Why All Guns Are Always Loaded: It's NOT Just You

[comanche]

1.) in aviation we teach: learn from others mistakes, you won't live long enough to learn first hand.

2.) I was at a Gander Mountain (I think) in Cincinnati Ohio a year or so ago. I went to the gun section to look around. They had just gotten in the XDs .45. A younger guy was behind the counter showing a customer. He took both hands with the barrel pointed at his chest and pulling on the trigger showing the customer how if the grip safety wasn't engaged it couldn't fire...my jaw dropped and as I walked by I said something like "your an idiot". later it got the best of me and I went to the customer service counter and told them what had just happened and how they need safety training and how 'unloaded' guns kill....by the time I got through ranting I had a crowd of employees standing around listening...I doubt they did anything..

 

[Tombs]

If #1 was done away with and 2 ~ 4 were followed...would safety be compromised? With the human factor (since we are all human right?) doesn't the addition of rule #1 make us vulnerable at times? After all we all know its not loaded because I looked and I unloaded it myself. Humans get lazy and don't always treat the gun as if it if is loaded because we know better.

The point of this thread just went a mile over your head.

You don't know better. No one does. That kind of logic gets people killed.

 

[ATM]

The point of this thread just went a mile over your head.

You don't know better. No one does. That kind of logic gets people killed.

You must have missed the discussion on this topic, if you even read the whole thread.

Believing a gun to be unloaded does not get people killed, you have to do something unsafe like point it at them for that to happen.

 

[OneBadV8]

If #1 was done away with and 2 ~ 4 were followed...would safety be compromised? With the human factor (since we are all human right?) doesn't the addition of rule #1 make us vulnerable at times? After all we all know its not loaded because I looked and I unloaded it myself. Humans get lazy and don't always treat the gun as if it if is loaded because we know better.

We shouldn't have 2 sets of gun handling rules though. If you ALWAYS treat the gun as if it were loaded, you'd never have anything to worry about. It's when people decide that because it's "unloaded" they can break the other gun safety rules and then create 2 sets of gun handling. Then the more you have bad gun handling because it's "unloaded", the more likely you are to have a problem. But if the 4 rules are followed as if its always loaded (even a blue gun) then you're less likely to have an issue.

 

[ATM]

So what you're saying is... If #1 was done away with and 2 - 4 were followed... safety would not be compromised.

But safety is often compromised when people choose not to follow rules 2-4.

 

[SteveM4A1]

I'm with ATM on this one. Thought I would back ya up since most seem to not agree with you. The elimination of rule #1 would promote better handling, in my opinion. There is little I can add that you haven't already hit on. The biggest issue I see with it is the illogical nature of it. If we know the first rule is not true, why follow the other rules?

 

[EAS]

I'm with ATM on this one. Thought I would back ya up since most seem to not agree with you. The elimination of rule #1 would promote better handling, in my opinion. There is little I can add that you haven't already hit on. The biggest issue I see with it is the illogical nature of it. If we know the first rule is not true, why follow the other rules?

Because to truly follow rule #1 you have to follow 2 ~ 4.

 

[EAS]

2.) I was at a Gander Mountain (I think) in Cincinnati Ohio a year or so ago. I went to the gun section to look around. They had just gotten in the XDs .45. A younger guy was behind the counter showing a customer. He took both hands with the barrel pointed at his chest and pulling on the trigger showing the customer how if the grip safety wasn't engaged it couldn't fire...my jaw dropped and as I walked by I said something like "your an idiot". later it got the best of me and I went to the customer service counter and told them what had just happened and how they need safety training and how 'unloaded' guns kill....by the time I got through ranting I had a crowd of employees standing around listening...I doubt they did anything..

Unfortunately, with this mentality of knowing it was unloaded someone will end up getting shot. Hopefully you were able to save at least 1 life by showing them the error of their ways.