… are always loaded. Why is this so incredibly difficult for people to understand?
The link above takes you to a brief story out of Orlando, where an NRA instructor negligently shot one of his students last week during a classroom session.
This is another good example of why the NRA’s effort to brainwash the concept of “gun as weapon” out of instructors’ minds is a bad one. Guns can kill. Mistakes happen most often when gun owners forget that simple concept. It also demonstrates the danger of having a supposed “cold” zone… a place where everyone, even the instructor, gets lulled by the expectation that none of the guns in the room are loaded.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
Todd,
Can you please give a little more insight on what you meant by the following statement?
“This is another good example of why the NRA’s effort to brainwash the concept of ‘gun as weapon’ out of instructors’ minds is a bad one.”
I’m not sure what you meant.
Reminds me of a story my dad told me about his police academy in Houston around ’82. During a classroom session an instructor was waving his pistol around with his finger on the trigger and my dad told him to either put it down or holster it. The instructor said there’s no problem it’s empty, went to prove it by locking the slide back, and a round ejected. Instructor then left the classroom and didn’t come back.
Keith if you take the NRA instructors course you are taught that guns aren’t a weapon. They seem to do quite a bit to emphasize that point.
Quick review:
1) All guns are always loaded.
2) Never let the muzzle cover anything which you are not willing to destroy.
3) Keep your finger OFF the trigger until your sights are on the target.
4) Always be sure of your target.
Dandapani #4 should be amended to say
Always be sure of your target and what lies beyond your target.
“This is another good example of why the NRA’s effort to brainwash the concept of “gun as weapon” out of instructors’ minds is a bad one. ”
Many things that are not weapons can kill if misused.
When I took the course the one instructor that failed was one who couldn’t control his muzzle direction while presenting. Rule 1 isn’t enough emphasis?
Which is more likely at fault here? The curriculum or the instructors inability to follow it?
At no point did I say or even imply that the NRA was “more likely at fault” for this accident.
My point is that NRA’s approach to instructor training can fail to impress some people with the deadly consequences of mistakes. While the program certainly covers safety rules in great detail, it’s done in a very clinical way… all the while insisting that instructors treat guns as recreational equipment instead of deadly weapons.
Your comment “Many things that are not weapons can kill if misused,” serves to illustrate my point. I don’t want my students, or any instructor I’m around, to treat guns like any other common object that might happen to cause injury if it’s misused. I want folks to treat guns with more respect than they treat their snow skis.
The “all guns are always loaded” is sort of a pet peeve of mine. First off, not all guns are always loaded and everyone knows that. So you’re starting off with a false statement. Saying that all guns are always loaded seems to imply there is another state, i.e. unloaded, and we can handle the two differently.
However, I believe we should treat all guns the same regardless of whether we believe they are loaded or not. In other words, I’m not going to point a real functioning gun at another person, even if I believe it is unloaded, unless that is some person that I intend to possibly shoot.
When there are products like red guns and the Blade-tech training barrels on the market, there is simply no need to have an operational firearm in the classroom pointed at another person–ever.
Dandapani,
After I’ve made the decision to shoot, I never follow Rule #3 as your wrote it since I start my trigger pull before I get full site alignment. It’s somewhere in between position 3 and full lockout that I pick up my sites – hence why that rule is usually stated as: Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you are ready to fire.
As for Rule # 2, when conducting a hostage rescue or entry of any sort, my muzzle will cover my sector and everything in it to include no shoot targets until I’ve determined that they are in fact no shoot targets. Finger is straight and off the trigger when this occurs, weapon on safe if there is a safety.
some good reads!
I understand what Justin means about the phrasing. A better choice of words is “Treat every gun as if it were loaded.”
RL — There is a difference between “full sight alignment” and having your sights on target. Having watched you shoot enough times, I know you’re not putting your finger on the trigger before the gun is up, pointed in the target’s direction, and moving toward the target.
As for the Rule #2 thing during an entry, the fact that it’s the proper way to do an entry doesn’t change the fact that it’s violating the rule. It’s a conscious trade off, and why teams that do entry work (should) have exceptional skill levels and dedicate substantial time to both their shooting and judgment drills.
I agree that it is a conscious violation of Rule 2. I once heard someone say that it’s when you violate 2 or more of the rules that really bad things happen.
RL — Exactly. If your team is doing an entry, really bad things have already happened to someone… The risk level is already high. The options are to do something dangerous or do nothing.
The other day my wife came home for lunch and I had my pistol out sitting on the coffee table next to my laptop (no mag) as I was doing some dry-fire practice as I often do when no one’s around (I work for myself, and often from home, so my dry-fire regime is pretty “normal”).
Since she hates the sound of a pistol racking or especially the sound of the trigger breaking, I picked it up to “shoot” one last light switch before I put it away. I picked it up, pulled back the slide to check that the chamber was empty, then “killed” the light switch on the other side of the room.
After watching this she said “if no one but you is home or touching your gun that you already have empty, why do you always check to make sure it’s empty whenever you pick it up?”… “so it stays that way” I said and she kind of stared at me so then I said “even if you’re sure you were the last one to use it, what happens if you don’t make sure the seat is down?” (we have 8 and 10 year old boys)… “Exactly” she said, “I get it”.