can someone explain to me "safety check"????

[ccsniper]

I watch a bunch of youtube reviews and nearly all of them start off with "this firearm has been safety check and is safe" and then procede to show that the gun is in fact unloaded? I have always been led to believe a gun is determined safe by who holds it, not if it is unloaded.

I may be over reacting eek but if I am holding a loaded firearm in a safe direction, with my finger off the trigger and a full understanding that the thing is meant to destroy, then by my definition it is safe. Now if an idiot has an unloaded gun but likes to point it at people and himself and ignore safety rules, I consider the gun (and idiot behind it) unsafe. Anyone agree with me?

 

[General Geoff]

Fully agreed. Even a triple-checked firearm must be treated as loaded (i.e. never point it at someone), by a responsible user. During procedures which require the trigger be pulled (such as disassembling a Glock), the gun should be pointed in a known safe direction, preferably at an object which is known to be able to stop a round (such as a bucket of sand).

 

[lions]

I'm inclined to agree that people are safe or unsafe while the gun is just doing it's job. A gun is either loaded or unloaded, the terms safe and safety tend to lull some people into carelessness where bad things can happen.

 

[ccsniper]

honestly the ones I see doing it generally fit the mall ninja category, wanting to sound more tactical. Now I don't want to turn this thread into a mall ninja bashing thread but people who I value on youtube never say anything along those lines (hickok45).

 

[longhair75]

If I should meet any of you in person and you check a handgun to see if it is loaded and then hand it to me, please do not be offended if the first thing I do is recheck it. At one of the local gun shops, the clerk seemed rather miffed that I dropped the magazine and opened the slide right after he handed it me.

 

[rcmodel]

You mean a "safe" unloaded gun like this here one?

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/15/2227310/st-joseph-police-officer-killed.html

rc

 

[General Geoff]

If I should meet any of you in person and you check a handgun to see if it is loaded and then hand it to me, please do not be offended if the first thing I do is recheck it. At one of the local gun shops, the clerk seemed rather miffed that I dropped the magazine and opened the slide right after he handed it me.

Whenever possible, I hand a firearm to someone with the bolt/slide locked back or otherwise plainly open, so as to make checking the chamber by the recipient easier.

 

[ccsniper]

If I should meet any of you in person and you check a handgun to see if it is loaded and then hand it to me, please do not be offended if the first thing I do is recheck it. At one of the local gun shops, the clerk seemed rather miffed that I dropped the magazine and opened the slide right after he handed it me.

wouldn't bother me a bit, I do the same thing at local gunshops and Academy's.

 

[JoeSlomo]

I appreciate shooters who include safety aspects with their videos, as long as they do it right.

If I should meet any of you in person and you check a handgun to see if it is loaded and then hand it to me, please do not be offended if the first thing I do is recheck it.

To me, that is a sign of competence.

I hand a firearm to someone with the bolt/slide locked back or otherwise plainly open, so as to make checking the chamber by the recipient easier.

So is that...

 

[longhair75]

Whenever possible, I hand a firearm to someone with the bolt/slide locked back or otherwise plainly open, so as to make checking the chamber by the recipient easier.

Absolutely! Often I have been handed a semi auto that I have seen a gun store clerk open the action to check it, then close the slide and hand me the weapon. I didn't see the empty chamber and with a magazine in place, how do I know the fool hadn't chambered a round right before handing it to me?

 

[longhair75]

The DEA agent had shown someone that the chamber was empty just before closing the slide and stating: "I'm the only person in this room professional enough to carry a Glock .40!" right before shooting himself in the foot.

 

[mustang_steve]

The safety check is meant as a calming device, to show that the firearm is unloaded....however for it to be a true safety check, the mag must be dropped FIRST.

Mr. "Professional", failed to do such as he was too busy being awesome to worry about such things as a JHP punching through his thigh like an icepick through a ham.

Safety checks are very relevant if doing dry-fire testing, and if handing a firearm to someone else as a courtesy to show it's unloaded. For a TV-show, it's nice as a reminder that one shoudl ALWAYS check to see if it's loaded.

Be sure it's unloaded, but treat it like it's loaded.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

I think of "safety check" more in terms of making sure the firearm is in good working order so it will not fire due to a mechanical malfunction.

