Is this safe?

[.cheese.]

theres a little rambo in all of us.

maybe so.... but if the crossbow in photo #2 goes off, that kid's "little rambo" will be no more.... and I'm not talking about his ego.

 

[MakAttak]

Hmmm... I chose "other" cause I wasn't sure when I first looked at the photos. At first glance I thought the guns were all pointed in safe directions. After reading many of the posts and going back and looking DOWN in the photos (I just missed everything "below the belt") I can definitely say: No, not safe. And yes, stupid and leading to bad habits.

 

[Officers'Wife]

As someone far wiser than I used to say: Kids learn to survive provided they survive long enough.

Selena

 

[macFarlaine]

Great ammunition for the anti gun lobby...stupid.

 

[JColdIron]

Irresponsible at best. Bad finger habits. Not good opsec either.

Not sure the other location these were originally posted but there was a case of a young person here in NC killed in a police raid where photos like these played a part. While investigating a crime the police looked at pics of the suspects on a myspace page in gun posturing poses and assumed they were dealing with armed and dangerous people. Posting grandstanding pics with your weapons is not always the smart thing to do. Of course, this it the 41 year old me talking. Not sure if the 21 year old me would have agreed at the time.

The crossbow, though, is clearly not loaded as the string is perpendicular to the stock and there is no quarrel in the slot. Still wouldn't place in near my yarbles. If you tripped the prod might pinch something important!

 

[Eyesac]

Muppets either way...

You don't know if they checked them or not... But what I do know for sure is that they are muppets. Safe or not? I can't tell... There are plenty of pictures taken by THR members that don't observe the 4 rules (as in guns pointed at the camera, etc...) but I didn't flip out because I assumed they are as safe as possible. But these guys are idiots regardless.

 

[arthurcw]

I'll vote “other”.

Mainly because I don't know if they did check their guns or what their lever of expertise is. If there CAN NEVER be any “action” pictures of firearms, then many a movie set armorer should be horse whipped. Lots of guns in movies are not prop guns. I even remember a story here about Sam Elliot bringing his own guns to use on a shoot. So I will not pronounce them as safe or unsafe since I don't know the level of preps they took and can not assume anything else.

I don’t know if they were tanked, stoned, careful, or just plain dumb. I don’t know if they got together and said, “Hey, I’d love to get some action shots. Let’s get all the ammo out of the room and triple check the guns…”

I doubt it, but they may have been very careful in staging these pics.

I guess this is why I never get picked for jury duty.

As to the, “More ammo for the antis,” comments… Frankly, I don’t care. I’m sick to death of living in mortal fear of what “The Antis” will say and do.

 

[Deacon Blues]

Unsafe. Age has nothing to do with it; a 60-year-old horsing around like that is just as dangerous. Why? Habits. I was conditioned from youth to treat firearms with a great deal of respect. I never had the chance to form any bad habits concerning gun safety. As a result, I've never had a ND, and I don't engage in behaviors that compromise the safety of myself or the people around me. If, OTOH, I had the lackadaisical attitude toward safety depicted in the OP, I most certainly would've allowed some carelessness to slip into my otherwise safe gunhandling. Muzzle sweeps, fingers on trigger, and so forth would likely continue until something prompted me to reexamine my safety habits; that something would most likely be an accident.

I don't believe that gun safety had as much to do with rules as it does with attitudes. That's not to say that the four rules aren't a great aid to safety. Have you ever locked your keys in your car? That's why the rules are there. It's embarrassing to have to call the locksmith. Calling the coroner is worse.

 

[fletcher]

Four rules aside, it's not so much unsafe as it is completely toolish.

 

[Kimber1911_06238]

pointing two rifle barrels into your chest is definitely not safe

 

[MudPuppy]

A couple of friends were cleaning firearms, one had a 30.06 M1 and was a bit careless with the muzzle. The other said, "Hey, careful with that!". The other pointed it away, down towards the concrete floor and said "It's not loa--" BOOM! The round bounce around, through a foot locker damaging a black hawk and destroying a gold cup, with a fragment ending up in the guys foot who made the complaint. Fortunately, no major bodily damage and he recovered.

Guns are fun, but they aint toys.

 

[ZeSpectre]

Frankly, I don’t care. I’m sick to death of living in mortal fear of what “The Antis” will say and do.

So does that mean you stick your head in their noose?
There's a world of difference between "mortal fear" and handing your opponents an easy victory.

 

[Sistema1927]

"Some idiots are beyond proof."

 

[arthurcw]

So does that mean you stick your head in their noose?

Nope. Just means I refuse to care what they think about anything anymore since they will hate everything gun related no matter what. When you care too much about what irrational people will say about you, then you become just as irrational as they are.

