all follow the rules of gun safety 100% of the time as there are are certain responsibilities that CAN NOT be handed off to anyone else.

I've long since lost track of the number of "odd" looks I get for re-checking a firearm that someone just checked right in front of me but once you take physical possession of that firearm it is YOUR responsibility and YOURS ALONE to make sure everything is safe and as responsible firearms owners/operators we simply can not afford to forget that.

I couldn't even tell you how many times someone has handed me a firearm that they "just checked" which was unsafe. Just a few examples...

-Remington 870 with a round still in the tube magazine.
-SAA Revolver with a live round in a chamber.
-Lever gun with a "stubborn" round still stuck in the tube magazine.
-Locked open semi-auto pistol...with a loaded magazine installed.
-SKS rifle with a live round chambered that didn't extract for some reason.

We also had a guy running around a couple of years back who though it was "funny" to go to a store, look at some guns, drop a live round in one of them and then leave. Fortunately he got caught by an alert store employee and was arrested but you can just imagine the results of that malicious act if the store employee hadn't been detail oriented and double checked after he got the firearm back.

 

[Kimber1911_06238]

I agree 100%. in a gun store with racks of guns on the floor and live ammo, always check to see is some dummy put a round in there for whatever reason.

 

[worthirt_99]

I only did that once, because the store manager asked me to. I think he was looking for a reason to fire the guy and a safety violation was a good reason. I'm not sure what it accomplished. I know that the store manager hid in the next isle until I gave the firearm back though. I know that he cleared it right afterward.

 

[Ala Dan]

Working in a gun shop, I couldn't agree more~!

I check every firearm; even if I have just handled it by taking it
back from a previous, potential customer~!

 

[spwenger]

Just Last Night...

...I decided to do a few reps of dry-fire with the AR-15 variant that I keep as my primary bedside gun. It spends daylight hours locked in a Life Jacket that is bolted to a wall stud, out of sight. This requires removal and replacement of the magazine each time that the gun is secured and retrieved.

I locked back the bolt to verify that the chamber was clear before dry-fiiring and was shocked to see a live round hit my mattress. Further inspection revealed the selector was in the Safe position.

I normally keep the carbine with an empty chamber and the selector in the Fire position. A short while back one of the owners of TangoDown was visiting and he replaced their original vertical foregrip on this gun with their newer, shorter version. Apparently he prefers to keep his long guns with chambered rounds and the selector on Safe because no one other than he and I have handled the weapon in the last few months.

The practice of performing a chamber check, by sight and feel, before my brief dry-fire session, certainly paid off last night.

Rule One: All firrearms are always loaded.