 

[ColeK]

If you point a gun at me I’m liable to take away from you and “safety check” it against your COBM or beat you with it.

 

[Nushif]

Whenever possible, I hand a firearm to someone with the bolt/slide locked back or otherwise plainly open, so as to make checking the chamber by the recipient easier.

That's what I was taught to do. Or I tell them: "It's loaded." If I do hand them a loaded one.

If you point a gun at me I’m liable to take away from you and “safety check” it against your COBM or beat you with it.

This, however is assault or attempted murder, where I come from in reality. Alternatively it's chest pounding.

 

[FLAvalanche]

I may be over reacting

Pretty much....But the good news is that most people over react on the opposite side of the spectrum and whine about the reviewer pointing a weapon at the camera which is why they show the weapon is clear.

 

[GLOOB]

No matter how safe you think you are, you will have to break 1 or more gun safety rules in your lifetime.

For instance, you might buy a gun that requires dry-firing to field strip it. And one day you might want to look down the bore of a firearm to check for fouling or obstructions. Or you might want to function test a gun, or maybe just get a feel for the trigger before buying. I think a "safety check" is in order before any of these activities, don't you?

Now look at these noob videos again. Does the guy break any of the gun safety rules after showing you the "safety check?" Like maybe he puts his finger in the trigger guard or dry fires the gun for some purpose of the video? Or maybe he points it at a wall/floor/ceiling which he really doesn't intend to destroy? See, gun safety rules are there to be followed, but they can't really be followed all the time. And sometimes we deliberately plan to break 1 or even 2 rules at a time... after making sure they are empty.

 

[Tommygunn]

If I should meet any of you in person and you check a handgun to see if it is loaded and then hand it to me, please do not be offended if the first thing I do is recheck it. At one of the local gun shops, the clerk seemed rather miffed that I dropped the magazine and opened the slide right after he handed it me.

LH75, I have dropped the mag and racked the slide to check a gun I have checked 5 minutes ago and which no one has handled in between. That's simply out of a paranoia some ammo gremlin will magically reload the gun in between eyeblinks.
Maybe paranoia .... hey, it's worked so far ...

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

OP, this is probably done on videos so that the creator of the video doesn't get 500 comments about how he's handling a gun that might be loaded, or that pointing it at a camera, or doing certain drills is unsafe with a loaded gun, etc. The "here's me showing you my gun is unloaded" thing is just a way to calm people down so that the video comments are not full of hysterics.

OP, could you tell me what this means?

I have always been led to believe a gun is determined safe by who holds it

 

[oldfool]

"I have always been led to believe a gun is determined safe by who holds it"

therein lies the problem
in my experience, it is not you, but me, who most often holds the gun about to be handed to another

which is probably why I prefer to always -
point it at something I really do not want to put a bullet in/thru
drop mag, if it has one, open cylinder if it has one (or open action in any case)
look right at it, open empty chamber, and say out loud (twice).. "no bullets, no bullets".. to "myself"... (yeah, I know, I know)

then, whilst pointing at something that cannot die
show open action/chamber plainly to "you" (and individually to every other person in close proximity), and say, twice, to each one.. "no bullets, no bullets"

PS
if it was only you, no problem
but there are a whole lot more of me, than there are of you
I still have a finger on my left hand that really should not ought to be there (not gun related); good thing I shoot right handed, but it is still there by merit of luck alone, because I am not you (even though I knew better than to do that)

PPS
if you hand me one, yes, I will look (even if you looked 1st), but happy enough to settle for one look, no words required.. you ain't me, I know that
in other circumstance than a martian invasion, I will not hand you a loaded gun, because I figure you already know how to load it for yourself, and will not do so, absent appropriate circumstance
my casual wear ain't real likely to be handed to anyone, but will not be when loaded, in any event

 

[ccsniper]

What I mean by “a gun is safe buy who holds it" means that a gun is only an inatimate object that cannot destroy anything under its own power, it becomes dangerous when someone whether intentional or out lacking a feeling of urgent responsiblility to safety turns that object into a machine of death.