There is no middle (safe) ground with them. If they want to, they will take anything out of context. Therefore, I don't care what they think on any gun related subject and just choose to laugh at them. They are not the Omnipotent Bogiemen of Nightmares. Just irrational fruitbats.

 

[woad_yurt]

I've seen pictures posted here depicting loaded revolvers pointing straight at the camera lens. No one asked if they were safe. Are these guys safe? I guess you'd have to know them a bit to answer that. However, judging from the expressions on their faces, I have some reservations. It appears to be some photos depicting children's brains in adult bodies. I do think that pictures like this give gun opponents something about which they can comment "This is exactly the type of thing that we're trying to prevent."

 

[ZeSpectre]

I've seen pictures posted here depicting loaded revolvers pointing straight at the camera lens. No one asked if they were safe.

Hrmmm, every time I've seen something like that the poster has been taken to task about it and often the posting was removed.

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

I've seen pictures posted here depicting loaded revolvers pointing straight at the camera lens. No one asked if they were safe.

As ZeSpectre said, those posters are usually chastised heavily. However, there is also a feature found on many modern digital photographic devices known as a self-timer which would allow one, assuming one is willing to risk destroying a camera, to more or less safely point a gun towards a camera for the purposes of taking a picture.

 

[igpoobah]

As ZeSpectre said, those posters are usually chastised heavily. However, there is also a feature found on many modern digital photographic devices known as a self-timer which would allow one, assuming one is willing to risk destroy a camera, to more or less safely point a gun towards a camera for the purposes of taking a picture.

Beat me to it. One can also use an infrared or wired remote to trigger the shutter as well, on higher end cameras.

 

[craig_o]

if I were one of the two people in the pictures I would not feel safe with the behavior of the other individual

 

[rdhood]

for those that put "other":

A thing is either "safe" or "unsafe". PERIOD. It is a question of logic. You either believe what they are doing is entirely safe or not. If you answer "it's safe IF", then you believe it is unsafe. Your brain is telling you that "it's safe IF all of the guns are unloaded". I would say that it is safe IF every single person in that room inspected every single gun in that room, and IF there was no ammunition in the house such that it could find it's way into one of those guns, then it is safe. Not KNOWING that to be true, it is unsafe. PERIOD.

 

[RubenZ]

I voted NO because they have no respect for firearms so I would doubt their actual respect for them even when loaded.

 

[AK103K]

I sometimes think people are safety nazis.

I agree. Jeez. The way some people talk, you cant touch the gun without violating some rule. If things are that scary, maybe you should find another hobby.

Dont get me wrong, I'm not saying be unsafe, but if you follow basic safety in a reasonable manner, there is little worry.

I actually find the rabid safety people more of a threat than people who are reasonable. They often cause disruptions that distract everyone.

 

[19-3Ben]

Soybomb- I'm surprised nobody has responded yet to your comment about Oleg's photo:

What would you tell Oleg about this?

So I'll reply. First of all, this was an obviously staged photo, with a single person, a single gun, and no goofy horseplay. It's easy to control one person holding one gun, if the person is serious. Not an inherently dangerous situation. Very different story with a bunch of boys acting out, being dumbasses, and handling enough guns to take over a small country all at once. Too many factors involved to effectively keep track of everything and control the situation.
Second, Oleg is a professional photographer, and someone who obviously knows the 4 rules. He may very well have that camera on a tripod, so the gun was never pointed at a person anyway. Sure in theory these boys could have had the camera on a tripod, but what's the likelihood of that? But even if they had the camera on a tripod, the point still stands that they were pointing the guns at stuff they are probably not willing to destroy.

Is it a grey area? Definitely, and I do see your point. But once again, horseplay with many variables is VERY different from a staged photo with a very limited number of variables.

 

[akodo]

the "four rules" are a four-fold seires of saftey hurdles. Unless all 4 are broken, accidents still be avoided.

However, take a look at some of those pictures. Guns pointed at vital internal organs...fingers on triggers, etc.

In many instances, 2 rules are broken, and to me, that is closer to an accident than I like to be.

Just a quick example, picture #1 is fine, except the guy with the guns leaning against his torso. Pic 3 is fine except finger on trigger, etc.

you CAN handle guns for fun and pictures, even in crazy poses, but it must be done safely. Simply checking to make sure the gun is unloaded and then treating it like a harmless prop will work 99.9% of the time, and result in someone having to wash a friend's brainmatter off of their body the other 0.1%

It's just not worth it

 

[Cosmoline]

Other than the long guns stuck in the fellow's gut, I see no obvious violations. They're camping it up, obviously.