Safety Check...safety check...safety check!

[Riomouse911]

I have a mantra chant that I sing out to shooters new or old every time I am clearing a line during qualifications, it's kind of a tick-tock-tick-tock cadence:

Point-it down-range!
Wea-pon on Safe!
Mag-a-zine out!
ac-tion back!
Rack-it...rack-it...rack-it!


(Some guns have no manual safety, but I say it anyway. others can't rack on Safe. you may have to explain it to a shooter or change your words in the case of a 1911 for example.)

Then I have them physically and visually check the chamber, then ease the slide forward on an empty chamber reapply safety if it applies or is off, and holster. They then raise their dominant shooting hand when all is clear.

After a few times the guys remember and will sorta sing along as they perform the functions. Ten years doing this sing-song to date: No AD's or surprises... but it doesn't meant it can't happen.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

I and my dad were both cleaning guns at his dinning room table. I looked up at him in time to watch him function test his newly cleaned gun. He looked at the gun while he pulled the trigger and it was pointed right at me.

I read him the riot act. His response was "It isn't loaded." At that point my look of surprise turned to a look of rage and he realized the fullness of his error.

I've been muzzle swept several times in gun shops, but never had someone pull the trigger before with a gun pointed at me.

Check your guns.

 

[bassjam]

I and my dad were both cleaning guns at his dinning room table. I looked up at him in time to watch him function test his newly cleaned gun. He looked at the gun while he pulled the trigger and it was pointed right at me.

I read him the riot act. His response was "It isn't loaded." At that point my look of surprise turned to a look of rage and he realized the fullness of his error.

I've been muzzle swept several times in gun shops, but never had someone pull the trigger before with a gun II red at me.

Check your guns.

A buddy of mine had that happen several years ago when he was in his 20’s. He was at a girl’s house hanging out and the conversation turned to guns. She mentioned that her dad had a handgun and they went into the parents bedroom to get it. She picked it up from the sock drawer, pointed it towards my buddy and pulled the trigger and yelled “BANG!”. When he saw her sweeping the gun towards him he had already dived behind the bed onto the floor! Luckily it was unloaded, but she didn’t know that, she just assumed. He scolded her like a little child for several minutes; he later told me his heart had gone through his throat and he was sure he was going to get shot! Eventually, long after that, took her shooting to teach her the basics of gun safety.

 

[Hokkmike]

Had two friends that were out shooting. They set a loaded .22 rifle on the ground with the safe on and went forward of it to check a target. Yes, it went off and hit one in the back. The worst he suffered was enduring pain, a trip to the ER, and a LOT OF EMBARRASSMENT. You can never be too safe. Check and double check! And follow basic rules.

 

[primalmu]

I've only been to a handful of gun shows. The very first one I went to with a buddy of mine was a less than stellar experience. Besides the lack of selection, we were browsing a table of guns and I picked one up that looked like it had just been misplaced. As I was about to open the slide to check it, the guy running the booth (who was very much preoccupied talking to his buddy, if I recall) suddenly realized that was HIS loaded gun that he had set down on the table.

Thank goodness I was trained in firearm safety from a young age, otherwise that could have easily lead to a negligent discharge.

 

[Kendahl]

I go to gun shows to look at handguns, see how well they fit my hand and try the triggers. The bigger vendors run a long wire through the trigger guards of several guns. It's obvious that breaking the wire will set off an alarm. I always begin by dropping the magazine and racking the action to verify that the gun really is empty. Some other dealers don't want you racking the action. The smarter ones run a cable tie down the barrel and around the outside. Since the gun never goes all the way into battery, pulling the trigger won't drop the hammer or the striker. The dumber ones simply run a cable tie around the outside. It's still possible to pull the trigger. I did this a couple of times at my first show before realizing that I was trusting the vendor to have emptied the chamber. Never again.

 

[buck460XVR]

I just assume that I am dealing with someone that doesn't know better and keep a keen eye on them until I they prove I can trust them, and even then some care has to be taken.
.

Same here.....regardless of who they are. Even after I have come to trust them, I still open the action and check the chamber when they hand me gun....'cause I always assume every gun is loaded. Exception is while out actively hunting and I know, rather than assume, every gun is loaded. In that case, I don't open the action, just use standard safe gun handling techniques. As a kid in the fifties, it seemed every roadside restaurant had a small jukebox at the table with ya....and everyone of 'em had Patsy Montana singin' "I didn't know the gun was loaded".

 

[Danoobie]

Reminds me of my first NRA safety course. "Get in the HABIT of checking the chamber, to be sure it is empty,
EVERY TIME you pick up a gun. Unload the gun as a first step. "

Over the years last 50 years, I've pulled many a round from an "empty" gun.

 

[buck460XVR]

"

Over the years last 50 years, I've pulled many a round from an "empty" gun.

In the last 50 years, I have yet to open the chamber on a gun that was supposed to be empty and wasn't. I would assume this is because of the area I'm in, the way folks in the area have been taught to handle firearms or the type of people I hang around with. Maybe I'm just lucky. I help teach Hunter Safety to new/young hunters. We handle firearms continuously during instruction. We teach students to open the bolt/action, every time, before they hand a firearm to someone, even tho everyone in the room knows it's unloaded. We do this to make it an automatic action. Every once in a while one of us instructors will hand a firearm to someone without opening the action, to make sure checking the action is also an automatic response. Most of the time, the kids get it right....it's their dads and grandpas that get lackadaisical.

 

[acdodd]

When my cousin was around 10 he was showing his friend a shotgun.
It was unloaded he said.
Blew his friends leg off at the knee.
If I check a gun then hand it to someone else I check it again after they hand it back.

 

[RETG]

Every time I pick up one of my handguns, outside of the safe, I KNOW it is loaded, I don't THINK it is loaded, and it is going into my holster (daily carry) or being moved (the other two hidden guns) when cleaning. So I do not unload it and check. They are only unloaded when cleaned, or when shooting.

If I pull one out of the safe, the action is already open, but I still check the chamber and rack it a few times; just out of habit.