 

[oldfool]

meant no disagreement with your obvious intent, cc, nor your obvious belief in personal responsibility

but responsibility is more than a one person thing anytime a potentially dangerous (deadly) object changes hands, by your own choice; no different than handing someone your car keys, no matter how highly you/they think of them

ain't your fault what they do with 'em.. they need to carry their own water
but ain't no serious harm ever come from you making sure it ain't your fault, either
(and some people have 10 normal fingers, but some don't you know)

being over cautious may result in some people making fun of you
but it hardly ever gets somebody suddenly dead
(if they get offended by me smelling their breath, they can always go borrow somebody else's car keys, I can live with the humiliation, and if it's just plain rude of me, they can go buy their own.. car or gun)

PS
you ever hand me your gun (unloaded or not), do us both a favor, and treat me as the village idiot, ok by me, no problem, I can live with that

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

I guess I'm having a hard time understanding why someone being extra safe and showing the viewers of a video that the weapon they are handling is safe, is something to get upset about.

 

[Manco]

The DEA agent had shown someone that the chamber was empty just before closing the slide and stating: "I'm the only person in this room professional enough to carry a Glock .40!" right before shooting himself in the foot.

As usual, such incidents are failures on multiple levels. That's why we have to follow every rule all the time in order to be as safe as possible (i.e. don't unload the weapon and then wave it around). In this case, there were not only failures to remove the magazine first and to keep the gun pointed in the safest possible direction at all times, but also the bad habit of pulling the trigger for absolutely no reason whatsoever, as well as poor inspections by two people of the gun's action, in which the cartridges in the magazine should have been plainly visible.

By the way, I bet the guy doesn't even remember pulling the trigger. A lot of people don't, and not all of them are lying when they claim that the gun "just went off." Such is the power of ingrained habits, in this case a bad one that is often formed in the name of safety at certain ranges and competitions. Even hickok45 of YouTube, as much as I like and respect the guy, has this rather common habit of automatically pulling the trigger after unloading a gun. His other habits and practices are good enough to have prevented negligent discharges thus far, but I think it's pretty clear that a fair portion of NDs on the whole occur as a result of it. :banghead:

I guess I'm having a hard time understanding why someone being extra safe and showing the viewers of a video that the weapon they are handling is safe, is something to get upset about.

The ones who don't understand are the ones who are rolling their eyes at what they consider excessive caution. What they fail to realize is that gun safety is far more about human nature than it is about operating guns. Sure, if you're always completely focused on handling guns and conscious about what you're doing at every step as well as the exact state of the gun, then it would be safe to pick & choose between what rules of safety to follow. If the gun is truly unloaded, then it will not kill me when I point it at my temple and pull the trigger, right?

Unfortunately, however, the plain and undeniable fact is that negligent discharges occur all too often, even by people who know how to operate guns very well, and always because there was a distraction or a lapse in concentration, which is bound to happen at some point. When it does, we revert to our habits, the most basic type of behavior involving complex motions, so the only way to remain safe is to develop good habits (and break out of bad habits) that are followed at all times without even having to think about them. This is in addition to trying one's best to remain consciously focused on safety while constantly reinforcing the good habits.

Some will say that this behavior looks ridiculous, and all I have to say to them is I hope that I'm not around the next time they have a negligent discharge. It's fun to act all cool and macho around guns until somebody gets seriously injured or killed, and there's nothing cool about that.

 

[bigalexe]

Here is the way it goes with me:

-I pickup a gun, or take possession of a gun and clear it, I now consider it cleared and safe until I do something with it.
-I will re-clear again afterward if I do something which requires running the action either actually loaded or unloaded (demonstration or actual firing).
-If the gun leaves my possession either by placing it on a table or handing it off, it gets cleared again even if it never left my sight.
--If I find that I have picked up a loaded firearm I know how to operate (glock 23, pump shotgun) I will actually clear the gun and reload it before using it. Nobody is going to sneak a 3.5" into a shotgun loaded with 2 3/4" as a trick and hand it to me unaware.
---Exception: Occasionally when I am dealing with a gun that is new to me I may go through a magazine immediately after being given possession of a loaded gun. This is because it is someone else's gun and they have just run me through it's basic function and loaded it for me.