^^^THIS^^^I Have encountered many near misses in 24 years.
Many moons ago when I was a Platoon Sergeant.
We were doing a Night Deliberate Defense live fire which was a dry,blank,live run.
The dry and blank runs included OPFOR attacking. Dry run was fine during the blank run one of the SAW gunners grabbed what was supposed to be a 200 round magazine of 5.56 blank guess what it was "live".
The Gunner alerted his Team Leader he called a "ceasefire". I was like a ceasefire during a blank run?
Yes the blank and live were segregated by different ASP points. After all the finger pointing and investigation the best idea was it was blanks drawn from the main ASP were in an opened lot that had gotten mixed with one live magazine.
Gunner did his job he IDed the live ammo alerted his Team Leader which call the ceasefire.
BTW that would have been a career ending event for several Soldiers including me.
The worst case it could have killed someone but being a Soldier is not a safe job.
I have many many more the missing Hand Grenade, the M202 " flash" incident, the exploding deer.
Keeping it in a safe direction seems to be ripe for training to fail. How do you do drills such as the OP without point the gun at the bad guy? Point almost at him? If you do that enough times, might it be natural to not see the aggressor in your sights, and still you'll fire.
We see this sort of thing often in our EMT and Paramedic programs--unintended consequences of not being able to completely practice like you play.
All guns are always loaded. Ok then how do I field strip a Glock? How do I ship a firearm? How do I "unload and show clear" at any number of shooting sports?
It is simple. One learns to follow the Four Rules and stop rationalizing unsafe behavior in the name of being cool, different or cutting edge or whatever nonsense one is doing.
It really is simple, isn't it. All guns are always loaded. There are no unloaded guns anywhere, ever. Unloaded guns simply don't exist.
Can't we settle this argument with the simple compromise of 'don't point the gun at anything you don't want shot whether you believe it to be loaded or not'?
It really is simple, isn't it. All guns are always loaded. There are no unloaded guns anywhere, ever. Unloaded guns simply don't exist.
There is no argument. Where you point the gun is ALWAYS important. Beliefs just aren't.
Where you point the gun does not mean that that is where the bullet will end up.
For example, bullets ric off the concrete floors of gun shows and so if we only had an example of a gun show shooting . . . oh, wait, we do, it happened today when someone thought his gun wasn't "low-dead:.
It's like this happens all the time because people want to be too cool for school or something, Adams County detectives investigate ?accidental? shooting at Tanner Gun Show ? The Denver Post
OK, so how does this make a difference? Regardless of whether you believe your gun to be in a perpetual state of being loaded whether it is or not, how does that affect having it pointed at a ricochet-prone surface? In either case, the only safe alternative is to not have the gun pointed at concrete. That said, there is no difference to be had in straining gnats here.
Rule #4, ensure of your target and what is behind it. When you press the trigger the weapon SHALL discharge, so, yeah, better get on that bern or sand barrel. If none in sight, then stop touching it.
Many who have slots to fill in the Charge of the 300 believe that "safe handling" of firearms exists independent of the Four Rules. The problem is that they forget that what they think is a "safe direction" (the current fad") does not stop the bullet (the Ohio "safe direction" that zipped through the wall and killed the gun shop stool sitter) and is merely subjective to the handler. So you have Dealer McNumbnuts whip his Glock out and field strip it but he does not realize that All Guns Are Always loaded so he sends off riccing off the concrete just missing the baby stroller because he is all tactical.
Look, there may be many roads to enlightenment in the form of safety rules, but this Captain Tacticalpants nonsense that we can be unsafe because we are cool will not help us as a broader culture and will only result in unneeded death and injury to students and bystanders.
Also, you usually teach safety rules to BRAND NEW shooters, people with little to no firearms training, and a good baseline (hence why it's the first) is just to treat every gun like it's loaded. It's easy enough to remember, and can cut down on a lot of negligent discharges is every kept that mindset. If the rules need adjusted later on for higher level instruction, so be it, but start with the basics. Walk before your run.
Also, you usually teach safety rules to BRAND NEW shooters, people with little to no firearms training, and a good baseline (hence why it's the first) is just to treat every gun like it's loaded. It's easy enough to remember, and can cut down on a lot of negligent discharges is every kept that mindset. If the rules need adjusted later on for higher level instruction, so be it, but start with the basics. Walk before your run.
Putting anything in front of the golden rule of safe gun handling is folly.
...