how to tell a friend he is careless with guns

[El Tejon]

Be straightforward about it and tell him as others have advised.

"Say, why don't we go to Gunsite together? It will be fun and we'll learn stuff (like how not to point guns at each other)."

 

[doubleg]

Say "Stop bieng careless, dead is a forever type thing."

 

[foghornl]

Not recommended now, but my method:

Many years back, had a shooting buddy do the same, in spite of repeated calm warnings NOT to do that.

Gently brushing pointed gun away from my gut didn't work, either. Finally said "You cover me with that thing one more time, and I'm gonna turn out your lights."

"What? What did you say?" said he, sweeping my midsection.


"SMACK!" No more problem.

 

[DC-Loudsound]

You gotta' say something

Don't be subtle or coy about it.

"The way you handle guns scares the hell out of me. You're always pointing guns at me, you always have your finger on the trigger, you've had a loaded weapon aimed at me before. You're my friend and I don't want to see you do anything bad to yourself or someone else on accident. You need to start taking this seriously or I can't be around you when you're handling guns. I'm not trying to play mommy here but I'm worried about your safety and the safety of those around you."

Its kind of similar to my driving drunk talk.

Soybomb said it best ... straight, and to the point. If he is your friend, he deserves to be treated like a friend. No BS ... just the facts.

+1 to Soybomb

Dean

 

[cheygriz]

Do him a favor before he kills somebody.

Grab him by the scruff of the neck, rap his head against the wall two or three times to get his attention, then read him, the riot act.

Believe me, you'll be doing him a favor, even if you lose his friendship.

 

[BigO01]

You know many states have started prosecuting people for manslaughter in cases of accidental shootings even when they were legally hunting .

I would inform him of this and tell him his handling of guns is completely unsafe . He is either going to hurt or kill someone and perhaps go to jail for a very long time or if he is lucky get his butt kicked by some stranger who isn't as tolerant of it as you are .

If he is married ask him how he is going to like trading in his wife for a prison gang whispering in is ear and taking long hot showers with him at 2 am for the next 10+ years .

 

[Seamusalaska]

If he does this around a friend, I shudder to think of what he does at a shooting range. When the kids were young I tied a flashlight to a rifle (with the bolt removed) and had them individually wave it around after telling them that wherever the light went, a bullet could go. We were in the basement in the semi-darkness (one dim light). Their mother was there. When the light landed on her ...and it Always did eventually, the kids got the point. Not one of them ever forgot that lesson. They are extremely respectful of all guns today. THEY told me it was a lesson they never forgot. Tell your friend that you respect yourself too much to allow him to treat you like that. This is a life-and-death, no-joke situation. Treat it as such.

 

[MilsurpShooter]

It happened to me once as well. My best friend, to the point where people in his town think we're brothers due to the amount of time we're together. I was going to head to the local gun shop and he wanted to come, no big deal jumped in my car and headed down. I was looking at the milsurps

"Hey Jay"

"Yeah?"

"Take a look at this one"

I put the K98 I was looking at back in the rack, turned around and was promptly staring down the barrel of a Mossberg shotgun. Proceeded to duck as he was laughing. We left the gun store about a minute later. I was pissed, didn't say a word to him, he knew he had done something wrong, kept trying to apologize, saying it wasn't loaded, but I just kept telling him to shut up. He got a little worried when I got on the Parkway, asking where we were going and the like. Simply told him to sit there, shut up and don't say anything. I stopped outside the office of my local range. One of the range officers there is a Vietnam veteran and openly talks about his experiences over there. I told my friend to sit, pulled the range officer to the side and explained what happened.

You see, there's two safety lessons the range officer gives, the standard, doing this because you have to know it, or the you just messed up big time speech. My friend got the messed up big time speech. Complete with stories of what a bullet can do to a person. We left there, no words were said in the car, he just kind of sat there looking out the window. We didn't talk for about two weeks. I went up to check on him and his two sisters. He was surprised to see me saying "After what I did you still want to hang around?"

He was more ashamed of himself for what he did once he realised exactly what could have gone wrong. He's one of the safest gun handlers I know now.

