As has also been pointed out what not everyone agrees with what you think is correct.
Correct/Incorrect is not what I'm discussing. What I'm pointing out is that it's not ok to violate a gun safety rule to make something a little easier or quicker.
You clearly (even though you said otherwise) don't train like you would fight, or even agree with that.
The "train like you fight" mantra is a wise principle as long as it's not taken to extremes. In other words, it's not a carte blanche to break gun safety rules simply because we know they will be broken in real gunfights.
It's almost unheard of for people to train like they fight in every respect. For example, people use plastic guns for disarming practice or for practicing close quarter techniques instead of loaded guns, or even instead of unloaded guns. They do that to avoid breaking the muzzle control rule. There are other examples of how intentionally make training different from actual shootings. A very obvious example is that no one tries to find training classes that include return fire at them while they're training so they can get used to shooting while receiving incoming fire. A more subtle example is that it's very rare for shooters to practice without hearing or eye protection in the name of training like they will fight.
By not doing something that as you say "easier" because it jeopardizes safety can quite potentially have the opposite effect. When you are in a bad situation are you really going to do something that is less effective and slower just because of "safety", and in this case, pointing a firearm at something other then your target, when the result is you get shot? What type of safety is that?
The argument cuts both ways. You're training at the range to become effective at preserving innocent life. How can it possibly make sense to train in such a way that it endangers innocent lives by intentionally creating the potential for rounds to go over the berm and leave the range?
And from a practical perspective while most of us train often, we'll never actually be in a gunfight. So it makes even less sense to frequently do something that's against the rules of gun safety in the name of saving a few fractions of a second during an event that the vast majority of us will never even have to encounter. Most of us will never be in a shooting, let alone have to reload "on the clock" in the process.
To make the situation even clearer, we should remember that many people, even experts, carry revolvers for self-defense even though revolver reloads are much slower than autopistol reloads. So even if it takes me a fraction of a second more to reload my autopistol because I refrain from pointing my gun at the sky while I'm reloading, I'll still be done and shooting again before even a very good revolver shooter would have his gun back up and running.
The bottom line is that people use the technique because it's a little easier than following the safety rule and because, for whatever reason, it's common for people to turn a blind eye to that particular safety violation.
I suspect a large part of it is the widely held but severely flawed assumptoin that descending bullets will be essentially harmless.
You can't have your gun out without it being pointed at someone.
Sure you can. That's what shooting ranges are for. The berm stops the bullets so you can know that when you're pointing at the berm/backstop that you're not pointing the gun at anyone.
Besides, the fact that a rule is commonly broken doesn't make it acceptable to do so. The finger/trigger rule is also commonly broken, but clearly you don't believe that makes it acceptable to ignore that rule even if it makes some particular aspect of training easier or quicker.
Even in your holster you probally sweep a dozen people a day.
Cased and holstered guns are exempt from the muzzle control rule because a gun in a proper case or holster can't be fired in that condition either on purpose or by accident.
Troops with rifles are constantly sweeping everything in sight.
If they're actually in combat, they're not exactly training, are they? And if they're training, I can assure you that they're not sweeping other trainees--at least not after the training instructor sees them doing it.
How can you reload while keeping your pistol on target...keeping your pistol on target during a reload...
Keeping the gun pointed at the berm/in the general direction of the target is not the same as actually keeping the pistol on target during the reload. The point is that you don't have to point your pistol at the sky/over the berm to reload it and the bigger point is that doing so is unsafe.
That's the best compromise I can think of.
That's the crux of the matter, isn't it. A person training at the range doesn't need to be looking for ways to compromise when it comes to gun safety rules.
Just glad it was facing down range at all times. I have my guns facing downrange anytime they are loaded even if I just set one on the bench to fire another one. Not going to take chances with another ND.