 

[ConfuseUs]

FIrst give him the SoyBomb speech, because he's your friend. I doubt that it'll sink in because he's probably heard the safety lecture before. So do this: Prep a shotshell by slicing off the hull so there's only a primed base left. Pocket the base and take said buddy shooting. Blast watermelons, blocks of ice, etc. with his shotgun and have a great time. At the end of the session slip primed base into his shotgun before going home. Ideally let buddy wave around shotgun unsafely before going home and hope he touches off the primer. If not, you can either wait, or take the gun, and "demonstrate" the lesson of treat a gun like it's always loaded. That might end the friendship but you don't want to be friends with someone who can't respect a 12 gauge anyway.

 

[Sniper X]

Politely tell the range master what he is doing and ask the RM to school him, but first of course you have to break your rule of not going shootin with himn again. I'd tach him myself because I am an instructor, but since you aren't you need to rely on him finding out from someone else, who isn;t a freind. He'll be OK then. Truthfully, I don;t think he be offended if you went about it right like saying let me show yo the way they expect you to handle a gun at the range and go thru all the safety rules, and keep on the trigger well and muzzle ones first and repeatedly.

 

[offthepaper]

I don't remember the exacts of the case. It was a well covered story of an NBA player who, while shooting skeet or trap in back yard accidently killed one of his guests while waving a shotgun around. I beleive he was convicted and sentenced on manslaughter charges. Look up the story and show it to him and explain that you would'nt want him to repeat this type of accident. If he still refuses to pay heed to the advise, stay away from him and tell him why.

 

[ProguninTN]

The Above

Looks like good advice thus far. Be harsh if necessary.

 

[raytracer]

At the end of the session slip primed base into his shotgun before going home. Ideally let buddy wave around shotgun unsafely before going home and hope he touches off the primer.

DO NOT DO THIS!!! Even a primer, even with a long, large bore barrel, can be a recipe for an unpleasantness. Many actors have been killed or injured with blank weapons.

If you want to use this method as a teaching example for Rule 1, use a snap cap, or a completely inert round. NO primer, NO powder.

My recommendation: give him the Soybomb speech. If he doesn't mend his ways, stay away from him when he's handling firearms.

Joe

 

[Snowdiver]

BE AGRESSIVE, it's your life! This sort of thing has happened to me with two different people, once alone, once at a picnic table with fifteen people around. I reacted fast, firm and loud both times. Had the weapon in my hand before you could blink too. Nobody will get a free ride from me on this issue, IT'S MY LIFE.
Say whatever comes to mind, who cares about feelings, later on they will thank you and appoligize.

 

[Heywood Case]

Quite a few years ago I had a neighbor with a similar problem. He eagerly handed me his gun (I think it was a Desert Eagle) to show off, pointed at himself, telling me it was loaded while offering it. I was not very well educated about this myself at the time but knew enough to tell him he shouldn't be handing loaded guns to people while pointing them at himself. Then I decided maybe I didn't want to be hanging out with this guy after all.

A month or so later his best friend shot him (fatally) while they were playing with the gun in similar fashion. Happily I was out of town but the guy that was house sitting for us was kind of upset. The mess was pretty bad and some of it was visible on the side of the house for a while afterward.

I doubt that there's much I could have said that would have made a difference but whenever I remember the incident I wish I had done more to discourage my neighbor's careless behavior.

John

 

[TimboKhan]

I don't think it is disrespectful in the least to tell your buddy something along the lines of "Hey, watch where you are pointing that thing".

 

[qajaq59]

I'm sorry but the first time he had done that to me I'd have ripped his head off. Getting shot hurts and maybe kills and you don't need to do it twice. If he wants to point a gun at a friend let him go get a different one.

 

[GeorgiaGlocker]

You call him a friend???

 

[CountGlockula]

Wounds from a friend can be trusted,
but an enemy multiplies kisses.

True friends tell each other the truth.

 

[MD_Willington]

Be point blank honest with them!

Don't point that at me

 

[230RN]

Coat-tail riding...

Don't point that ing thing at me and keep your ing finger off the ing trigger and why the h3ll isn't the ing action open and don't give me any crap about it not being ing loaded or the ing safety is ing on !

That's what friends are for.